Overview

This is a short, easy detour off the North Loop Trail. The spring is located in an avalanche chute high on the cool, east-facing slope of Mummy Mountain. The water and "alpine meadow" vegetation provides a nice, cool destination to relax and enjoy the views. However, while the Mummy Spring Trail is only 0.3-miles long, the 2.7-mile hike up the North Loop Trail to the trail junction is pretty stout.

Link to map or elevation profile.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, this is pretty safe hike, but the elevation is high, so take it easy if you've just come up from the desert. The spring water probably is safe to drink, but it would be safer to treat or filter it first.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, this hike is fairly long, so be sure to bring the 10 Essentials.

Trail Guide

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located up in the Spring Mountains on Deer Creek Road between Kyle and Lee Canyons, about 1 hour northwest of Las Vegas.

From town, drive north on Highway 95 to Highway 157 (Kyle Canyon Road) (Table 1, Site 667). Turn left onto Highway 157 and drive west for 17.1 miles to Highway 158 (Deer Creek Road) (Site 727), which is just past the Mt. Charleston Hotel. Turn right onto Highway 158 and drive north for another 4.8 miles to the second turnout past Hilltop Campground (Site 487). Watch for a paved parking area on the west (left) side of the road with a large sign. Park here; this is the trailhead.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 2, Waypoint 1), follow the clearly marked and well-maintained North Loop Trail west into the forest. Lower down, the trail passes through mixed woods of tall ponderosa pines, pinyon pine, juniper, limber pine, white fir, mountain mahogany, and wild currents. About 1.4 miles out, the trail crosses the Viewpoint (Wpt. 2), an open, flat ridgetop with good views of Las Vegas and other points east and south. The trail then switchbacks steeply up a bristlecone-covered hillside to a highpoint (Wpt. 3) on the ridge east of Mummy Mountain. The North Loop trail then runs west along the ridge to the Raintree (Wpt. 4), the 3,000-year-old tree that stands over the intersection of the North Loop and Mummy Spring trails (2.7 miles out).

From the Raintree, the Mummy Spring trail runs north, drops off the ridge, and traverses the slopes beneath the Mummy's feet and ankles. The trail passes through a dense forest of bristlecone pines for 0.3 miles (10 minutes) to a wide gully. The gully is swept by avalanches during winter, so only aspen, shrubs, and grasses grow in the gully.

Mummy Spring is located above the band of limestone cliffs about 50 feet up the gully (Wpt. 5). Water emerges from the ground, trickles down the rocks, and falls over the cliff as a gentle shower.

The Forest Service recently has been trying to prevent people from going to the spring. They built a new trail that cuts across the Mummy Spring gully about 50 feet below the spring. In the Mummy Spring gully photo (left), the current trail goes no higher than about what you see in the photo. The old trail, which they have partially obliterated, cuts steeply up the south (left) side of the gully, just beyond the thickest vegetation. It remains to be seen if the Forest Service will be successful in blocking access to the spring. It seems to me that it will be difficult to keep people from reaching this traditional destination. It might be better to manage traffic to the base of the cliff than to try to keep people completely away.

The gully is an avalanche chute, so there are no trees to obstruct the view to the east. However, the avalanche chute is narrow and bordered by tall bristlecone pines and aspen, so there is plenty of shade. The vegetation in the chute is composed of low-growing grasses, shrubs, sedges, ferns, columbines, and other "alpine meadow" species that lie below the snowpack and are protected from avalanches. The air temperature on this east-facing slope tends to be cooler than other places along the North Loop trail, and the snow here melts off later than elsewhere, so this is a nice, cool place to relax, enjoy the view, and listen to the sounds of falling water and birds.

They say that before the snow falls in the autumn, the waterfall freezes and that the ice is particularly beautiful because it resembles formations found in caves (such as cave draperies, stalagmites, stalactites).

To get back to the trailhead, retrace your steps to Highway 158. If you've made prior arrangements to shuttle vehicles, you can continue west on the North Loop Trail to the Trail Canyon Trail, and head down Trail Canyon to the trailhead in the bottom of Kyle Canyon.