Hike North Potosi Peak Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, NV

May 12, 2022 — North Potosi Peak (aka Buddha's Rest) is a small sub-peak of its larger southern neighbor, Potosi Mountain. With easy access just off NV-160, you'd think it might see more ascents than it does, but there's no clear "best" way to reach the summit. The issue is that the eastern face is brushy and has lots of cliff bands to navigate, while the western side is on Boy Scouts of America property. I teamed up with Yossi to get this little peak, and initially we wanted to approach using the BSA developed trail system. Signs prevented this, stating no parking on their land. So we instead improvised, parking within the National Forest boundary, just off the highway. The northern side has many limestone cliffs that climbers have bolted and use regularly. That being the case, a series of social trails has been developed that wrap up through the forest to the base of the many cliffs. Paula Raimondi located the best combination of these trails for accessing the BSA trail complex without parking on their land, and we decided to use her route.

A series of tight switchbacks lead up the first 400 feet or so before traversing beneath some cliffs and opening up to a wider view of the slopes. A difficult-to-find junction leads south and wraps up through a break in a tall cliff band on steep terrain. The trail is less obvious here, but with some poking around getting above the cliff should require no bushwhacking or scrambling harder than easy Class 2. The trail continued nicely as it slowly ascended to the west above the cliff band, and then merged with the BSA trail system on what seems to be called the "Fortress Trail". The trail makes one very long switchback and leads up another break in a cliff band to reach the northern ridge of North Potosi Peak. However, the good trail doesn't continue toward our summit from here, instead heading to a spot called Cottonwood Overlook, a nice little rest spot worth the quick jaunt.

After backtracking from Cottonwood Overlook, the trail hiking ended and we started south along the ridgeline. There's an initial potentially scary-looking limestone portion along the crest, but it goes at Class 2 and I recommend sticking to the crest to avoid rougher bushwhacking along the slope. Past the limestone portion, the ridge becomes less about scrambling and more just a steep dirt slope with embedded rocks. We made it up to a minor peak coined Meditation Point by Paula (keeping with the Buddha's Rest theme), and then continued along the ridgeline, requiring a short dip to Meditation Point's saddle with North Potosi. We passed by some sort of radio tower feature along the way, but otherwise nothing in terms of obstacles to note. It was a little brushy, but overall we just had to dodge low bushes and it wasn't unpleasant. The last half mile or so was more open and less steep, and the views from North Potosi Peak were nice in all directions.