Overview

This route is a nice 5.5-mile off-trail loop in the North McCullough Wilderness Area. The route starts low in Sloan Canyon and winds up washes past scramble-ups, pour-overs, and an amazing petroglyph gallery (Sloan Canyon, proper) to a saddle on the crest of the ridge. From the saddle, the route cuts east under the northern face of volcanic cliffs to another saddle, then turns back to the north and follows an old road and washes until reconnecting with the original route and closing the loop near the petroglyph gallery. Following the original wash downhill, it is another 1.2 miles back to the trailhead. Just hiking to the Sloan Canyon petroglyph gallery is about 2 miles round-trip.

Link to map or elevation profile.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, there are no particular dangers on this route. There is one, non-trivial water-polished 10-foot pour-over to climb (about a mile out), but it isn't bad if you are willing to climb on the most exposed part. If you slip, you land in the sandy wash.

Hiking Guide

Getting to the Trailhead

Drive to the north side of the North McCullough Wilderness Area. From a few yards east of powerpole #X12084 (GPS Coordinates: NAD27 35.92436N, 115.12364W; 2,784 ft), turn south (right) onto a narrow road and drive south for about 0.6 miles to where the road bends to the east (left) and drops into a wash (35.91614, 115.12219; 2,852 ft). Without a 4-WD vehicle, you might consider parking before getting into the wash (there are several parking spaces here). Either walking or driving, continue up the wash for another 0.5 miles to the edge of the wilderness area (35.90910, 115.12347; 2,921 ft), which is marked by a line of boulders across the wash.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 1, Waypoint 5), climb over the barricade of boulders and walk up the wash. The route starts in a fairly narrow, but shallow canyon where the terrain makes for a good place to block the road. After a minute or two, the canyon widens and the sides lay back.

Because of differences in soils and moisture availability, the vegetation on the hillsides contrasts strongly with that in the wash. On the hillsides, which are dry and rocky, the shrubby vegetation is dominated by Creosote Bush, White Bursage, a bit of Mojave Yucca, and little else. In the wash, the shrubby vegetation is fairly dense and diverse, with lots of Creosote Bush, Desert Almond, White Bursage, lots of Matchweed, Bladder Sage, Mormon Tea, Catclaw Acacia, various buckwheats, Globe Mallow, and bunchgrasses.

About 0.5 miles out (Wpt. 6), the canyon starts to narrow, giving you the feeling of walking in a canyon rather than a wash. Below here, the sides of wash are gentle and rock strewn. Above here, the hillside begins to get rocky and steeper with rocky outcrops.

Along here, watch the edges of the wash for good examples of volcanic pyroclastic flow materials, which look like conglomerate rocks with a reddish-brown matrix and rocks and boulders of various sizes mixed in. These pyroclastic flow rocks formed with very hot volcanic ash and gasses exploded from a volcano and rolled down the hillside like a giant flash flood, picking up existing rocks from the surface along the way. As the gasses cooled, the material solidified, creating the rocks that we see today.

About 0.8 miles out (Wpt. 7), a short waterfall marks the end of the original road. Before this area was designated as wilderness in 2002, this was the trailhead. The pour-overs are easily passed by scrambling up a trail on the edge of the wash. Here the canyon walls get vertical, but not too high. Watch for bird nests in the Catclaw Acacia.

About 0.2 miles above the waterfall, the canyon jogs to the west (right) and narrows abruptly. In the narrows, there are three little water-polished scramble-ups and a 10-foot pour-over where the canyon is blocked by a large chockstone. In all cases, the rock is smooth and slippery. The pour-over is fairly easy to climb on the exposed corner where the rock sticks out into the wash.

Just above the pour-over, the canyon jogs back to the south (left) and widens considerably. This straight section of wash is the Sloan Canyon petroglyph gallery. There are amazing petroglyphs on both sides of the canyon here, and in places, almost every boulder is marked. Please respect the history of this area and don't touch, mark, or otherwise mess with the petroglyphs.

To continue the loop route, hike up the wide, sandy wash past the petroglyph gallery. The main wash bends to the southwest at a point where another fairly large wash comes in from the south (Wpt 9). This fork in the canyon is about 1.2 miles from the trailhead, and this side canyon is the one that the loop route comes down when it loops around and drops back into the main wash.

About 10 minutes past the side wash (about 1.5 miles out), there is another fork in the canyon where another wash comes in from the south (Wpt. 10), and again, the main wash stays to the southwest (right). At this point in the hike, the canyon is quite open, seeming more like a shallow valley with mountains rather than a canyon. Watch for more petroglyphs along the sides of the wash.

The canyon continues to open as you get into a broad flat basin sprinkled with eroded rock outcrops. The peaks on the north side generally are low and rounded, but the peaks to the south are steep, craggy, volcanic peaks. As you walk up the wash and enter the basin (about 2.0 miles out), notice that an illegal ATV trail enters the wash from the west (Wpt. 11). At that point, you can look south around the side of a hill and see the illegal ATV trail cutting across a hillside and going over a little saddle to the east.

Continue up the wash, staying to the east (left), heading for the illegal ATV trail. Follow the illegal ATV trail onto a low saddle (Wpt. 13). From there, you can see that the illegal ATV trail continues east across one drainage, up over another low saddle, and down into another drainage. The route eventually loops around and goes back down that drainage on the way back to the trailhead. This would be a good place to shortcut the route if you don't want to go all the way to the crest of the ridge.

From the low saddle, follow the illegal ATV trail east for a few yards to where a Bighorn Sheep trail forks off to the south, angling up and across the hillside. Follow the sheep trail southward as it curves around the hillside and drops into a wash (about 2.5 miles out) (Wpt. 15). Hike up the wash, scrambling under some large boulders along the way, to the crest of the mountains (about 2.8 miles out) (Wpt. 16). There are many ways to get to the crest from here, just pick an easy route and head uphill. The crest is broad and open, with a well-used sheep trail heading south. Rocky peaks flank the saddle, especially to the west.

Enjoy the view to the south towards Primm and the New York Mountains, then head east, cutting across the north-facing slope while staying fairly high under the cliffs. It takes about 10 minutes to cross the slope and drop into the next saddle on the main ridge (about 3.1 miles out) (Wpt. 17). The illegal ATV trail, seen before, crosses that saddle here and continues to the south.

In contrast to the lower hillsides, the hillsides at this elevation are covered with fairly dense and diverse, if low-growing, vegetation. There are lots of shrubs, plus a little bit of Silver Cholla, Pencil Cholla, Barrel Cactus, and Mojave Yucca. These higher slopes must catch and retain more precipitation than the lower slopes.

From the saddle, turn north and hike down the wash following the illegal ATV trail. After about 15 minutes, you will have hiked around the east side of a small peak and arrived in a broad, open area (Wpt. 18), which is a continuation of the broad, flat area encountered on the way up. The illegal ATV trail turns and runs west from here. Leave the illegal ATV trail (about 3.5 miles out), drop into the wash, and follow the wash northward.

The wash runs along the east edge of another little peak. The top of the canyon is fairly broad, but the wash runs in a fairly narrow channel. The canyon gradually narrows and gets rocky. The hiking is easy, but there is one pour-over to scramble around (about 3.8 miles out) (Wpt. 19) and there are several easy scramble-downs in the narrow part.