Mineral County Highpoint Trip Report
Mount Grant (11,280 feet+)
Date: September 15, 1997
Author: Andy Martin
Mt. Grant is on military property. The good news was that they would lend a key
for the locked gate, bad news was that you had to get key from 6:30 to 5:00
Monday through Thursday. Our hang dog expression failed to sway the military personnel,
so we had to revise our plans. On to Storey county.
After some phone hassling I was able to contact 1-702-945-7101 (ask for Dianna)
for assurance that the Mount Grant key could be borrowed.
It could, and we drove through the many lights of Carson, and on to Hawthorne.
Access is only allowed through one gate - Cottonwood Creek at Walker Lake.
The key is picked up at the main base, entry near the RR track crossing just NW of Hawthorne.
They will let passenger cars in (at your risk) but a recent rain had washed many rocks
on the road for about a mile. Other than that the road was well graded all the way
to the parking lot near the top.
This road is probably the highest graded road in
NV (11,000+), and the view from the top was spectacular. Boundary Peak is to the south,
the Sierra Crest, and range after range to the east. The short hike to the USGS
station is easy, but scrambling up the summit block from the North is tricky.
The easiest way up the block is to approach it from the SSE, starting from the parking lot.
The Army maintains one camp - Camp Dixie - just to the east of the road at 7,540 feet.
We had it to ourselves - in fact did not see anyone else the whole time we were in the area.