Trip Date: March 31, 2025
2025 RED ROCKS ADVENTURE VACATION
Mescalito Peak Day Climb
South Fork Pine Creek Canyon
Mescalito Canyon
West Mescalito Saddle
Mescalito Peak (5440+ ft)
Trip Report Summary
Region: Nevada
Sub-Region: Spring Mountains
Sub-Sub-Region: Sandstone Bluffs
Areas: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area & Rainbow Mountain Wilderness
Starting & Ending Point: Pine Creek Canyon Trailhead on Scenic Drive (Elev. 4050 feet)
Way Points: Old Wilson Homestead & Pine Creek Fork & South Fork Pond & giant red boulders & The Three Amigos & Mescalito Canyon rockslide & West Mescalito Notch & West Mescalito Saddle & Mescalito Peak summit (trail hike & off-trail hike & rock scramble)
Summit: Mescalito Peak (off-trail hike & rock scramble via South Slope—West Ridge—Upper South Face)
Approximate Stats: 6.4 miles traveled; 2450 feet gained & lost; 6.5 hours up; 4.4 hours down.
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>>> Mt. Wilson via First Creek Canyon—Southwest Ridge – March 27, 2024
>>> Bridge Mountain via Rocky Gap Road—West Ridge—Northwest Face – October 25, 2022
Trip Overview
Mescalito Peak is a minor summit located in the Sandstone Bluffs of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (“Red Rocks”) near Las Vegas. When seen from the east, It has the attractive shape of a large sandstone teepee, with steep white ribs rising out of the ground and culminating in a cap of maroon sandstone. However, due to its position between much higher peaks—particularly Bridge Mountain and Mt. Wilson—Mescalito is easily overlooked by Red Rocks visitors outside of climbing and scrambling circles.
Eileen and I became interested in Mescalito Peak after having tucked in several other summits around Red Rock Basin. During our recent five-day trip to the area, we made a partial reconnaissance trek up South Fork Pine Creek Canyon to check out the south-side scrambling route approach, and then two days later, we returned to complete the ascent.
In retrospect, I would say that Mescalito Peak was probably the most convoluted scramble I’ve ever done. Compared to its neighbors, Mescalito has more route finding challenges than Bridge Mountain or Mt. Wilson, and it has far more technical difficulties and exposure than the latter. We followed the detailed directions given in Branch Whitney’s comprehensive Hiking Las Vegas guidebook but still found the micro-routefinding to be tricky and, at times, even bewildering. This is one scrappy little peak!
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Full Trip Report
Eileen and I headed out from the Pine Creek Canyon Trailhead on a chilly and very windy Sunday morning, accompanied by numerous climbing parties laden with ropes and racks. As we hiked across a broad desert plain, scattered clouds and sun breaks intermittently spotlighted the eastern face of our objective peak.
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After a long mile, we came to a fork. Here, an informal climber’s path branched off to the right and proceeded up North Fork Pine Creek, whereas the formal Pine Creek Loop Trail branched off to the left. We went left and crossed a narrow wash, then quickly came to another informal junction marked by a cairn. We departed from the loop trail and veered right onto a well-trodden climber’s path that proceeds up South Fork Pine Creek Canyon.
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Our path took us on a wandering hike through dense brush for ¼ mile and then down to the creek channel. From there, we headed upstream, sometimes staying in the channel and other times following a crude path alongside it. The creek started as a mere trickle but gradually became a babbling brook. In another ¼ mile, we arrived at a delightful little pond fed by a tiny waterfall (1.2 hours + 1.7 miles + 300 feet from TH). This pond signals the end of both the crude path and the flowing creek; we encountered no paths or water beyond this point.
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Shortly beyond the little pond, South Fork Pine Creek Canyon divides into two smaller canyons. We angled up the right fork, which is known as Mescalito Canyon. It initially required a lot of Class 2-3 boulder scrambling, with dozens of stone ducks marking the best route. We soon passed two giant red boulders that sit in the canyon invert. In another ¼ mile, we came to The Three Amigos—a trio of huge gray boulders that appear to form a blockade across the canyon. Fortunately, they were easily circumvented on the right side.
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Once past The Three Amigos, Eileen and I settled into a relatively easy hike up the canyon invert, traveling over loose gravel and frequently scrambling over smaller boulders. After ¼ mile, we arrived at a place where the canyon widens and the vegetation closes in (2.5 hours + 2.3 miles + 700 feet from TH). There were several ducks and cairns here, letting us know that this is the key departure point. Immediately to our right (north) was a steep, narrow rockslide angling up the hillside.
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Leaving the canyon invert, we groveled up the rockslide until coming to a short cliff beside a dead pine tree. We hiked out to our left to get around the short cliff, then re-entered the rockslide adjacent to a second, higher pine tree. More groveling took us past a third pine tree to the base of a tall sandstone face pockmarked with solution holes. We performed a right-angling scramble up this face to a small V-shaped gully, where we had to make an exposed Class 3 move onto a higher ledge.
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We soon found ourselves on the beginning of a major ledge system that runs across the southern flank of Mescalito’s west ridge. Scores of stone ducks and a few cairns led us on an undulating traverse along the ledge system, which begins as a vegetated slope and transitions to a sandstone sidewalk.
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When the sandstone ledge faded away against the hillslope, we turned uphill and ascended a long, shallow gully that delivered us to a small notch in the ridge crest (4.2 hours + 1450 feet from TH). This ridge forms a divide between the north and south forks of Pine Creek Canyon. The enormous south face of Bridge Mountain stood directly across North Fork Pine Creek Canyon, which is locally known as Fern Canyon.
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From the ridge notch, we easily traversed eastward along the knobby crest until it abruptly ended at a steep cliff. We were now looking across a deep saddle at the distinctive maroon cap of Mescalito Peak. This is where the character of the climb changes dramatically; moving ahead, things got really interesting!
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Carefully following Branch Whitney’s directions, we made a zigzagging scramble down the nose of the ridge. This descent involved a combination of narrow ledges, skinny slots, tilted ramps, and steep rock ribs. At two locations, we had to down-climb exposed Class 3 ribs that verged on Class 4, but the rock quality was excellent. Eileen and I now regard these locations to constitute the crux of the entire route.
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We eventually bottomed out in the deep saddle (5.4 hours + 1500 feet from TH) and scoped out possible routes up the peak proper. One option was to execute a short but severely exposed traverse across the top of a slot gully. Another option was to hike down to a broad ramp below the slot gully and then scramble back up a sloping face. After considering both options, we chose the latter; it was longer but safer, and it played out very nicely. Our next task was to scramble through a narrow gap between a rock face and adjacent horn. Eileen squeezed below a chockstone in the gap, whereas I crawled over the chockstone.
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Once through the narrow gap, we traversed over to a wide ramp composed of strikingly red sandstone. It was fairly steep but very grippy. Interestingly, this red rock is composed of the same Aztec Sandstone as the whitish rock below; the color is derived from oxidation of iron contained within the formation. At the top of the red ramp, we rounded a corner and zigzagged up toward the summit dome.
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It was not obvious which was the highest hump on the summit dome (there are several of very similar elevation), but Eileen spotted a register box on the easternmost hump. We headed over and topped out shortly before 3:00pm (6.5 hours + 1950 feet from TH).
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As advertised, Mescalito Peak offers stunning views of the surrounding summits and climbing walls. To the north was Bridge Mountain, and to the south were Juniper Peak and Rainbow Mountain. Red Rock Basin spread out 1500 feet below us to the east, and the high-rise buildings of Las Vegas were visible in the distance.
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The summit register showed that we were the fifth ascent party in March, behind four parties in February and one party in January. By comparison, nearby Mt. Wilson typically gets four or five summit parties per week, so Mescalito Peak seems to be in no danger of getting overrun!
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Tempting as it was to linger on the summit, we knew that the long descent would probably push us into nighttime. We quickly picked our way back down the summit dome, making good use of the marker ducks that had been placed by others and added by us. We also saved time by crossing over the top of the slot gully rather than going under; it was breathtakingly exposed, but the holds were solid. Once back in the deep saddle, we made the 300-foot scramble back up the nose of the ridge. The dicey Class 3 rock ribs that had given us concern during our down-climb were now quite enjoyable on the up-climb.
In short order, we arrived at the west ridge notch (1.2 hours + 350 feet from summit). It felt good to know that most of the technical and navigational difficulties were now behind us. Our progress accelerated as we descended the shallow gully and traversed westward across the major ledge system. We carefully worked down the rockslide and reached the canyon invert in late afternoon (2.3 hours + 400 feet from summit).
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We finished off our descent with a tedious trek down the bouldery canyon and a mile-long hike across the basin. In the last hint of dusk, we stepped onto the trailhead parking lot (4.3 hours + 500 feet from summit) to end a long but extremely satisfying day.
Route Map & Profile
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Photo Gallery
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