Hike Nopah Range High Point and Nopah Peak Nopah Range Wilderness Area, CA

Feb 16, 2020 — Nopah Range High Point was one of the more notably boring outings I've done in a while. Whiley and I chose to summit from the east because it required less driving, but moreso because it and would allow for easier access to Nopah Peak. Nopah Peak is the high point's neighbor and since we would be at the saddle of both peaks, it was far less of an undertaking to get that peak by coming this way. Many miles of open desert walking led into a progressively narrowing wash. The desert was overall flat with some minor ruts, just very long. Once in the wash, we encountered plenty of Class 2 boulder hopping as we worked our way up. We stayed in the wash until it got too steep and a headwall seemed to block access if we continued up much farther. We left the wash and scrambled on loose crap to the ridge on our right. This ridge is steep and not particularly interesting, though the views back down into the wash we came out of were quite nice. The ridge had one section of cliff band that was avoidable by keeping to the right. After a few hundred feet, we reached the saddle separating Nopah Range High Point to the left and Nopah Peak to the right. We chose to walk up to the high point first, only a little bit of brush and some cacti making walking a little slower. From the summit, we dropped back down and traversed over to Nopah Peak. The ridge leading to this peak's summit was a bit more interesting, a cliff on our right adding a break in the otherwise monotonous sloping landscape, and the views back the way we came were nice. Nopah Peak's summit had cool views of the cliff bands to the northwest along the rest of the Nopah Range. Thinking back on the hike, I was happy to have a friend to talk to and for the runner's high on our run back through the desert, because this is certainly not a classic outing.