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Dec 13, 2020 — Lonely Pinon Mountain is a minor summit in the northeastern section of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, an area very few visit because there's just so much better stuff to see around here. Local legend Paula Raimondi and I met up to get this little peak since it was on both of our mutual shrinking to-do lists. Otherwise I probably would have just written this peak off as "scraping the barrel". We'd been following each other's progress over the last year and finally got a chance to get together and chat and play in the mountains. Paula is super-driven and capable and knows the Vegas area probably better than almost anyone. I was thilled to go hiking with her - thanks for making time for me, Paula! ;)
The route we ended up taking was quite nice, lots of flat running space and some nice views of the area. Any car could make it to our parking area, but development in this area may change the roads around at some point. We headed along a dirt road and entered the major east-draining canyon coming down from Lonely Pinon Mountain. I should note that topo maps seem to misinterpret this canyon as being a hump or a sheer cliff, which I noted on my attached map. Some Class 2 brought us to the ridge and we got the best views of the day from the summit.
We jogged north along the ridge, enjoying the desert and the mostly brush-free soft ground. We ended up in a minor drainage which led us to the base of Roger Peak. Class 2 took us to its summit, then along the north slopes of Roger Peak over to Marie Peak. The north ridge from Marie Peak had some Class 3 options, but this can be avoided by keeping just to the right or left of the ridge crest. We descended along Class 2 to the east and dropped down t the desert below when the cliffs became less intense and we could see a slope that wouldn't cliff us out. We headed south through the desert on a dirt road over to the west ridge of Kids Peak, ascended the ridge on Class 2 terrain to the summit, and followed the ridge east back to the cars.
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