Hike Harris Mountain and Griffith Peak Loop Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, NV

May 25, 2022 — Harris Mountain was the last major mountain I had left to do in the Spring Mountains because I'd heard such horrible things about a grueling ascent to its summit and run-ins with unfriendly nearby residents if soming from the town of Mount Charleston. Additionally, the Griffith Peak Trail (which comes from the east) was closed due to a fire and was only recently reconstructed and opened,so I was content to wait until that was complete (thanks for the hard work, trail builders!). I should note that you can reach both Harris Mountain and Griffith Peak from Harris Spring Road, which starts here (36.2742008, -115.5207354) and ends here (36.2295188, -115.619045), and while I don't know what the road is like it's probably not suitable for passenger cars. That option didn't sound appealing to neither Austin nor me since we wanted more exercise than what that out-and-back would offer. To avoid trespassing, we decided to approch the peak from the trail system and bypass any residential areas. I warned him we may have some brush and excessive steepness on my proposed route, but he seemed okay with it. So we parked at the popular Cathedral Rock Trailhead and started up.

We hiked along the South Loop Trail for a while, taking it up to just after a few switchbacks and before the short, steep portion with built-in steps. Here we located an old roadbed that directed us north and away from the official trail. It led us up to a spur ridge, where we got views of Harris Mountain. There was a ton of deadfall in our way, as well as a bunch of little arroyos we'd have to crawl in and out of, but at least we'd be avoiding the private land to the north. I recommend staying low if you can to avoid the steeper and brushier terrain higher up. Sporadic animal trails helped traverse the slope, but we couldn't avoid a few steep Class 2 drops into the arroyos. It really wasn't that bad, and the whole ordeal was short-lived, but I guess it just depends on your tolerance for post-fire terrain. Eventually we reached a protruding slope that would take us steeply up to the west ridge of Harris Mountain. We noted a few pink tags on some trees, marking what could be a social trail. We tried following them and realized the social trail wasn't good enough to warrant sticking to it. Instead we just stayed at the high point of this slope as it led south, gaining in steepness as we ascended. Toward the top we had some scree that required hands and feet, but soon we were on the ridgeline.

First we headed up toward Harris Mountain, initially passing through some new aspens that were growing, likely to be annoying in a few years. We stuck to the wide ridge crest for the most part, following a pleasant social trail as it alternately appeared and petered out. As the slope steepened, the trail became heavily eroded and I don't recommend staying on it because it's loose and steep and with more feet will come more erosion. Just ascend the slope wherever feels best since the brush isn't bad and the footing is better everywhere that isn't the social trail. The summit of Harris Mountain was nice, and I was happy to finally be up here for the first time.

We backtracked to the saddle separating Harris Mountain and Griffith Peak, where we located the Griffith Peak Trail, which was in excellent shape and a ton of work was put into its construction. Following this singletrack was effortless, and we enjoyed the scenery as we ascended on ample switchbacks along the east ridge of Griffith Peak. Parts of the trail were carved into the rock, steps were created, and all deadfall was cleared. A few miles later we were just below the summit of Griffith Peak, but rather than ascend directly to the peak we stuck to the trail as it wrapped around the south side of Griffith and over to its west side. Here we took spur trail that shoots off from the standard South Loop Trail approach that folks use to reach the summit. The Griffith Peak spur trail is a surprisingly steep section for being official, but it's always nice to have a trail regardless of its grade.

After coming back down from Griffith Peak we took the standard South Loop Trail back on the endless switchbacks on the north side of Griffith Peak and got back to where we had left the trail earlier. From here we just continued back to the Cathedral Rock Trailhead.