Hike McCoy Peak and McCoy Mountain McCoy Mountains BLM, CA

Dec 01, 2023 — The McCoy Mountains are a rugged range in California, often overlooked by peakbaggers interested in the nearby prominence giants like Palen Mountain and Granite Mountain. McCoy Peak can be seen from Interstate 10, and the range high point is nestled farther back. Tyler and I decided it made the most sense to get both peaks by hiking a traverse from south to north, not realizing quite how rocky the ridgeline would be. Maybe we were tired from yesterday's bone-jarring rock hopping, or maybe this traverse was particularly tedious and undulating. Either way, we agreed it was a less fun traverse than we thought it would be, though likely the most efficient and fun way to tackle both peaks in one swoop.

Since we had two cars, it made the most sense to set up a shuttle. You'd have to tack on a few miles of dirt road walking to form a loop. To set up the shuttle, follow the dirt road that starts here (33.61098, -114.90182) and bends here (33.61134, -114.90358). I had no trouble getting my Crossover SUV through some deep sand shortly after this point, but I was happy to have Tyler with his Tacoma in case I got stuck. After a few hundred feet of the sand, the road continued in surprisingly great shape. Head north here (33.61295, -114.88181). To reach the route's ending shuttle car drop spot, follow this road north and keep right here (33.66104, -114.88551). We were able to get my vehicle here (33.67436, -114.85971) despite a couple of tricky drainages, where we left it for the end of the traverse. We backtracked and left the start car a few miles south and started on foot through the desert toward the southwesternmost finger of McCoy Peak.

The start of this traverse was a pleasant Class 2 ascent on lightly rocky terrain, really just a straightforward uphill desert walk. A few various small lumps kept blocking the view of McCoy Peak and added some slight undulations. McCoy Peak eventually came into view, still pretty far away. We mostly stuck along the crest as we approached McCoy Peak, but the ridge proper began getting more riddled with rock outcroppings, forcing us to side-hill beneath them on the left or right. The summit block seemed difficult to reach from the west, the way we'd approached, so we side-hilled beneath it on loose terrain to gain one of a few Class 2+ gully options to reach the crest on the north side of the summit. From here was a Class 3 move on solid rock and we were on McCoy Peak. 

We observed the traverse to come, both finally admitting we were not feeling motivated today as we realized the traverse would take more effort than we thought it might, since we hadn't expected the terrain to be quite this tedious. The next summit, Peak 2365, required a massive drop to reach its saddle and to reascend. McCoy Mountain, the range high point, felt laughably far away, separated by countless lumps along the ridgeline. Back down from McCoy Peak we went, side-hilling to the northern ridge. Various little cliff bands added some Class 2+/3 obstacles as we dropped a few hundred feet, and the generally loose nature of the steep slope kept us moving at an uncomfortably slow speed. Tyler pointed out that the lack of an animal trail indicated not even sheep came up here. Literally not even the ever-present sheep wanted to do this route.

Our ascent to Peak 2365 was quite beautiful, the view back toward McCoy Peak's black face in the morning light shining gloriously. It was a steep 800+ feet, but overall some nice quad-killing on slightly better terrain, plus some Class 2 on rock of varying quality.

McCoy Mountain was next, but there were still lots of lumps along the way. There were an abundance of little Class 2/3 obstacles on the way down from Peak 3465, most of them more annoying than fun, then we progressed along a Class 2 section of ridgeline with significant rock outcroppings that we usually chose to wrap around. More ascending brought us to the extended south ridge of McCoy Mountain. It was a mostly tame hike for a while, of course with the regular lump and rock section. We felt like we were doing a lot of up and down for reaching so few peaks since none of the lumps rose high enough to qualify as a true summit, just adding more vertical gain and loss. We avoided a sub-peak just south of McCoy Mountain by using the first significant animal trail we'd spotted all day, then continued along a light Class 3 blocky ridgeline and up to the summit. Here we enjoyed the views of the Palens, Little Maria Mountain, an expansive solar field, and other desert scenery beyond.

We backtracked a bit and started down the standard route to McCoy Mountain. This is a steep undertaking, but we definitely understoof why folks clearly chose this as the most efficient route to approach the peak since the adjacent slopes looked worse. We had to avoid an occasional small cliff using Class 2/2+ bypasses, and navigating poorly could result in getting cliffed-out. After reaching the bottom of the slope descent, we hiked through a bouldery wash before locating an old mining road that we used to get back to our ending shuttle car. Looking back, the blaring sun made all the slopes surrounding McCoy Mountain seem like steep, awful ascent options. Not our favorite range, but a traverse in a remote part of the desert is always a nice time.