Overview

This very strenuous, 4.2-mile hike lulls you into a false sense of tranquility as it wanders into the Death Valley Wilderness Area at nearly-level grade for the first mile or so, then it surprises you when it turns and runs straight up the hillside to a saddle, lulls you back into a false sense of tranquility as it wanders along another nearly-level section, tires you out on another steep section, and then kicks your rear end on the final steep climb to the summit (9,064 ft). There are some switchbacks near the summit, but they seem more like a rude joke after the long steep trail. The views from many points along the trail and the summit are worth the effort, and the overview of Death Valley is better than most. Although much shorter than the trail up Telescope Peak, this hike is far harder.

Link to map or elevation profile.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is safe hike on a good trail, but stay off the ridges if lightning threatens. Bring more water than you think you might need for an 8.4-mile hike. There is no drinking water at the trailhead or along the trail; the last water stop is Wildrose Campground.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and please try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, this is a long hike, so be sure to bring the 10 Essentials. This hike runs up into the Death Valley Wilderness Area, so pay particular attention to respecting the land.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located in Death Valley National Park, about 4 hours northwest of Las Vegas.

From town, drive out to Death Valley, then continue on westbound Highway 190, past Stovepipe Wells to Emigrant Canyon Road. Turn left onto Emigrant Canyon Road and drive up into the mountains, eventually arriving at Wildrose Trailhead, the details of which are on the Telescope Peak Area Trailheads webpage. Park here; this is the trailhead.

The last 0.7 miles to Mahogany Flat Campground might require a 4WD vehicle or a hike.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 2, Waypoint 01), walk across the road and check out the charcoal kilns. The architecture and workmanship are remarkable. A bunch of skilled laborers put in a serious amount of effort building these kilns. When you are ready to hike, the trail starts at the northern end of the kilns.

From the trailhead sign (Wpt. 02), the trail quickly climbs onto a bench above a narrow band of cliffs and runs north at a gentle grade. As the trail runs out, the floor of the canyon drops away, quickly giving nice views and the feeling of being high on the hillside. The vegetation is an open Pinyon-Juniper Woodland with sagebrush, Ephedra, Cliffrose, bunch grasses, Indian paintbrush, and few annual flowers. The stumps of trees cut for the kilns or road building are still visible on the hillside. Keep an eye out for sagebrush lizards along the trail.

The first mile of the trail runs on the old logging road, and where the old road crosses washes, you can see that the loggers used logs to build up the roadbed. People would use culverts today. Farther out, the old road runs along a hillside, and you can see where they stuck logs into the hillside to shore up the road. You can also see weathered old stumps that they left behind.

The trail runs north for about 0.4 miles to a corner with a great view from atop a little cliff (Wpt. 03). You can see the trail running up the canyon and see down the canyon towards Wildrose Campground. Turning the corner and heading east, the trail runs up a wide side canyon continuing at the same gentle grade, but now the bottom of the canyon starts coming up to meet the trail. Ahead in the distance, you can see the ridge that the trail climbs onto, and before long you can see Wildrose summit too.

At about 1.0 miles out, the trail meets the wash (Wpt. 04) and then the trail drops into the wash and follows it up the canyon. There are many large pinyon pine in the bottom of the canyon, giving plenty of shade. The trail runs in the wash, but there is enough dirt mixed with the gravel to make the walking easy, although at a moderate grade.

About 10 minutes up the wash, the trail passes an old USGS gauging station (Wpt. 05; 1.3 miles out). There is a culvert stuck vertically into the ground with a wooden box on top of it. The entire structure is surrounded by a chain-link fence, but the gate is open, so you can open the box and see that it is empty. If you are just out for a nice stroll in the mountains, this is a good place to stop, have lunch, and turn back, as the nature of the trail changes radically just a minute or so above here.

Continuing on for another 0.1 miles (1.4 miles out), the trail suddenly turns out of the wash and climbs steeply up the forested hillside (Wpt. 06). The trail runs at off-trail grades where it would only be a little more difficult if there were no trail at all. However, after only about 20 minutes and a total of 1.9 miles, you arrive at a saddle (Wpt. 07) that rewards you with great views into Death Valley, some 8,000 feet below.

From the saddle, the trail crosses onto the east side of the ridge and runs north on a gentle down grade with more views of Death Valley. After running north along the hillside for about 0.2 miles (Wpt. 08), the trail turns back to the west and climbs a moderately steep hillside. The vegetation still is a pinyon-juniper forest with sagebrush, Ephedra, buckwheat, and Cliffrose, but on this hot, dry slope, the trees are smaller and spread farther apart than they are on the west side of the ridge.

At about 2.5 miles out, the trail crosses the ridge back onto west side (Wpt. 09), although the ridge is broad at this point and there is hardly a noticeable change in the grade. The trail "meanders along a forested ridge" at a pretty good grade, then levels out (Wpt. 10), and eventually drops into a saddle at the base of the southwest summit ridge (Wpt. 11), which is 3.1 miles out.

The saddle is narrow with steep sides at this point, and there are more nice views to the northeast into Death Valley and to the southwest into the canyon that the trail ran up. There are some interesting rocky outcrops along the ridge too. There is an outcrop of quartz and some rocks that look granitic, despite the fact that most of the mountain range is metamorphic. It is also interesting that near the quartz areas, there is a green hue to the metamorphic rock. There must be an interesting geology story here.

From the saddle, the trail runs steeply up the east side of the ridge towards the peak. The trail runs through a widely spaced pinyon-juniper forest most of the way up, so there are lots of places to stop and rest in the shade, and there are also lots of nice views down into Death Valley. After climbing steeply for 0.4 miles (Wpt. 13), the trail turns, crosses onto the south side of the ridge, and starts switchbacking up the hillside.

On the way up, it seemed strange that they would put in switchbacks starting at this point because the angle of the hillside seemed to be less than down below where the trail ran straight up the ridge. Further, the angle of the switchbacks seemed so slight that one wonders what's the point? However, on the way down I realized that in fact, the switchbacks were steep, and I was glad to use them.

About 0.9 miles from the saddle (4.0 miles out), the trail climbs onto the south end of the nearly level summit ridge (Wpt. 14), where there is another outcrop of quartz near the trail. From here it is a 0.2-mile stroll over to the actual summit. The trail follows the edge of the ridge, which is broad and flat, giving more great views into the valley.

The summit (Wpt. 15), 4.2 miles out, is broad and flat, which is not what you would expect from the hike. The vegetation is sparse, low-growing, and dominated by sagebrush, green Ephedra, prickly pear cactus (a variety with long spines), plus a few grasses, annuals, and a composite shrub. There are no trees on summit, but there are a few prostrate single-leaf pinyon pines just off the edge. The stone is platy metamorphic cobbles, but not as platy as in other places, and there are no large rocky outcrops on the summit. Even the USGS survey marker is set off the summit for lack of somewhere to set it. People have had fun piling up what rocks they could find, making a mound on the summit with a few stone-hedge monuments set about. There is no shade on the summit.

The views truly are spectacular. The overview of Death Valley is better than most, and because the east face is so steep, you even get a good view of the layered rocks that form the east side of the Panamint Range. You can see east to Mt. Charleston and other mountains in Nevada, west to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, south along the Panamint Range to the summits of Rodgers, Bennett, and Telescope peaks, and off to mountain ranges to the north and in all other directions.

To get back to the trailhead, you could hike straight down the south side of the mountain, which wouldn't be much steeper than the trail, or you can just follow the trail back down. If you follow the trail, see if you don't agree that the switchbacks are steep, but nice for going down.