Hike Mescalito Loop Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, NV

Feb 28, 2020 — Mescalito is a small-looking bump nestled between Bridge Mountain and Juniper Peak, but it ended up being an unexpectedly long undertaking, and also one of my favorite routes in Red Rock Canyon. There are two standard routes up to Mescalito, a Class 4 route coming in from the north from North Fork of Pine Creek Canyon and a Class 3 route from the South Fork of Pine Creek Canyon. The Class 4 route is incredibly cool, and I recommend taking this as an ascent, while descending via the Class 3 route, which is pretty, though less fun.

Matt and I set out along the Pine Creek Canyon Trail, entering the North Fork and following a jumble of social trails before finally ending up in the creekbed. Lots of Class 2 boulder-hopping obstacles make the going slow, but the route-finding is fun and the canyon was lush with ferns and flowing water. The North Fork of Pine Creek Canyon is also known as Fern Canyon, and I can see why. We continued up the canyon and came to a dripping waterfall, where a Class 2 gully on the right avoided the fall and led to higher ground. This waterfall marked the end of the canyon boulder-hopping and the start of the next leg of the trip.

From the top of the waterfall we continued along the cliffs, following cairns and staying about a hundred feet above the creekbed until we noted a human-eroded social trail across the way (south). We took note of the route to come: it would ascend the human-eroded social trail up a steep slope, then climb a slab headwall, drop down into a gully, then reascend up to the Mescalito ridgeline. So, we started up the absurdly dangerous dirty social trail, where massive boulders were barely held in place by the sandy slope, and loose handholds kept us focused. I didn't enjoy this short section, and I recommend taking great care here. I might argue that this is Class 4 due to the obectively dangerous nature of it. Just after the steep slope, we got to the headwall slab, a Class 3+ endeavor that appears really scary from below. There are ample holds, and the climbing is really fun on solid sandstone. It's definitely a little intimidating, but one of my favorite short scramble sections I've ever encountered.

From the top of the slab we dropped down into a gully with some pretty sandstone rock swirls and a trickle of water, and ascended the south side, where we climbed a short Class 4 crack and then did some zig-zagging up the Class 2/3 slabs on typical Red Rock ledges. The views back down the way we came were dizzying and incredible. The route continued to wrap around the rocky slabs, headed generally southeast toward the Mescalito ridgeline. Another Class 3 section led along a jagged ledge with a fair amount of exposure and great holds, and eventually we made it to the ridge. We noted our descend route to the south from here, but then headed east along the ridge.

We expected the ridge to be straightforward, but it's very time-consuming. A combination of route-finding, tricky Class 3 obstacles, and a saddle separating the ridgeline from the peak really took far more time than we suspected such a small peak as Mecalito could. As we started along the ridge heading east, lightly brushy Class 2 terrain brought us to the top of a descent. Carins marked a Class 3 route down to the right (south) to avoid difficult scrambling along the ridge crest. A social trail led around some rock outcroppings and back to the crest. A rock rib slab and some ledge-shuffling led down to a Class 3+ drop to the saddle that separated the ridge from Mescalito. From the saddle, a 50 foot descent to the right led to a short Class 4 move through a fissure in the rock. We initially descended too far here from the saddle, where cairns marked a likely much more difficult route. I removed this jitter from the attached map. Note that we spent a lot of time looking for a route up from the saddle, and the fissure I just mentioned was what I thought was the best option. Other trip reports read that this is fissure is a step-across from above, but I can't imagine what kind of crazy it would take to jump that gap, especially when it's not too difficult to scramble up. Once out of the fissure, we continued east along a massive ledge and entered a large crack, where cairns marked a nice route along the cliff face and up a long, red slab just below the summit. Some more Class 2 brought us up to finally attain the summit. What a journey.

We worked back along the Mescalito ridgeline to start the descent route to the south. It's mostly just a Class 2 slab descent with pretty views, nothing very notable except that I would recommended ensuring you are descending southwest rather than directly south, where crazy cliffs would bar access. If you're making moves harder than Class 2, there's an easier way. Cairns marked the route much of the time, but as long as you're descending diagonally, you'll likely have no trouble getting down. We encountered some Class 3 at the base of the descent as we entered the South Fork of Pine Creek Canyon. We took the canyon back and completed the loop, following the popular trail back to the trailhead.