Hike Secret Pass Breakfast Peaks Mount Nutt Wilderness BLM, AZ

Jan 17, 2021 — Desert routefinding adventures don't get better than this. After hiking Mount Nutt a couple of years ago, I became really interested in these funky-looking peaks to the north. They seemed to get almost no attention, but are visible from Bullhead City and have pretty easy access. My initial thought was that the peaks would either be impossible or just kind of boring. Why else would so few come out here? I really wasn't expecting them to shape one of my favorite desert peakbagging days to date. I recruited Matt and Luke for some exploration of the area with the preface that "they look cool, but might not be". The peaks we did are obscure and offer no list goals for peakbaggers, and are off-route and uncharted for a hiker trying to enjoy the landscape, so I don't really know what kind of audience would enjoy this route. But we sure did. Despite the summit registers reading a few ascents, we didn't feel too badly about naming the peaks ourselves rather than using their elevation for naming, because that's boring. We decided the proximity to the tiny town of Oatman, AZ as well as the peaks being located in the Mount Nutt Wilderness could serve as enough reason to name the peaks based on a breakfast theme. Sue us.

We headed into the area from the north, navigating into Golden Valley and turning here (35.22611, -114.30686) onto Egar Road and following it to here (35.18532, -114.30685) onto Bolsa Drive. We followed this road to its end where it turned left and a road diverted to the right here (35.18003, -114.34214). We followed this road past a cattle guard and continued west, then south to Secret Pass. 2WD could make it a mile or so in from the cattle guard, but then the sand becomes deeper and the road gets a bit more rutted. I believe the route from Secret Pass is fairly well-known to ATVers. Once past Secret Pass, the road becomes steep and I recommend 4WD. We continued to the end of the road (trailhead listed above). Google displays more roads stretching south, but they're not roads in any way.

From the trailhead, we hiked south along an awful dirt road, leaving it shortly after and ascending the slopes toward the east face of Steel-cut Peak. The slopes grew steeper and introduced a lot of Class 2 talus/scree leading up to the peak's base. We explored a few Class 5 chimneys and decided we needed to locate a different route, ultimately locating a Class 2 bouldery gully on the peak's northeast side. The gully led a few hundred feet up the peak to a notch. We passed over the notch and ascended Class 3 terrain to the east ridge. A very pretty, though treacherous, ridge comprised of blocky rock that was unstable at best offered some Class 3 to the summit. It was by no means hard, but definitely dangerous. We could see Steel-cut Peak from Bullhead City the day before, a pointy and intimidating-looking summit when viewed from the city. It was nice to be up here looking back.

We headed down Steel-cut Peak the way we came and wrapped along its northern base, then working east and down the slopes on our way to Honey Nutt Peak. A drainage separated the peaks (the same drainage we'd be descending on the way back later). A steep slope led out of the drainage and up to a nice break in the cliffs where a Class 2/3 slab led us beneath a false summit of Honey Nutt Peak. Fortunately this wasn't the high point because we agreed it was a sheer face on all sides. Honey Nutt Peak was just to the east and seemed equally as impossible from this angle, but we wrapped around its south side to try to locate a viable route, gorgeous views in every direction. We continued all the way to the northeast side of the peak, where a fun Class 2/3 section on solid rock led to a Class 3 short knife edge to the summit. We were thrilled and surprised we were  2 for 2 on peaks so far for the day.

After backtracking, we took some time debating heading into the badlands to the south to explore the interesting-looking hoodoos and to attempt Peak 3700. We decided against it, mostly because Peak 3700 looked impossible. Instead, we continued west along the ridge to see if we could make it over to Sunny Side Peak. Along the way was Peak 4060, an intimidating fortress. We attempted a gully up Peak 4060, but determined there was no way it would go. We continued west along Peak 4060's northern cliff base, the options becoming less and less viable the farther we went. We determined we couldn't get this peak, so we set our sights toward Sunny Side Peak. The route to get there would lead along a heavily-eroded ridge that made us confident there would be no way across. It just looked like a jumble maze of bad rock. We decided to give it a go anyway. I can't imagine there's any other way along this ridge to Sunny Side Peak than what we found, and I'll try to describe it. We attempted every angle, splitting up to locate a reasonable option each step of the way. Class 5 options exist, but we managed to keep the route Class 3. Once past the northern base of Peak 4060, we descended on a sheep trail to the ridge, keeping left to avoid the initial onslaught of rock hoodoos. At the first grassy slope that appeared, we entered the hoodoos and pulled a Class 2+ move and then another,  working over the humps between the rock formations, still on the left side of the ridge crest. We were forced to the crest at a certain point, where we encountered an impassable section. With some combined energy, we located a nice Class 3 ramp on the right (north). A short section of easier terrain brought us to a narrow portion where some solid-rock Class 3 brought us to an overhanging "cave". Just past this overhang, we kept to the left of significant cliffs through some tall grass and located a Class 2/3 narrow drainage on the right. This led back to the ridge and to easy ground. After some nice grassy strolling, we found ourselves below the cliff band surrounding Sunny Side Peak's east face. We wrapped beneath the cliff band until a Class 3 option brought us to higher ground. The going was easy from here, and really the appeal of Sunny Side Peak was the ridge to get there, not the peak itself.

We retraced our steps along the ridge from Sunny Side Peak and dropped into the major drainage that would lead us back to the trailhead. Once at the trailhead, we had some snacks and followed the road north on foot on our way to Secret Pass Peak, not ready to call it a day just yet. We named it this based on its proximity to Secret Pass, of course. A minor saddle on the peak's east side was our first destination, no possibilites for ascending visible on the south face. Just past the minor saddle was a Class 2 somewhat brushy drainage that led us significantly up Secret Pass Peak. A bunch of potential options greeted us at the top of this drainage, but we settled on the easiest-looking one, the leftmost option that hugs the cliff wall. At the top of this Class 3 scramble, we crawled over a notch and found ourselves on the south face of the peak. A Class 3 wrap-around led to more fun Class 3, all solid rock. We found ourselves on easy terrain beneath the summit block, which we approached from the southwest. Class 2 led to the summit. We enjoyed the sunset for a while and I couldn't be more thrilled with how the day turned out.