Cronise Mountains High Point and Cat Dune

Hiked: 1/20/2026
Distance: 3.8 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 2384'
Elevation Gain: 1748'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.4
Round trip time: 3 hours 20 minutes
Recommended water: 48 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Arrowhead Trail (CL8672)
Difficulty: Moderate

The Cronise Mountains are a small range north of I-15 south of Baker, CA. Most notable is the cat-shaped dune shown on the USGS topo maps as "Cronise Cat". The dune is about 1100' and looks like a cat from I-15. The nearest exit to the Cronise Mountain was Basin Road. However, I wanted to get to the Arrowhead Trail, a road that used to maintain electrical towers. I was not sure how deep the sand was on the jeep trail from Basin Road to Arrowhead, so I went to the next exit north, Rasor Road, and came back on the Arrowhead Trail road. As I suspected, it was well graded and I cruised along at 25-30mph. Shouldn't be a problem for a sedan. I parked under an electrical tower between the high point and the cat dune. The track I created on CalTopo was to go up a gully a mile SW of the high point, then traversing along the ridge. However, I abandoned that idea when I saw how jagged the ridge line was. Instead, I took the south ridge directly toward the summit. There were a few false summits along the way and steady class 2 scrambling. It got steep near the top.

Cronise Mountains from I-15

From the Arrowhead Trail

High point with Cave Mountain across the freeway
A large cairn was built on the summit and inside was an ancient Andy Smatko register in a film canister. It held 4 small slips of paper with about a dozen visitors since it was placed in 1970. The register was full of peakbagging legends. Some I knew personally, others through their ubiquitous register entries. Some names I recognized: Andy Smatko, Gordon MacLeod, Adam Walker, Bob Burd, Craig Barlow, and Eric Newcomb. I felt honored to add my name to the short list, but also like my name didn't belong on that list. There were no official marks. I rested a little, then started along the ridge line, expecting some difficulty.

After a break, I followed the ridge north toward the Cat Dune. I was surprised that nothing exceeded class 2, but there were some places with exposure. In the sharpest sections of the ridge, I dropped down on the north side to bypass the worst of it. After some spirited scrambling, I reached the top of the Cat Dune. It was very rocky near the top, but below, the sand got deeper and I was able to plunge step through the thin crust. I dropped over 800' down the dune, then reached a deep gully. The sand ended at a short dry fall that led into the gully. There were a couple more dry falls to down climb, but it stayed class 2. After exiting the gully, I walked across the open desert back to the truck. It was short hike, but more adventure than I expected.