View of Corkscrew Peak from the starting point near the road. The hike starts at about 2,600 feet in elevation:
Nice view of Death Valley Buttes as we started our hike:
Steve returning to Death Valley for his Fall 2011 trip. It feels good to be back:
We followed one big wash and then turned off to the left into a smaller wash which is marked by Round Boulder:
View looking back down from just past Round Boulder. Round Boulder is located at about 3,300 feet in elevation:
Now we were hiking up a small narrow canyon without much height:
The turnoff point from the canyon to the ridge was marked by a group of rocks lined up in a row telling us where to go:
As we started up the ridge, it was evident that a well defined trail would be easy to follow:
Corkscrew Peak seems to get a lot of visitation based on how clear the trail was:
The canyon we had been in continued off to the right in another direction:
In this picture you can clearly see the ridge that we will follow nearly all the way up:
My friend Tobin was hiking at a faster pace. He can be seen up the hillside in the distance:
He took this picture looking back at Steve hiking below:
Zooming in on Steve following the trail along the ridge:
To reach Corkscrew Peak, we were going to have to find a passage through this massive headwall surrounding the mountain:
Check out the pretty tilted up rock face in the next two pictures:
Catching a break while passing through the rocky section of the ridge:
Continuing along the ridgeline in the next two pictures. A steep and steady climb, without too many drop downs in between bumps:
Looking back down towards the route up and the Funeral Mountains in the distance:
The trail gets very steep here as it winds its way through a passage in the headwall:
Tobin once again a lot higher up than Steve and taking a picture of him down below:
The majestic headwall of Corkscrew Peak which limits potential routes to the summit:
The next four pictures show Keyhole Rock, which is located a mere 10 minutes below the summit:
Panoramic looking down central Death Valley from near Keyhole Rock:
Final path to the summit winding through a field of boulder spires:
A massive oblong shaped boulder perched on the edge of a cliff:
Two pictures of Steve as he arrives on the summit of Corkscrew Peak for the first time, after driving by it for nearly 15 years:
Taking in the view from Corkscrew Peak. We start with a view down at Death Valley Buttes:
Looking towards Stovepipe Wells and the highway heading up and over Towne Pass:
Zooming in on the Mesquite Sand Dunes:
Another small summit was a little further past Corkscrew Peak. It was tempting us to hike over to it and visit:
And my favorite view from the summit of Corkscrew Peak, a perfect view of Thimble Peak:
I'm hoping to summit Thimble Peak for the first time on my Spring 2012 trip. Pictured here standing on Corkscrew Peak 5,804 feet in elevation:
This view was looking to the Northeast and shows the canyon we were originally hiking in heading off into the distance:
Panoramic view of central Death Valley from the summit:
Heading down from Corkscrew Peak via the more difficult scrambling route:
Looking down at the pretty rock texture on the mountainside and wash far below us:
Tobin surveying the scrambling route we were heading towards:
Looking across the way, you can see how steeply the hillside descends from this point on:
In the next two pictures, we are carefully making our way down some very difficult areas:
A massive slab of rock rises up out of the hillside nearby:
Once we got below the endless rock wall you see pictured here (after some backtracking), we followed the base of the wall towards the saddle:
Three views of the surrounding area while we cautiously worked our way towards the saddle:
Finally standing on the saddle where we met up with the trail to the spring. In the distance here, you can see where our wash meets up with the wash we hiked in on earlier. The saddle is located at about 4,675 feet in elevation:
Another square hole in the ground which was similar to what I had found earlier this year on a hike to Lower Death Valley Butte:
And they are off and running... 6 Bighorn sheep that we came across in this area:
The lower ridge here would be the one we would follow back down to the wash:
But first, three pictures of the spring which had surface water and green grass growing around it:
Almost back down to the wash now, as the sun begins going down and the shadows grow:
Looking back at where we had just come from. You can see the saddle which we had been on earlier:
A picture of Steve with Corkscrew Peak taken near the end of our hike:
One final view of Death Valley Buttes in the fading sunlight:
