Hike Copper, Dupont, Salt and Pepper Mountains Loop Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Feb 04, 2020 — This somewhat contrived loop hits a bunch of peaks that, if done alone wouldn't have been all that interesting, but as a loop worked quite nicely. I met up with Dan Glatz from Alaska, who was here in hopes for warm desert temperatures. Instead we were fighting wind for a fair amount of the day. We ended up doing Copper Mountain, Copper Mountain - West Peak, Peak 3205, Dupont Mountain, Salt and Pepper Mountain, Talus Mound, and Indigo Peak. For those more interesting in just getting the peaks and not really psyched on a loop, the Rockefeller Mine Road puts you basically right at the base of each of these mounds for easier access.

We parked at the end of a rocky dirt road (mid-clearance required), the turn off from the main road, located at 35.50522, -114.75254. Alternatively, you could drive along the Rockefeller Mine Road and start the loop with Indigo Peak by parking somewhere around 35.53392, -114.74013.

Assuming you start where we did, Copper Mountain is the first destination. A somewhat wide drainage leads west and up Class 2 to Copper Mountain's southern ridge. We followed the ridge, encountering one Class 3+ move. The holds were solid, but worth noting it's there. The ridgeline continued on Class 2/2+ the summit of Copper Mountain, where we got nice views of the route to come. We headed down to the saddle of Copper Mountain and Copper Mountain - West Peak and continued on Class 2 up to our second summit, then along the ridge headed generally north. The terrain was overall easygoing until the northern end of the ridge. Here some steeper Class 2 with a Class 3 move got us down to the saddle separating Copper Mountain - West Peak from Peak 3205.

Full disclosure here, Dan and I left off Peak 3205 on our visit, taking what I have no marked as "shortcut" on the attached map. A couple of years later I returned to go for Peak 3205, forming a much more visually-pleasing GPS track loop. I have written the trip report and included the stats that include Peak 3205. If you choose to take the "shortcut" route instead, you can remove about a mile and 900 vertical from the overall stats for this hike. The shortcut just follows wide washes to get to the base of Dupont Mountain, should you chose to go that way. But of course, I recommend going for Peak 3205. Anyway...

The ridgeline leading to Peak 3205 has a couple of bumps adding some vertical gain, and otherwise is straightforward typical desert hiking. There are a couple of short Class 2 scramble sections, but they aren't anything to worry about. The peak seems like a sheer face from its base, but wrapping around its west face and ascending via a Class 2 gully on its north side leads to a final Class 2/2+ move to gain the summit.

Backtracking slightly, the goal was to get down to Dupont Mountain to the east. Unfortuantely there really doesn't seem to be any easy way to get there, since the eastern slopes of Peak 3205 are frought with small cliffs and steep, loose rock. I was able to piece together a reasonable Class 2 descent. While steep, it wasn't particularly dangerous. A pleasant drainage continues east to the base of Dupont Mountain.

Once at the base of Dupont Mountain, we chose a gully that had a stiff pull move, but it's avoidable if you prefer to keep the route Class 2. The route up Dupont continues to a saddle shared with a hump on Dupont's southeastern ridge. Getting up was pretty straightforward: we stuck to the south side of the peak, passing an old mine with colorful rocks, before gaining a rock rib (Class 3) that led to the summit. Back at the baby saddle, we dropped down on the east side to continue our loop, working through the desert and crossing Rockefeller Mine Road as we began ascending Salt and Pepper Mountain. Class 2 volcanic boulders made the going a bit more interesting than we expected, and we were at the summit quicker than expected. A traverse from Salt and Pepper Mountain and Talus Mound included a Class 3 downclimb, followed by a short Class 2+ sub-peak obstacle, and then more volcanic Class 2 boulder-hopping. We continued along the ridge to get down from Talus Mound. We chose a slope to gain Indigo Peak, which was a grassy slope walk-up. The high point was unclear, but I'm pretty sure we got it. A Class 2 gully led off the west side of Indigo Peak and we traversed the desert back to the car.

The landscape was really weird in this area, the big volcanic dome-like peaks rising out of the relatively steep slope leading to the Colorado River. The land seems mostly flat when you're walking on it, but from above where we could tell the peaks' scale, it's a much more obvious ramp.