Black Mountain, El Paso Mtns. (HPS)

Day 1 of my peak-bagging weekend, and I decided to trudge up some piled earth while en-route to Death Valley. I’d heard of Garlock from old mining lore and was looking forward to seeing the ruins of Old Garlock, still marked on my map, but found what I thought to be an access road in fact a railroad, and so not accessible at all. In truth, “modern” Garlock itself is ghost town enough, with nothing more than a smattering of decrepit structures, long-since relieved of their doors and windows, to mark the desert.

I drove north up Mesquite Canyon until the dirt road became a Jeep road. Though navigating the area was slightly tricky without a map, I had no trouble taking my stock-height vehicle beyond the point at which most set out on foot, with the aim of maximizing efficiency. Black Mountain a short climb any way you cut it, and the drive may be as rewarding as the mountain. A short cross-country jaunt brought me to a slope of scattered rubble which I climbed to a summit I imagined to be Black Mountain. Perhaps it was the nasty weather rolling in that had distracted me; I topped the peak to discover no register or survey marker and, to my chagrin, a slightly taller summit a quarter-mile to the north.

Imagining oneself a true frontiersman and exploring without the aid of map or GPS may be a thrill, but it often comes at the cost of bumbling up the wrong gully or sweating across an unnecessary ridgeline or, as in this case, standing proudly atop a false summit. Still, the stepped earth of the Rand Mountains with their mining scars on proud display was nothing to scoff at, and I’d recommend Black Mountain as a worthwhile diversion for anyone driving through the area. Though, perhaps, not a destination in its own right.