Hiked: 4/4/2025
Distance: 6.2 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 3788'
Prominence: 2088'
Elevation Gain: 2068'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.6
Round trip time: 5 hours
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on McPhearson Pass Road
Difficulty: Moderate
Fresh off the triumph of reaching Signal Peak just weeks before, my next challenge loomed: Castle Dome (DPS #88), another Sierra Club Desert Peak nestled within the rugged Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. I considered doing an overnight, but decided to gut out the drive both ways as a day hike. I left at 2:30 AM cruising east on I-8. This was my first time driving through Yuma, near the Army Proving Ground. I took Highway 95 north from Yuma, then followed a Military Police pickup onto Castle Dome Mine Road. Based on previous reports of issues with the proprietor of the Castle Dome Museum, I followed Mirian Khamis' track onto McPhearson Pass Road. McPhearson required high clearance and I bottomed out once crossing a stream. Seven more miles of dirt road delivered me to the trailhead. Much of the hike was up a gravely wash. A conspicuous arrow of stones marked the spot to leave the wash for a use trail. The trail headed directly at the vertical north buttress of Castle Dome. I relished the saguaro cacti and green feel of the Kofa refuge as the trail curved east around the base.
Arrow of stones where the use trail starts
Castle Dome after leaving the wash
Split in the base where the scramble begins.
If you reach this chockstone, you've gone too far. Main route is 100' below.
I walked past a split in the rock where the scramble started, reversing course when I realized I had gone too far. I made a second mistake hiking to the notch below a giant pillar. The continuation there was at least class 4. I back tracked and spotted the class 3 chute main route. The rock was volcanic and solid with many holds. Navigation was reasonable with the help of well constructed cairns marking key turns. I passed a wind cave, then traversed further east to reach easier stair step scrambling. Most of this section was class 2 with a short class 3 finish. Staggering views were waiting on top. The summit was long but not very wide. I found one reference mark, but no benchmark. An ammo box with a broken lid held several active registers. Many recent entries testified to the popularity of Castle Dome, though I had it to myself that day. High wind gusts blasted the summit unpredictably, followed by unnatural calm. It added to the mystery of the place. I lingered longer than usual on the summit and flew the drone, attracting curious birds. The drone crash landed during a random gust, but seems to be OK. The descent was uneventful. The noon sun warmed the world by the time I got back to the truck. Adrenaline lasted half the drive home. The rest of the drive was powered by red bull and diet coke. Door to door was 16 hours.
Hiked: 3/28/2025
Distance: 3 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 2582'
Elevation Gain: 1450'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.1
Round trip time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Recommended water: 48 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free in Quartz Vein Wash
Difficulty: Easy (but chossy dirt and rock)
Quartz Vein Peak, aka Peak 2582, is a sub-peak of Sunset Mountain. The easiest approach is probably from Pinyon Wash to the south. However, I wanted to explore Quartz Vein Wash, so I started from the north just off Highway 78. There were a few camping spots along the dirt road in the wash. I chose the widest wash, which might not be Quartz Vein proper, but it was on a more direct line to the peak. It narrowed in places, then grew wide again. Granite rocks filled the bed and the walls were mostly dried mud. I never saw a large quartz vein, other than within individual boulders. Many smaller gullies fed into the main one. Some were quite substantial. I knew I would need to take one of the side washes to reach the ridge line. I picked one that looked good and started up. It grew steep. Just before the ridge, it was class 2 on crumbly dirt and poor rock. This was not the ideal line. I reached a false summit and noted a better drainage I planned to take down. Out of the protection of the wash, the wind hit hard. Steady 20mph and gusts up to 45mph were expected. The summit was broad and it was hard to find the high point. I checked a few different boulders, eventually finding one with a cairn on top. GPS later confirmed it was the high point. I found a register in a red can below the summit boulder. I climbed on top and took in the nice views, including the bulk of Sunset Mountain next door. Because of the wind, I didn't linger. I descended far enough to get out of the wind before grabbing some calories. I descended down the parallel gully and it was better. Still crumbly and steep, but better angles. I recommend it for ascent as well. When the mud walls got smaller, I went up and over to get back into the ascent gully. I struggled to rate the difficulty of the hike. One one hand, the stats and physical effort were pretty low. On the other, the terrain and chossy dirt make the steep sections hard. So, it fell somewhere between easy and moderate. I decided to go with easy. Lots of bighorn scat, no bighorns.
Hiked: 3/28/2025
Distance: 0.8 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 1507'
Elevation Gain: 290'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.2
Round trip time: 33 minutes
Recommended water: 0 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Highway 78
Difficulty: Easy
Round Granite Hill was a warm up hike before heading to Quartz Vein Peak, a couple miles away. I parked on the shoulder of Highway 78 and headed across the desert floor. Because it was so short, I didn't take a pack or water. I cruised up a gully on the north side, then over a false summit. There was a fresh register in a red can placed the previous month by Richard Carey. I signed in, got a good look at Quartz Vein Peak and Sunset Mountain, then cruised down. It was very windy.
Quartz Vein Peak is the closer mountain, Sunset Mountain behind
Hiked: 3/21/2025
Distance: 13 miles round trip on dirt road, trail, and cross country
Summit Elevation: 2829'
Prominence (estimated): 650'
Elevation Gain: 2327'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.2
Round trip time: 6 hours 50 minutes
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Black Star Canyon Trailhead
Difficulty: Strenuous (route finding)
2021
My fascination with this mountain began in 2021. I found it studying the 2016 Forest Service topo maps around Black Star Canyon. The map showed a benchmark symbol at elevation 2829' near the end of ridge above Baker Canyon, but it had no assigned name. An old dirt road made a loop part way up the base. I wanted to explore it and see if the benchmark was still there, but I could find no information online. The peak was not in Peakbagger, Lists of John, or Summitpost. I scouted it early 2021, riding a mountain bike to the base of the mountain. I found the old road and an overgrown firebreak that was passable to about half way up the first bump. It was a serious bushwhack from there. I thought I could find a way to the top of the first bump, hoping the brush would thin out along the cliffs on top. I prepared for battle and made an earnest attempt on 2/26/2021. For more than two hours, I bashed, ducked, and crawled, but the brush was impregnable. Running low on water, I never reached the top of the first bump. Dejected, I bashed, ducked, and crawled out for two more hours, having nothing to show but bloody scratches and bruises. GPS showed I turned back 0.6 miles from the summit. Later that year, I made an attempt from the south up the East Fork of Black Star Canyon. That trip ended the same way, though I turned back even farther away. I had to respect the moat of snarled vegetation from all directions.
2025
Although it had denied me twice, I decided to revisit it in 2025. My new strategy was Operation Fiskars. Loppers and hand saw. My first bike and hike was in early January. I was surprised to find the firebreak had been cleared up to the point it ended. A new trail branched north, ending at a wooden bench facing west. Mysterious person(s) had been working in my absence, though they had not gone farther than the end of the firebreak. I struck out from there, clipping and sawing a path up the ridge. According to the GPS, my progress was glacial. Hours of pruning netted less than than 0.1 miles. I knew it would take many trips to break through. A second trip in January still left me below the first bump. I found moments of relief when I stumbled on 20' that didn't require clipping, followed by frustration when I saw how little the line on the map moved. On the fourth trip, I reached the top of the first bump and got my first look at the prize. The farthest bump on the ridge was only 0.2 miles away. On the fifth trip, I made it to a saddle below the peak and saw a hundred feet of open slope. On the sixth trip, I brought a register and painted cans in case I made it. I only had to cut through one heavy section, dancing along the cliff edge to avoid much of it. The highest point on the ridge was not the peak, it was the next bump over. I found a reference mark on a cliff boulder. A few feet away, I found a rotten wooden post and a pristine benchmark stamped "Baker" placed in 1928. The name tracks as it sits above Baker Canyon. I placed a register in white cans, in disbelief that I was standing on the benchmark. I spent about 20 hours total clipping, breaking one pair of loppers along the way. The full round trip now should take me about 5 hours. I met a turkey vulture on the way back. There were dozens of vultures and red tail hawks using the cliffs to hunt in Baker Canyon. I also met a coyote on the trail just before reaching the road. Despite the clipping, brush contact was still involved, as well as a couple crawl spots, light scrambling and route finding.
Heading up the old road
Hard left turn where the clipping started
Short scramble
Baker Benchmark at the end of the ridge
Looking south
Turkey vultures were legion in this area
Post Mortem
With the name, I was able to look up the datasheet in the USGS database. It showed both the station mark and two reference marks (I only found one). The permanent ID for the mark was DX4244. The last recorded visit (USGS calls it a recovery) to Baker was in 1964. I think the clipped trail will last a while, but will need annual maintenance. I made route decisions on the fly, and sometimes started 15' in one direction, only to change my mind and go another way. This causes confusion both directions following false clips to dead ends. There weren't enough rocks to build cairns at key points, but I am not sure I want to add ribbons. Baker is now accessible. My small contribution to Orange County hiking.
1 National Geodetic Survey, Retrieval Date = MARCH 22, 2025 18:58:43 EDT
DX4244 ***********************************************************************
DX4244 DESIGNATION - BAKER
DX4244 PID - DX4244
DX4244 STATE/COUNTY- CA/ORANGE
DX4244 COUNTRY - US
DX4244 USGS QUAD - BLACK STAR CANYON (2018)
DX4244
DX4244 *CURRENT SURVEY CONTROL
DX4244 ______________________________________________________________________
DX4244* NAD 83(1992) POSITION- 33 47 51.16741(N) 117 38 25.03315(W) ADJUSTED
DX4244* NAD 83(1992) EPOCH - 1991.35
DX4244* NAVD 88 ORTHO HEIGHT - 863.3 (meters) 2832. (feet) VERTCON3
DX4244 ______________________________________________________________________
DX4244 GEOID HEIGHT - -33.671 (meters) GEOID18
DX4244 LAPLACE CORR - 10.69 (seconds) DEFLEC18
DX4244 HORZ ORDER - SECOND
DX4244
DX4244
DX4244_MARKER: DS = TRIANGULATION STATION DISK
DX4244_SETTING: 66 = SET IN ROCK OUTCROP
DX4244_STAMPING: BAKER 1929
DX4244_MARK LOGO: CGS
DX4244_STABILITY: A = MOST RELIABLE AND EXPECTED TO HOLD
DX4244+STABILITY: POSITION/ELEVATION WELL
DX4244
DX4244 HISTORY - Date Condition Report By
DX4244 HISTORY - 1929 MONUMENTED CGS
DX4244 HISTORY - 1933 GOOD CGS
DX4244 HISTORY - 1953 GOOD CGS
DX4244 HISTORY - 1964 GOOD CA-059
DX4244
DX4244 STATION DESCRIPTION
DX4244
DX4244'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1933
DX4244'ABOUT 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CORONA, ABOUT 1 MILE WEST OF MAIN
DX4244'DIVIDE OF THE SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS, ON PROMINENT RIDGE EAST OF
DX4244'BAKER CANYON, ABOUT 25 YARDS LEFT OF TRAIL, AND 10 FEET FROM
DX4244'EDGE OF SANDSTONE BLUFF OVERLOOKING BAKER CANYON. TO REACH
DX4244'FROM FLAGPOLE CIRCLE IN ORANGE, GO EAST 5.6 MILES ON CHAPMAN
DX4244'AVENUE, TURN RIGHT ONTO SILVERADO CANYON ROAD AND GO 4.8
DX4244'MILES, TURN LEFT ONTO BLACK STAR CANYON ROAD AND GO 2.6 MILES,
DX4244'TURN LEFT (CONTINUING ON BLACK STAR CANYON ROAD) AND GO 0.7
DX4244'MILE TO BLACK STAR CREEK BRIDGE, GO 0.3 MILE, KEEP TO RIGHT
DX4244'AND GO 0.5 MILE, TAKE LEFT FORK ON MAIN-TRAVELED ROAD AND GO
DX4244'3.0 MILES, TURN RIGHT OFF ROAD INTO RANCH YARD, AND FOLLOW
DX4244'THE HIDDEN RANCH FIREBREAK ABOUT 1-1/2 MILES IN A SOUTHERLY
DX4244'DIRECTION TO STATION SITE. MARKED BY STANDARD STATION
DX4244'DISK IN BEDROCK, NOTE 2. REFERENCE MARK NO. 1 IS STANDARD
DX4244'REFERENCE DISK IN BOULDER, NOTE 12C, 6.515 METERS (21.37
DX4244'FEET) FROM STATION IN AZIMUTH 221 DEG 36 MIN. REFERENCE
DX4244'MARK NO. 2 IS STANDARD REFERENCE DISK IN BEDROCK, NOTE 12A,
DX4244'11.500 METERS (37.73 FEET) FROM STATION IN AZIMUTH 351 DEG 48
DX4244'MIN. STATION BLACK (SEE DESCRIPTION THEREOF) IS VISIBLE
DX4244'FROM GROUND IN AZIMUTH 114 DEG 55 MIN 37 SEC.
DX4244
DX4244 STATION RECOVERY (1953)
DX4244
DX4244'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1953 (RAG)
DX4244'THE STATION WAS RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED, IN GOOD CONDITION AND
DX4244'THE DISTANCES AND DIRECTIONS TO THE REFERENCE MARKS CHECKED. THE
DX4244'TRUCK ROUTE TO THE STATION IS OBSOLETE. A NEW ROUTE IS AS
DX4244'FOLLOWS--
DX4244'
DX4244'TO REACH FROM THE TRAFFIC CIRCLE IN THE CITY OF ORANGE, GO EAST ON
DX4244'CHAPMAN AVENUE FOR 5.6 MILES. TURN RIGHT, ONTO SILVERADO ROAD,
DX4244'AND GO NOTHEASTERLY FOR 5.1 MILES. TURN LEFT, ONTO BLACK STAR
DX4244'CANYON ROAD, GO NORTH AND EAST FOR 5.9 MILES. TURN RIGHT,
DX4244'PASS TO THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF RANCH BUILDINGS, CROSS OVER
DX4244'SMALL CREEK AND FOLLOW THE TRACK ROAD SOUTH AND EAST ALONG
DX4244'THE CREST OF THE RIDGE FOR 0.3 MILE TO THE END OF TRUCK TRAVEL.
DX4244'FROM THIS POINT PACK EAST FOR 0.1 MILE TO THE TOP OF THE
DX4244'RIDGE, THEN SOUTHERLY ALONG THE CREST OF THE RIDGE FOR ABOUT
DX4244'0.4 MILE TO THE HIGH GROUND AND THE STATION. THIS IS ABOUT A
DX4244'45 MINUTE PACK.
DX4244'
DX4244'OBSERVATIONS WERE MADE FROM A 4 FOOT STAND.
DX4244
DX4244 STATION RECOVERY (1964)
DX4244
DX4244'RECOVERY NOTE BY ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA 1964
DX4244'THE STATION AND REFERENCE MARKS WERE RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED.
DX4244'THE DESCRIPTION TO REACH THE STATION IS ADEQUATE.
Hiked: 3/18/2025
Distance: 3.5 miles round trip on dirt road and cross country
Summit Elevation: 3772'
Elevation Gain: 1555'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.2
Round trip time: 2 hours
Recommended water: 32 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Chuckwalla Peak Road
Difficulty: Easy
After Palo Verde, Ben and I met up again for Micro Benchmark. This was another desert peak south of I-10 in the Chuckwalla Wilderness. Ben drove in on a bumpy, but decent dirt road and parked below the gate. We saw a couple of service trucks on the road. The road was pretty steep from the gate to the towers. We wandered around the tower area a little, then set off the very slightly higher peak about a quarter mile away. This was open desert and easy to navigate. We had nice views of the local mountains and long, straight stripe of I-10 stretching to the horizon in both directions. Ben spotted a register in the summit rocks. When we started down, it had warmed up quite a bit. We were in the waning weeks of desert season.
