Fremont Peak & Red Mountain Mojave

Yesterday our group climbed nearby Dome & Klinker Mountain before doing some sightseeing at the Owl in Red Mountain.  Today the plan was to start with Fremont Peak and then run over to climb Red Mountain and then hopefully make it home at a decent hour.

Since we camped right under the peak Saturday night this writeup covers the access and camping options rather than include them with the previous day.

Fremont Peak was what had drawn us to the area and from a distance it really stands out.


The Fremont Peak Road is a good condition dirt road that leaves 395 and goes back 9.9 miles until reaching the Monarch Rand Mine.


There is a large tailings pile at the mile that's flat and suitable for camping however it was also exposed to the hellacious wind that was howling through the area.


The mine is for sale per the sign and I found the following about it on YouTube:


The metal grating covers a deep shaft that we couldn't see the bottom of and the only other entrance was this:


Normally I'd have crawled in and explored but there was a strong chemical smell coming out of the leaking barrels and I decided I didn't want to get any closer.


There were no structures but a few foundations remain scattered around the area.  There were a large number of electronics had been dumped and in most cases shot repeatedly.  And this was in addition to the usual mishmash of target boards, broken glass, aerosol cans, and endless amounts of spent ammunition.  In other words it was pretty much what you would expect of a desert camp like this.

We debated camping on the flat tailings pile near the shaft which gave us the choice of two different pre existing fire pits but it was too exposed to the bitterly cold wind that was currently the cause of several folks not even wanting to come out of the vehicles.  Steve was able to drive his Cherokee down a road leading to the far side of the northwestern ridge of Fremont and found it was protected from the wind but didn't think the Kia would be able to make it back up.  So we went looking back the way we'd come.


We found two spots settled for the slightly flatter area with a view and a rock outcropping that protected us from the wind -ish.


There was a nice fire pit already made and the rocks made for good seating once we cleaned up the shattered remains of a rather large pane of glass and several bottles.


The next morning the wind was still going full force and so breakfast was a slightly subdued affair.  See Kristen trying to make oatmeal and coffee from inside the jeep and her sleeping bag while using the propane stove as a windshield.  It worked.  Eventually.


We saddled up and were back at the area by the mineshaft by 8:45 am.  Fremont looked a little less than impressive from this close but with the cold wind a short climb was sounding just fine.


The road continued past where we parked and if you're so inclined you can drive up to the mine workings on the map at 4,000' but it's best suited for ATVs and we didn't find anything of interest up there.  From there we jumped on a use trail which seemed to circle the peak and up the slope when it seemed to make sense.


It was steep but except for a short section near the summit relatively solid.



This part was right below the summit and while you can just walk around the right side and keep it 2nd class it sure looked like it would be a fun climb if one was to build an anchor up top to protect it.  I could see throwing a rope on this and using it similar to our scramble / rappel up Teutonia last year.

Up top we found three pens and a plastic container with holes in it but there was no sign of the register itself.


The wind kept us from lounging too long and we were back at the cars by 10:40 am.

Steve had parked his Sprinter van a bit further down Fremont Peak Road and we helped him ferry his Jeep out to the pavement.


We left the Sprinter here where the road to Fremont joins 395 and drove a short distance north back to the town of Red Mountain.

It turns out Red Mountain is actually on the Sierra Club Hundred Peaks Section list for what that's worth.


We turned east onto a dirt road just south of The Owl.


The road was a little bumpy and we had to take care with the Kia but we only drove a short distance to a spot behind point 3,833.

Notice the rental car pinstriping

We were in a hurry to get this over with since the wind had only increased throughout the day.


Near where we parked we found the remains of a vehicle in a ditch just off the road.  It seemed like it was fairly new but it had been stripped down to a bare frame and shot a few times for good measure.


We aimed for the western ridge and took a northwestern facing ridge up towards point 5024.  As with most things this weekend you'd have to work to find something that didn't go.  This particular ridge happened to have a use trail and was heavily ducked.


The summit had the remains of some sort of structure.  I'm not sure what the gas canisters were used for but I'd be interested if anyone knows any additional details.

We grabbed the register container and went down the slope until we had at least a little relief from the wind.


Fremont Peak once again looked impressive from a distance.  Maybe our mistake was climbing it from the mine instead of trying for a route that started a bit lower...



We were back to the cars by 3:50 pm after a respectable 3.8 miles and our priorities were now a) get food and b) get home in that order.  Unfortunately our go to mexican restaurant in the area the excellent Domingos in Boron has now been closed for a year for "renovation" and at this point I'm pretty sure it's gone for good.

Instead we decided to try something new and based on Yelp reviews headed for Paulina's Mexican Grill off the 15 in Adelanto.  It was decent if expensive though it had a limited (or maybe refined) menu missing a few key things like margaritas.

Steve elected not to join us as he was headed back to the Bay Area and faced a long drive towing the jeep while the rest of us only had a 1 hour -ish drive to get home.  I could get used to this not driving back at 2 am thing...