The first thing that always occurs to people when you mention Mineral King is the ever present threat the marmots pose to vehicles left at the trailhead.  So when I say we ended up with a vehicle dead in the water and having to be towed down you (and my Facebook feed) would probably assume marmot damage.  Aaaand you'd be wrong...

This trip was heading in specifically to climb Vandever Mountain which Kristen and I previously attempted in 2014 and failed when we couldn't find a route up the northern ridge.  This time we were planning to do the allegedly 3rd class (it's not) northwestern ridge and use the approach as an excuse to look at the White Chief Cave system.  I wasn't expecting too much there but it ended up being the highlight of the trip!

July 28th to 30th, 2017

Vandever Mountain (11,947')
Cirque Cave
White Chief Cave
Day 1: 4.5 miles, 1,900'
Day 2: 5.48 miles, 2,700'
Day 3: 2.85 miles, 0'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Cerro Pinacate is one of the 4 Sierra Club Desert Peak Section peaks down in Mexico and one of the final three I needed to complete the list.

Normally it makes sense to combine this peak with a few in southern Arizona.  Ajo, Kino, and Baboquivari kind of naturally combine since they're roughly in the same area.  Except as this point I've done all of those twice (minus Kino which I've only done once) leaving Pinacate a very long distance orphan.

Red arrow points to Pincate

I'd actually attempted this peak before only to be turned back at the park gate for a very vaguely worded "security concern"  Having seen friends be let it before and after that I always wondered what was going on and this time when Jen called to verify we could get in she mentioned we'd been turned back.  Apparently that was the only time they'd ever shut it down and that was because they found some illegal radio towers and had kept out everyone for a season until it was resolved.

So here I was several years later still needing the peak and under the gun to get it before my December list finish.  With Jack Kieffer completely out of vacation days that limited our options for trying to do more than one peak so we settled on making it a party.  Come join us for a 400 mile drive, a campfire and overnight in Mexico, and a 6 mile hike (according to the DPS guide) followed by another 400 -ish mile drive.  We made plans for a festive happy hour and soon had 7 us signed up.

November 12th & 13th, 2016

Cerro del Pinacate (3,937')

Carnegie Peak (3,707')

4.09 miles 1,900' in via the DPS route + Carnegie 

6.74 miles, 1,289' up and 3865' down out via the road

[Pics] [Map]

[Garmin Mexico Maps By Harlan Stockman]

I found out about this cave by accident coming across it on a topo map while looking for a new area to spend a few days backpacking through for the annual Memorial Day Massacre trip.  It ended up being a multi day loop with a car shuttle on Highway 99 hitting the cable crossing at Durrwood Crossing and then swinging south to visit Packsaddle Cave.  The writeup for the entire loop can be found here but I thought this was interesting enough to deserve it's own writeup.

Getting There

You can get to Packsaddle multiple ways.

From Highway 99 Near Fairview Campground - Roughly 5 miles and 2k gain round trip

From Brush Creek along Sherman Pass Road - Roughly 4.4 miles and 1800 ft gain

From the south passing Salmon Creek - 8.7 miles and 3500 ft gain

If these three I've done hiked the second and third.  The Brush Creek route is dry and hot but the southern route is beautiful passing through heavy vegetation and with views of some spectacular waterfalls.  These trails are also dirtbike accessible if that's your thing.


The trail to the cave is marked with a duck in the middle of the trail and is located just a few hundred feet from where the Packsaddle Cave Trail meets the Rincon Trail.  There's a footpath that runs a short distance up the hillside to the cave entrance which you can pick out from below.

The Cave

The cave has suffered vandalism as is unfortunately almost the rule with open caves like this.  You can see multiple places where people set fires or spray painted the walls but it's still well worth exploring.








It's deep enough you're going to need a headlamp and be ready to do some crawling if you want to explore all the way.

The Massacre

For more about our particular visit that included crossing the Kern at the Durwood Cable Crossing and hiking most of the Rincon and the rather nice armed gentleman we ran into in the cave see the full trip report here.

[Map]

This was part of the annual New Years trip for 2015.  This year it was a long haul out to Tucson with the main goal of finally getting to explore Cave of the Bells after missing out the previous year.

New Years 2015

• 01/01 Muggins Peak 
• 01/02 Tucson Mine Exploration
• 01/03 Cave of the Bells (this entry)
• 01/04 El Dorado Hot Spring & home

Jen and I had tried to do this cave before.  Back in December of 2013 Cave of the Bells was planned as our last activity of a multi-cave multi-peak extravaganza.  We jumped through all the hoops, had our permit and the gate key, and spent the night camped out front only to have a freak occurrence hit when Jeff was bitten in the face by a skunk while sleeping out on the ground.

January 2nd & 3rd, 2015

Cave of the Bells

[Pics] [Map]

This was the second event in an extended New Years trip out to Tucson.  We did Crystal Cave, used Peppersauce Cave as a recovery day, climbed Elephant Head, and then Finger Rock before planning to finish with Cave of the Bells.  And we probably would have done that one if wasn't for a slight animal encounter the last night.

Peppersauce wasn't as big of a draw as Crystal or Bells but it fit in well as a partial day.  We'd been warned by some of Jen's friends that this place wasn't exactly pristine but my god did they understate that.  If you wonder why they put those gates on some of the other caves just take a look at this place.

Wheeeeeeee!  The previous day had been a mad dash flying back from Sacramento where I'd spent Christmas with my parents only to stay in Orange County just long enough to throw all my climbing gear into the jeep and take off east with Jeff and Jen reaching Tucson late that night.

A long long drive later we found ourselves driving down a slightly less remote dirt road that I generally prefer in order to find a quiet -ish place to bivy for the night.  We settled down amid the scattered debris and passed out.

The only reason we were camped this close to a major city was because the following morning we were picking up a key for Crystal Cave which would kick off 5 days, 3 caves, 2 5th class peaks, and a fair amount of driving.  Throw in a middle of nowhere speeding ticket, a technical peak bailout, and one skunk attack to the face while sleeping (yes skunk and yes to the FACE), and we were in for a suitably eventful few days.

December 27th, 2013

Chiricahua Crystal Cave

[PicsM] [PicsJ] [Map]

While I spend a good portion of my time running up and down peaks I have a fascination with caves and mines that I don't get to exercise very often.

So when I happened across this trip report mentioning a rather neat cave requiring a 30 ft rappel / rope ascent sitting on the side of a 3rd/4th class peak in Nevada it was something I was eager to make happen.

As of 2015 this is now a part of the newly created Basin & Range National Monument.

December 14th, 2013

Leviathan Cave, Basin and Range National Monument

[PicsMatt] [PicsRon] [Map]