Hike Midridge Peak and Northern Muddy Mountains Loop Muddy Mountains BLM, NV

Feb 15, 2022 — The mountains to the south of Valley of Fire State Park seem to get overlooked, the bigger objectives being the State Park itself or the larger peaks within the Muddy Mountains Wilderness. Having wrapped up most of those areas, I looked toward these peaks with wide-eyed excitement. The goal was to create a loop of this northern section of the Muddy Mountains that was cohesive enough to link a bunch of the peaks. We were very surprised at how nice of a hike it was, not only because of the views toward Valley of Fire, but also just the vast desert landscape to the south. Today was quite windy, resulting in an interesting haze.

Austin and I set out from a pull-off from Valley of Fire Highway just before the road dropped down to the entrance station. We took a dirt road closed to vehicles south toward Peak 4288. At the end of the road, a short Class 2+ section (likely avoidable if necessary) brought us out of a drainage and onto a steep slope. The slope continued for a few hundred feet to a minor ridge, where we got a nice look at our first peak. We decided to drop down into a drainage below that separated us from the summit, since following the loose ridgeline would likely have been slower, and then continued southwest to the east ridge of Peak 4288. The slope was a ittle brushy, but nothing too annoying. Once on the ridge, easy limestone walking got us to a Class 2 move and to the summit.

We took in the views toward the Fire Range to the east and the bright red sandstone of Valley of Fire State Park before scoping out a route to Midridge Peak, our next objective about three miles to the west. The terrain below is lumpy, and the ridge that appears so obvious on a topo map was barely distinguishable from up here. We started down the Class 2 limestone slabs that compose Peak 4288's west ridge, avoiding minor cliff bands and unnecessary ridge humps, and then made much quicker progress along the more pleasant terrain lower down. An animal trail led us for a solid mile along the wide ridgeline, around or up and over a couple of small humps. Along the way I noted a dirt road that comes in from the north on the northwest side of Peak 4288, a possibly more efficient option for getting to the ridgeline we were on to get to the peak as an out-and-back, but I think to make the loop we did, our choices worked really well.

The landscape wasn't particularly unique, but there was something about the views to the south and the remote feel of this area that had me loving it. Midridge Peak came into view more distinctly. The peak has a long lump on its north side, separated by a minor saddle, and then the true peak is farther south. The lumpy, low ridge we'd been following for a couple of miles sort became muddled. When this happened, we took a final drop to a minor drainage to the northeast of Midridge Peak. A steep slope took us out of the drainage and up to a progressively less steep slope than ultimately led to the long lump that characterizes the northern stretch of Midridge Peak. From here we headed south into the minor saddle and then up to the summit. The summit ridge has some Class 2 blocks, and the views were outstanding.

After dropping back off Midridge Peak, we headed north along its long hump and started a slow descent along its north ridge. I had studied a topo map earlier and determined this section might be a bit tricky due to a potential cliff, and there sure was a cliff. Fortunately I knew we could skip White Benchmark and just find a way down from the cliff farther east, but I really wanted to go check out that peak and so we spent a few minutes looking around for a weakness in the cliff. I removed all this jitter from my attached map and only left the option that woked. A fortuitous Class 2 gully with some loose scree led about a hundred feet or so down safely from the rim and to a short spurt of side-hilling around the base of the cliff we had just avoided. White Benchmark looks impressive from here, its southern cliffs dropping off into Monocline Valley.

We continued north in order to gain White Benchmark's eastern ridge. A fairly obvious animal trail led most of the way to the summit, basically taking a straight line just below the crest of the east ridge. A small dip along the ridgeline offered an interesting perspective of the peak's summit ahead, where it appears to just hover over the desert below. White Benchmark is the cliffy peak you can see at the end of the range when driving toward Valley of Fire from I-15.

After heading back along the ridge, we descended the slopes to the east and entered a wash, which curved north and took us into the desert. We left the wash, which would have led us too far north otherwise, and went cross-country through open and easy desert to the base of Prospects Peak. Austin was recovering from a gym leg day and opted to take the road from here back to the car to skip the extra vertical gain. I headed up the Class 2 face of the peak on typical Vegas-area limestone covered in dark brown varnish. The summit had some nice views of the traverse we took, and I could see Thin Peak to the east popping up out of the red sandstone backdrop of Valley of Fire, the last peak for the loop.

I headed west along Prospects Peak's ridge through pretty scenery, and a short, steep slope took me off the west ridge and down to the road, which I followed for a mile to the base of Thin Peak. Thin Peak is a provisional name for this summit, which may also be known as the North Muddy Mountains High Point. I saw on a map that technically the "North Muddy Mountains" are a minor sub-range of the Muddy Mountains, and this is the high point of that sub-range. I scoped potential slope options to gain the ridgeline of Thin Peak, and settled on a Class 2 option that seemed the most reasonable to get a bit of time along the ridgeline, but without having to trudge up too much steep scree. A couple of fun Class 2 moves along the ridgeline led to really nice views into Valley of Fire and out toward Lake Mead, definitely a nice sunset add-on.