Hike The Needles and Tumarion Peak Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, AZ

Jan 31, 2021 — This incredible desert route visits The Needles, a group of fantastic volcanic peaks within Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, as well as the formidable-looking Tumarion Peak. The Needles are what the town of Needles, California is named after, though far more visit the town than the landmark for which the town is named. Havasu NWR is better known by boaters and kayakers for the rocky-walled section of waterway to the west of The Needles called Topock Gorge. It's surprising how close the Refuge is to I-40, and yet it gets incredibly little foot traffic. In fact, Matt and I went into the area without any information at all because it's so poorly documented. Looking back after exploring the area pretty much in its entirety, I'd go as far as to say I was obsessed with the peaks in the area, how to access them, which were doable. I uncovered a bigger desire to explore this area than I've ever felt in my life. I'll note that we kayaked into the area on another trip in order to get peaks on the west side of the Colorado River, our friend Shawn joining us to revisit the area. I squashed the two trips into this single trip report to form a cohesive route. So, in case you notice a third person in our group or weird lighting changes, that's why. The stats reflect the entire route outlined in the attached map (excluding the pink "easier" line). This trip report assumes you're only hiking and using the route described by the attached map, but if you want to kayak in and need additional info for that, please get in touch and I'm happy to help.

In order to get as close as we could, we navigated the ATV roads to the north of the Refuge, starting by exiting I-40 here: 34.719401051718265, -114.4352588369405. The roads we took were sandy and require 4WD. 2WD would add at least three miles round trip to the day since the sand begins pretty early on. The spot where we parked was the last turn-off before the road became treacherous and narrow through a wash and only ATVs could continue. However, the end of the road (the Havasu NWR border) was only a half mile or so farther, so not a big deal.

Once past the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge border we continued down the wash and headed south on burro trails through the desert. A couple of smaller volcanic peaks came into view, all looking sheer and foreboding. And then we stopped in our tracks: Gold Dome came into view and looked like an intense and impossible peak. We were thrilled/excited, and I began to question if we'd be able to summit anything based on the first glance at Gold Dome. There's a major wash draining northwest from the north side of Tumarion Peak which I'll refer to as Tumarion Wash for the sake of describing our route - I don't believe it has an official name. The burro trail led us into Tumarion Wash. We would reach this junction later in the day after descending from Tumarion Peak on our way back, but for now we headed up a minor canyon that housed "Jackpot Spring". Here we enountered a trickle of water and lots of animal tracks. We continued up the canyon, boulder-hopping on Class 2/3 terrain until we reached a lovely saddle separating Gold Dome from Havasuper Peak. Also located here is the remains of the Gold Dome Mine, consisting of an old road and some ruins.

First up would be Gold Dome. We knew from looking on maps that the south side would likely be our best option, but from the saddle the west face looked possible as well. In hindsight, I'd recommend it only if you're interested in some fun, Class 3 route-finding on mostly very good rock. However, taking the easier way to the summit area for Gold Dome would require dropping down and wrapping around to its south side. I've outlined both of these routes in my attached map, the pink line being the less-cryptic option. I'll describe the route as we did it because if you're reading this trip report, you're likely more inclined to do a fun scramble than to just find the easy way. We started to the right of a big crevasse below the saddle. The crevasse appears like it broke off and separated 1/5th of the mountain from the rest of Gold Dome, creating a 15-foot cliff leading the whole way up. Perhaps going straight up the crevasse would work as well, but I think there might have been some major obstacles within. We were able to locate a Class 3 set of moves to get over the cliffs at the base of the 1/5th piece of mountain (on the right of the crevasse), whereas doing so on the 4/5th piece had scary cliffs at its base. A few hundred feet up of fun Class 2/3 slab scrambling brought us closer to the base of Gold Dome's summit area. We would need to drop into the crevasse since the top of the 1/5th of mountain gets cliffed out. We kept a lookout on the left for a Class 3+ down climb into the crevasse. Some Class 3 moves within the crevasse brought us up onto the 4/5ths chunk of Gold Dome. I don't think there's more than one option. I provided a red-lined route map photo below of our route as seen from a distance. Once on the 4/5ths chunk of Gold Dome, we continued ascending just below the base of its sheer west face and found ourselves at the crux.

I stared dumbly at the sustained 30 feet of mostly solid rock. Matt went up first, confirming it was Class 4. It required a couple of slow moves leading to a small rest spot before pulling a couple of more difficult moves. It's not exposed, except for the fact that you're 20 feet off the deck by this point. At the top of the crux, there was a rest spot. We took in the sights and caught our breath before deciding to continue. It will be tempting to continue to the right of the rest spot where a short, loose gully leads to a sketchy ledge with extreme exposure. I quickly dismissed this option, suggesting a set of Class 3+ moves on the left of the rest spot instead. One exposed foothold and a nice pull brought us to some pleasant Class 2/3 terrain, ending on what I thought was a knife-edge and the end of our attempt. However, an easy workaround on the right avoided the knife-edge and brought us along the rest of the ridge, where we encountered a couple of Class 3 sections with minimal exposure. Miraculously we found ourselves on the summit of Gold Dome. I took my sweet-ass time on the descent, two of the three tricky scrambles giving me significant pause.

Once we were down from the crux of Gold Dome, we headed to where the 1/5th peice of mountain rose from the 4/5th piece of mountain and descended the gully caused by this fissure, down the south side of the mountain (pink line). This gully was Class 2 and a little brushy. It also avoided the entirety of the fun, cryptic scrambling we did on the ascent. We continued down the gully for 600+ feet and side-hilled to get over to the saddle north of South Dome. Gold Dome and South Dome are separated by a likely impossible pinnacle. It's an unranked peak anyway, so we skipped it since all sides appeared sheer. On our first trip we attempted South Dome from the south with no luck, the east side and west side are a wall of cliffs, leaving only the north. The route we located starts by heading up the Class 2/3 bouldery gully. We first tried going all the way to the saddle and past the saddle with no luck (I removed this from my attached map). Instead, we found two options: the first was a scary Class 4+ chute with some extreme exposure for the crux required to pull the final lip. I backed off this and looked for another option, locating one a hundred feet down the ascent gully. It required a Class 3 wrap-around to a Class 5 headwall. The headwall is about 20 feet and has decent holds, but minimal exposure. My friends dropped a line from above and I was able to get up this way. We later used it as the descent as well, since the Class 4+ gully option was treacherous. Shawn was able to down-climb the Class 5 headwall, so its definitely doable for those willing to take a little more risk than I am. Either option leads to Class 2/3 terrain on the north face of South Dome. A short Class 4 move with no exposure leads up a small grotto, and then more Class 2/3 continues. There were bighorned sheep poops up here, so there must be an easier route somewhere. I can't image they would be free-soloing this route, so if you do find a better route, please let me know where it is. Just before the summit block, an undercut lip requires a stiff climbing move, but there's no exposure and it's only 5 feet off the deck, so I'll call it Class 4+. A partner assist sufficed. The summit of South Dome was amazing, views in all directions and a pristine look at Gold Dome to the north. We returned the way we came and headed down to the drainage separating Gold Dome/South Dome from Havasuper Peak.

We started up to Havasuper Peak by working up a small drainaging leading to a break in Havasuper Peak's incredible cliff face (barely Class 2). Once over the cliff band, we stayed low, knowing the ridge could prove treacherous. We found a pleasant Class 2/3 slab that led to the ridge crest, which we followed to the summit. The views toward Gold Dome here were absolutely incredible, and Havasuper Peak's cliff face was somehow overhung and stunning when seen from above. My friend Yossi accidentally named this peak for us, wishing for us to "Havasuper day!" - it was too punny not to name this peak after it.

We got back to the drainage separating Gold Dome/South Dome from Havasuper Peak and followed it south. There was a Class 3 move at the mouth of the drainage, and then we were in the wide-open desert wash at the base of Peak 1042. To the east we could see beautiful sand dunes. We headed to a break in Peak 1042's northeast side and worked up a short Class 3 section to gain the ridge. We followed the ridge (Class 2/2+) to the summit. Along the way, we met a headwall that required wrapping around to the west. I think the views from Peak 1042 were my favorite of the area. We continued south along the ridge, hoping to find a route down and were successful (Class 2). We continued toward Peak 1144 next, which required a short desert jaunt over the sand dunes and down to the northern ridge of the peak. While I'm sure you can find a Class 2 route up this, we did encounter one stiff Class 3 pull move.

After Peak 1144, we headed back up the sand dunes and cotninued north into  the major wash to the east of The Needles. Peak 1295 was a lovely little peak worth tacking on. From its saddle with South Dome, we headed along its north ridge on Class 2 terrain. You could keep to the right of the ridge and ascend the volcanic slope, or stick to the ridge crest and scramble through a fun crack and do some minor route-finding. There are a few ways up the peak, but the summit block required a Class 3 move on solid rock, followed by a lightly exposed Class 3 move to gain the summit. We found an old motorcycle helmet up there. Tumarion Peak was in the distance, our last obective. We debated even going for this peak since it was so late in the day and we expected it to be a serious undertaking, but it wasn't.

We headed generally northeast up the wash on the east side of The Needles for a mile or so until it reached a cliff. A nice burro trail led to the right and out of the wash, bringing us to higher ground and into Tumarion Wash. We followed Tumarion Wash for a while as we passed Tumarion Peak on its right and continued south in a side-drainage to gain the east ridge of the peak. This ascent to the ridge was loose, but barely Class 2. We continued along the ridge, a social trail surprisingly leading us most of the way. We kept to the right of the ridge crest, encountering two minor Class 2 gullies at the base of the crest's cliff. We found ourselves at the summit block, a Class 3 move leading to an exposed Class 2 section just before the summit.

We backtracked from Tumarion Peak back into Tumarion Wash and followed this until our earlier departure into Jackpot Spring. We followed the same burro trails more-or-less back to the Havasu NWR border, vowing to come back for South Dome and the other little peaks in the area.