Hike Little Devil Peak and Singer Wash Peaks Loop State Line Hills BLM, NV

Feb 08, 2022 — These leftover peaks outside of Goodsprings, Nevada are almost indiscernible on the ridgeline. They're big lumps of tan, but the views are nice and it's always great to make a nice little loop in a remote area. Austin and I hiked Little Devil Peak a couple of years ago and returned today to repeat the route and then continue along the ridgeline that wraps around a drainaged named Singer Wash. Along the way we hit a couple of peaks and a bunch of unnamed, unranked bumps. Little Devil Peak is easily the highlight of the hike. This peak is likely named after its larger, northern neighbor Devil Peak.

A pretty good dirt road suitable for pretty much any vehicle with at least some clearance led to a parking spot as close to Singer Wash as we could before the road curved away. We started up Singer Wash and followed it for a bit before heading generally southeast up a less major drainage. This drainage was narrow for a bit and introduced a bit of brush and Class 2 within the creekbed, but it wasn't unpleasant. The drainage ascended south up a slope and joined the east ridge of Little Devil Peak. We started along the ridgeline, where we encountered some Class 2 small cliff bands on sturdy limestone. Otherwise it's just a steep ascent with some loose rock along the slope. Toward the summit was a small Class 3 headwall, totally avoidable on the right, though not intuitively.

We dropped down from Little Devil Peak back to its eastern saddle. I'll note that we thought Little Devil Peak was the best part of the hike, and was quite different from the rest of the route in terms of steepness, rock type, and overall terrain. Cutting out the rest of the hike will remove roughly 1900 feet of vertical gain, in which case just head back the same way from here.

From the saddle, we continued east toward Peak 5098. We didn't realize it at first, but the ridgeline traverse to come has a handful of significant lumps that add a fair amount of elevation to the hike. Aside from these, the obstacles were minimal. A short section of old dirt road led up the start of Peak 5098's west ridge. A small hump required a drop down to get up to the summit. The route off Peak 5089's east ridge had a bunch of little cliff bands, all Class 2. After two big humps with comparable difficulty and terrain to the ascent to Peak 5098, the ridgeline curved and started trending north. A couple more big humps with light Class 2 led to the final ascent to Peak 5160. The third and final summit of our hike had a cliff band surrounding it, but keeping left led to an easy weakness.

Peak 5160 had some nice views toward Mount Potosi and the other peaks surrounding this weird part of Nevada (nearby Jean, for instance, is comprised only of a casino, a jail, and a massive gas station). We headed west along the peak's ridge and descended to a wash below. We could have taken this wash out via a dirt road and then wrapped around into Singer Wash, but this would have added some mileage. Instead we headed up a short slope and then side-hilled around some surprisingly more pleasant than expected lumpy desert terrain until we dropped into Singer Wash. We followed the wash back to the car.