Hike The Sentinel, Booths Pinnacle, Pyramid Peak, Land's End Peak Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Feb 15, 2020 — Lake Mead National Recreation Area's Northshore region has quickly become a favorite desert playground. It's rarely visited, has tons of colorful little peaks, and outstanding views of Lake Mead. This loop has been incredibly high on my to-do list, and I was really looking forward to linking up with Whiley and Adam to get out there. Initially we intended to include a couple more peaks, but that was an ambitious plan and we were enjoying the route too much to rush around to get the extras. Our route included The Sentinel, Peak 3065, Booths Pinnacle, Pyramid Peak, Saddle Mountain, and Land's End Peak. It's definitely a full day of route-finding and tough terrain, but now one of my Lake Mead favorites.

We parked off of Northshore Road and entered Pinto Valley on an old dirt road, the infrequently used access approach for the area. We followed the road as it navigated hills and soon we had a view of The Sentinel in the distance, our first peak of the day. We left the road and continued through the open desert toward the incredible layered rock of The Sentinel's north face. The Sentinel's standard route leads into a drainage that heads up to the ridge well before the summit. We worked through a pocket of bright sandstone leading into a this drainage, dropping into the drainage when it wasn't quite as steep. This drainage narrowed into a canyon and then twisted a few times through incredible colors as it weaved up Class 2/3 obstacles to a tame wash above. At this point we were basically on the east ridge of The Sentinel, but the peak wasn't in sight yet. A short, steep slog up a sandy slope brought us out of the wash and up to a viewpoint of our peak, where a social trail continued along a fairly narrow and crumbly ridge to the base of The Sentinel. This ridge is a highlight of the area, in my opinion. You can see the layers of The Sentinel ahead while on a very interesting little section of somewhat sketchy, eroding ridgeline. We made it to the base of the peak and located a Class 3 slab scramble that brought us to the ridge. Alternatively, you could continue along the base of the slabs and find an easier Class 2+ option leading up directly below the summit, but it's less fun.

After taking in the views and the route we still had ahead, we returned to the viewpoint of The Sentintel along its east ridge and continued southeast along the ridge, in search of a viable route to the south. The crumbly and loose rock kept the peak well-guarded from this direction, but we were confident we could find a way down somewhere. The ridge led up to Peak 3065 (Class 2). This tiny peak is just a nice viewpoint of the area, and was really just a short detour on our way. We dropped down a minor wash that ended up being a light and pleasant sandy slope. It wrapped us safely around the cliffs and ended up in a major wash which we jogged down on toward Lake Mead.

Booths Pinnacle and Pyramid Peak came into view, both looking pretty awesome. Booths Pinnacle, the farther option,  would be first. We left the wash by going right and located a small canyon we thought would lead nicely up the cliffy face. Although we encountered a bypassable small dryfall and had to deal with some steep, annoying side-hilling, we gained the ridge leading to Booths Pinnacle. Note that our route in this section was fine, but there's likely a less side-hilly way up if you don't leave the wash to ascend to Booths Pinnacle as early as we did. Anyway, we encountered a couple of crumbly Class 2 sections and a fun, scenic Class 3 couple of moves on the way to Booths Pinnacle. The views toward Lake Mead and the colorful bands surrounding Pyramid Peak behind us were surreal and the mystique garnered from the desert solitude in this area had my psych about as high as it gets. We saw a baby rattler on the summit cairn, and all three of us took turns almost sitting on it, forgetting he was there. On the attached map, just note that the imagery is inaccurate by just a bit, meaning the track looks like it doesn't end at the summit, but when you're up there it's pretty clear where you need to go.

From the summit of Booths Pinnacle, we backtracked along the ridge and then worked up toward Pyramid Peak, which included a good amount of slope walking, a short Class 2 cliff band along the ascent, a short Class 2+ section of ridgeline to avoid side-hilling on a heavily-eroded slope, and then more Class 2 fun scrambling to the summit. The views back toward Booths Pinnacle were fantastic and The Sentinel's south face in the distance was imposing. Land's End Peak still ahead seemed far away.

The cliffs preventing easy access to Saddle Mountain seemed arduous, but we found a weakness in Pyramid Peak's southern slopes and zig-zagged to avoid cliffs to get down to its saddle with Saddle Mountain. A short Class 2 jaunt led us to the top of Saddle Mountain, and then back down the its saddle with Pyramid Peak. We continued generally west down the wash, encountering an unexpected dryfall that we bypassed on the right. This wash ended at a junction with another wash. We made a right and continued ascending up this next wash, passing a single short Class 3 obstacle along the way. Land's End Peak was next, but we were unsure how to best tackle it, first thinking we might want to continue up our wash and wrap around the north side of Land's End Peak, but unsure if the wash we were in would cliff out about halfway through. It looked like it might on a topo and satellite map, but we weren't sure. So, instead we headed left into a somewhat tricky complex of drainages on Land's End Peak's east side, choosing to stay within the most major drainage we could find as we ascended. We passed two Class 3 dryfall sections before ending up on the ridge just north of the peak. There are likely easier and harder ways up this system of drainages, but ours went fine.

The views from Land's End Peak were the best of the day. To the east, we got to see Booths Pinnacle and Pyramid Peak, to the north was The Sentinel, and all around us were heavily-shadowed intricate washes of the area highlighted with countless desert colors. I thought the perspective to the southwest into Boulder Wash was the most spectacular. We continued north off the summit, following the ridge until we could locate a reasonable way down. Our choice was sub-par, a very steep Class 2+ rocky slope. I'd recommend continuing along the ridge a bit longer until something more reasonable comes along.

From the north side of Land's End Peak, we headed west through a wide wash until we bisected Boulder Wash. We followed this major wash north, then northeast for what felt like forever until we bumped back into the road we had left for The Sentintel much earlier in the day.