Hike Mouse's Tank Peak and Fire Canyon Peak Valley of Fire State Park, NV

Jan 06, 2022 — Valley of Fire State Park is home to a bunch of Instagram-famous destinations, as well as some incredibly cool lesser-visited scramble routes. After bagging the majority of the area's peaks, my interest was drawn to some unnamed and completely undocumented summits in the heart of the park around Fire Canyon Wash. This trip report uses photos from two different excursions to the area with different parties. The first trip was with Jon Avery and Scott Kruis, where we were able to reach Mouse's Tank Peak and Fire Canyon Peak - East, while the second was with Sam Grant, where we got Fire Canyon Peak. All three of these peaks took a long time to puzzle out a route. As you'll note by looking at the attached map, they all have a fair amount of zig-zagging. Obviously our actual GPX track was a huge mess, considering we basically circled all the peaks in order to find a route that finally would work, but I've removed all that extra nonsense so it's cleaner to look at. I will also describe only the functional routes, excluding our ramblings. None of these peaks are an easy undertaking, and all are incredibly fun and interesting. We named Mouse's Tank Peak based on its proximity to its nearby namesake feature Mouse's Tank, and Fire Canyon Peak for the same reason.

We set out along the Mouse's Tank Trail through Petroglyph Canyon, where there are plenty of petroglyphs to be seen on the walls along the trail. We reached the "End of Trail" sign marking the Mouse's Tank and bypassed the feature's dryfall just to its left. Back within the wash below, we headed through the sandy drainage until it entered a narrow section of slot. Through here we had to navigate a Class 3/4 short down-climb and continue through more slotty obstacles until we emerged at another dryfall. This one can also be bypassed on the left, leading back into the wash below. Mouse's Tank Peak became visible just ahead, a complex series of sandstone blobs.

The routes we took are pretty complex, so I'll describe them in better detail below in the photo captions. However, a nice overview never hurts.

We located a nice ramp on the northwest side of Mouse's Tank Peak and started up. A couple of switchbacks on a nice ramp system with a Class 3 move led to the first of three cruxes, a Class 3/4 crack followed by a big jug we dubbed "Jon's Jug" that allowed for getting to a higher ledge. Just past this first crux was a second, a headwall above a scary crack. To reach the headwall, we dropped into the crack on the left since the gap was too wide to stretch across. From within the crack, the headwall seemed less daunting, and were the crack not there at all it wouldn't be as scary an undertaking. Jon and I were ready to turn around here, but Scott scrambled up cautiously and dubbed it low Class 5. I took a few minutes before following him, but Jon stayed behind. We could see the summit just ahead. Scott had just come back from scouting ahead and said there was one more scary move. We walked over to it, a wave-like feature covered in desert varnish. He walked me through the committing move and I called him crazy a few times, but I pulled this third crux anyway, though getting down later was more difficult. Class 2 led to the summit.

After coming down from Mouse's Tank Peak, we headed back into Fire Canyon Wash and headed east, then south through a series of gullies and canyons. From below, the peak seemed to have two discernable summits, and the eastern one appeared taller. It was not, but we didn't know it at the time. So I'll first describe our route up the lower east peak, only because the route was incredily cool and worthwhile even though it was ultimately not the high point. We headed along the eastern face of Fire Canyon Peak - East. We could see the face from below and puzzled out a potential route. A Class 2 gully led up beneath the eastern cliff base, and at the top of the gully, a switchback onto solid sandstone led to a series of descending ramps. Unbelievably, these went at Class 2/3, but it was slow-moving due to the exposure. Jon and Scott opted out, but I was thrilled for the whole route. After dropping about a hundred feet on these ramps and ultimately ending up at only around 20 feet above where we started on solid ground below, I rounded a corner and entered a 10-foot Class 3 chimney. Above this was a crack I dropped into and emerged onto another ledge. I followed the ledge to its end and scrambled up a 6-foot Class 4 headwall. Past here another set of ramps led past a Class 3 section and then continued unencumbered for a few hundred feet to a final Class 2 couple of moves to the summit. I learned here that this was not the high point, but I wasn't upset. It was a very cool route.

A couple of weeks later I returned with Sam to try to tackle the true high point of Fire Canyon Peak. Taking much the same route, we now headed south to the western side of Fire Canyon Peak. A tight canyon brought us up to the western face, a Class 4 chockstone along the way adding some scambling. The west face introduced some Class 2 slabs, followed by a few switchbacks on incredibly cool sandstone ramps, mixed with some light Class 3 moves. We reached a headwall separated by a chasm where we thought we'd have to turn back. However, we noticed that if we could somehow pass over the chasm, we could ascend the ramp on its opposite side and likely be able to get to the summit from there. After some deliberation, we headed along the final ramp to a point where the chasm seemed the least deep and pulled out some webbing and dropped in. You'll want to anchor higher up since a massive boulder near the gap didn't seem safe. Without the webbing, coming back out would require a tough stemming-pounce move. On a subsequent summit of this peak I was able to manage this move without webbbing, so I can confirm it's doable dynamic Class 5. We stemmed through the chasm and pulled a short Class 3 move to gain the ramp on the opposite side of where we were standing previously. Class 2/2+ led us up this final ramp to the true summit. An excellent peak.