Hike Mount Jefferson via Pine Creek Loop Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, NV

Sep 20, 2020 — Mount Jefferson is an ultra-prominent peak in central Nevada and the high point of the Toquima Range. It's always felt inaccessible since I don't have a beastly vehicle to access the standard route, which starts at a pass called Jefferson Summit south of the peak. With some research, I was thrilled to find out about the Pine Creek Trail, and Jon was definitely interested in attempting the peak from this way. We had no idea why this route is not used more commonly. From the summit of Mount Jefferson looking toward the standard route, we agreed the route we took instead was superior in beauty, while also avoiding a crap drive. We were also able to get all the major peaks of the Mount Jefferson ridgeline as a loop, rather than the standard out-and-back. Initially, we wanted to descend using the North Summit Mount Jefferson Trail (marked as such on maps), but the trail doesn't exist. More on this later.

The Pine Creek Campground is annoying to reach because of the long drive from anywhere, and some of the roads don't exist on Google navigation, so I recommend following the USFS directions to access the campground. The roads were graded for any car. Jon and I met up in the morning and set out along the immaculate Pine Creek Trail. We were happily surprised at its upkeep and made quick progress through the meadows and forests along the trail and to the talus-filled cirque to the north of Mount Jefferson. We reached a junction within the talus field with a trail called the Mount Jefferson Trail, keeping left. Even on the talus slope, the trail continued to be excellent all the way up to the saddle of Mount Jefferson and Mount Jefferson East Summit.

First, we headed along the ridge to the east summit, which had a social trail for a small section to avoid some rocky stuff, but the route to this peak barely goes at Class 2. The summit views were nice, and Mount Jefferson looked like an intimidating blob of talus to come. We headed back along the ridge, and although some maps mark a trail leading up to Mount Jefferson. Although this isn't accurate, it's easy Class 2 talus navigating and tundra walking. We reached the summit, which was wide and had pretty ridiculously sweeping views of the surrounding area despire the wildfire haze. Jon and I traced the standard route from up here and agreed we were very happy to have come up the Pine Creek Trail.

After leaving the summit to head north, keep to the right of the ridge and side-hill down talus/tundra to the ridgeline below. All is visible and obvious. Keeping to the ridge initially would result in cliffs. There isn't much to note about the traverse from Mount Jefferson to Mount Jefferson North Summit since the ridge is wide and the route is clear. There's a Class 2 move to gain Mount Jefferson Middle Summit, located just along the ridge and worth the extra minor effort. The ridgeline traverse was longer than we expected.

Once on Mount Jefferson North Summit, we briefly talked about trying to locate the now derelict North Summit Mount Jefferson Trail, which led north from the summit and wrapped down into the canyon to the north. I can't vouch for the quality of the upper portion of the trail past what I've read online (bad), but Jon and I can both attest that the lower portion of the trail is nonexistent. We didn't want to risk a bushwhack, and also the trail would add a bit of additional milage, so we continued east along the ridge to avoid the potential hassle instead. Alternatively, you could return to the northern base of Mount Jefferson South Summit and follow a trail back to the Pine Creek Trail, but this backtrack would add significant mileage.

The ridge on the east side of Mount Jefferson North Summit was a little tedious, but I thought it offered some of the best views of the day. There's a lot of Class 2 talus to navigate. As we neared the end of the ridge, it became a steep slope. The talus continued for the first 2/3 of the steep slope, minor bushwhacking toward the bottom, and then a nice meadow stroll. We saved a lot of time in miles, but were definitely slowed down by the descent from Mount Jefferson North Summit. Anyway, we made it to a minor saddle where we picked up the North Summit Mount Jefferson Trail (which I marked in purple on my attached map). It looked great here on this meadowy section, but we immediately lost it when the trail left the meadow. We can't completely blame trail negligence, since there were also many cattle-carved trails we could follow, adding to the confusion. We looked down into the canyon below and its trees and brush and determined we didn't want to follow the crap trail anymore (hence why the purple section on the map is so short). Instead, we side-hilled on pleasant terrain to a ridge to the south, where we continued down on even more pleasant terrain with lovely views toward the Mount Jefferson ridgeline down into Pine Creek. We crossed over the creek (50 feet of bushwhacking) and rejoined the Pine Creek Trail. We had no regrets about our route, though we did wish the Class 2 ridge descent was a little less tedious.