Overview | Carole Lombard Plane Crash Site | Potosi Mountain, Nevada

Learn in detail how to weave up and through rows of vertical limestone ledges on the East side of Potosi Mountain to reach the famous Carole Lombard plane crash site.

Crash Details Summary

At 7:20pm on January 16, 1942, a Douglas DC-3-382 propliner TWA flight carrying Carole Lombard crashed into a sheer cliff on the side of Potosi Mountain on its route from Las Vegas to Burbank, California. Also on the flight were Carole’s mother Elizabeth Peters, Otto Winkler (the press agent and best friend of Carole’s husband Clark Gable), 3 crew members and 15 U.S. Army soldiers. All 22 on board died in the crash. The plane crashed only 32 miles Southwest of Las Vegas Airport (now Nellis Air Field) at an altitude of 7,770 ft. Coordinates of the crash site are: 35.9510°N 115.4914°W. It’s determined that the cause of the accident was a navigation error.

Reason for the Plane Trip and Urgency to Return Home

Carole Lombard, at the young age of 33, was returning from a successful WWII war bond promotion in Indiana where she raised over $2 million for the war effort. It was the first war bonds sale after Pearl Harbor had been bombed. In Albuquerque, NM, one of a number of stops along the return trip, Carole and her party were asked to relinquish their seats to 15 US Army Corps personnel on their way to California. They were considered “essential for the war effort”. Carole argued that as a military fund raiser she was “essential to the war effort” and so was allowed to remain on the flight. She was anxious to return to California to be reunited with her husband Clark Gabel, married less than 3 years. Clark was having an affair with actress Lana Turner, and it’s thought this may have added to Carole’s urgency to continue on the flight home. On top of this, Clark was not answering Carole’s phone calls.

Impact Site

After a brief refueling stop at the Las Vegas Airport, the plane took off at 7:07pm, heading for Burbank, California. Only 15 minutes later, in the dark of night, at 185 miles per hour and full or fuel, the plane slammed into the cliffs forming a vertical wall just below the summit of Potosi Mountain’s upper ridgeline between today’s South and Middle communication towers. The plane would have cleared the cliffs had it been just a little over 200 ft higher in altitude. The difference is only 2/3rds the distance of a football field!

Navigational Errors

The pilots were very experienced taking the 218-degree compass heading from Boulder City Airport. They inadvertently took that familiar 218-degree Boulder Airport heading, but from the Las Vegas Airport. It was an error to use compass navigation in the first place as radio navigation was the recommended procedure. These errors sent them into terrain that was higher than the plane’s altitude. A number of the beacon lights had been turned off that night to help cloak the area in darkness due to WW II wartime concerns, increasing the danger.

Clark Gabel’s Grief and Guilt

Clark Gabel, filled with grief and guilt, never fully recovered from the loss of his wife Carole Lombard, and though married twice following her death, was buried next to Carole’s grave.

View additional historic details here.

Best Time of Year to Visit The Carole Lombard Plane Crash Site

Make this trip in Fall or Spring when the temperature in Las Vegas is under 90 degrees. Mid-Summer temperatures can reach a dangerous 100 degrees or higher, even on the upper altitudes of Potosi Mountain. I carry up to 6 liters of liquid. The terrain is very steep, with a loose rock surface near the crash site.

Route Starting Point Directions | Carole Lombard Plane Crash Site | Potosi Mountain, Nevada

There are two potential routes to the crash site:

Route from Below: From Las Vegas, take Blue Diamond Road, then Highway 160 West. As the highway begins ascending Potosi Mountain, watch for the Late Night Trailhead on the right. Soon thereafter, take a left, crossing the highway to the entrance of Cottonwood Valley Road. You can park and walk from the parking area at the beginning of the road, but it’s a long walk from there to the crash site (see the map on this page). If you have a good 4WD vehicle, continue on the unpaved Cottonwood Valley Road to Cottonwood Pass which is just South of the crash site. Take the trail and approach ridge to the crash site from Cottonwood Pass.

Route from Above: Take I-15 South from Las Vegas to Hwy 161 exit at Jean. Take a right onto Hwy 161/Goodsprings Rd. Just before the town of Goodsprings take a right onto Goodsprings Bypass Road (signed as a gravel truck route). After a couple miles, Goodsprings Bypass Road takes a hard right onto Rainbow Quarry Road (unmarked, but there is no other option). Continue on Rainbow Quarry Road to what I will call the “Warning Rock Parking Area” (a large rock warning about a gate ahead). This is the point where it’s best to have a 4WD vehicle to continue. Hwy 509, Potosi Mountain Road, begins here.

About 2 miles beyond this point there is a gate, often or “most often” locked since Potosi Mountain Road was designed as a maintenance route for the communication towers on the 3 summits. You can park outside the gate and continue on foot up Potosi Mountain Road. Alternately, there is a short but steep and rugged gate bypass road to the left just before the gate. This road does require a 4WD vehicle.

Park between the South and Middle communication towers (see the map) to hike the shortest route to the crash site. Note I have not yet tested this route and cannot guarantee there are no class 3+ vertical climbing stretches. Until this route is tested and evaluated, it’s best to stick to the route from below.

Narrative Guide | Carole Lombard Plane Crash Site | Potosi Mountain, Nevada

Getting Your Initial Bearings

From the trailhead, look at Potosi Mountain above you and just to the West. Notice the many horizontal bands of limestone cliffs along the side of the mountain. Ascending Potosi Mountain involves the challenge of weaving up, around and through the openings between the cliffs. Also notice two sets of communications towers visible on the long summit area. The towers to the right are on the North summit area. The towers to the left of those towers are on the middle summit area. There’s one additional set of towers furthest to the left, but hidden. These are the towers on the South summit. Now, notice a number of ridgelines descending from the summit downward to the base of the mountain.

Let’s put all this together. The Carole Lombard plane crash site is located between the middle and South communications towers. Getting there involves ascending the North side of a ridgeline by weaving around and through the cliffs. Once about 3/4ths way up the ridgeline you will cross over to the opposite (South) side of the ridgeline and descend a short distance into the crash gully (gully below the crash site) on the South side of the ridgeline. You’ll then ascend that crash gully, observing pieces of the aircraft strewn along the gully, until you reach the base of the upper cliffs. These are the impact cliffs and the point of impact is just 200ft below the cliff summit, indicating that had the plane been just a little over 200ft higher, it would have cleared the cliffs!

Now, notice Cottonwood Valley Road running along the East side of the trailhead. You’ll take Cottonwood Valley Road 3 miles South, then turn right onto Cottonwood Valley Road West for another 3 miles. On that road you will pass the old dilapidated Wildhorse Cabin. The ridgeline noted above will be distinctly visible straight ahead. Near the base of the ridgeline, about 6 miles from the trailhead, you’ll leave the road to begin ascending the gully along the right (North) side of the ridgeline. The rest is explained above.

Final note: If you have a 4WD or high center vehicle, you can drive the first 6 miles, leaving only one mile to ascend the ridgeline, cross over and reach the crash site. The entire trip from the trailhead to the crash site is about 7.5 miles.

Trailhead to Cottonwood Valley West Road

This initial 3-mile stretch of road is a great time to view nearly the entire East side of Potosi Mountain. Notice the cliffs and communication towers above. Careful observation will reveal the descending ridgeline between the middle and South towers, along with the approximate location of the crash site on the opposite side of the upper ridgeline. Getting this overall framework will be important since you will have very little frame of reference later while ascending the crossing over the ridgeline. A wrong turn will easily lead to a dead-end cliff. On the way up you could either turn around or search for the right opening. On the way down after visiting the crash site…especially if you’re up there after sundown…you could end up at the upper edge of a series of dead-end cliffs wondering how you’re going to safely get back to the road! So take time to study the East side of Potosi Mountain during that first 3 miles so that you can obtain multiple points of reference. By the way, take time to turn around and look back down the road for a spectacular emerging view of the Rainbow Mountains and La Madre Mountains to the North!

You’ll arrive at Cottonwood Valley Pass at the 3-mile point. This is the highest point on Cottonwood Valley Road, so it’s the obvious place to turn right onto the only adjoining road there: Cottonwood Valley West Road.

Cottonwood Valley West Road to the Ascending Ridgeline

Cottonwood Valley West Road quickly ascends toward the East side of Potosi Mountain, reaching a steep high point with a spectacular view. Here you can see Cottonwood Valley Road continuing toward the South end of Potosi Mountain. The Goodsprings area is visible in the distance. Down at the South base of Cottonwood Valley Road, a right turn will put you on the maintenance road that ascends the South ridge of Potosi Mountain, reaching all three sets of communications towers on the summit. Another approach to the Carole Lombard plane crash site from above involves ascending that maintenance road, then descending to the crash site from a spot between the South and middle communications towers. You can access the maintenance road more directly from I-15 at the Goodsprings area.

Also, from the high point on Cottonwood Valley West Road, look straight ahead toward Potosi Mountain to see the large ridge which you will ascend on the right (North) side, cross over and continue along the upper South side of the ridge to the crash site. 

Descend briefly from the high point on Cottonwood Valley West Road to pass an old mine. The mining activity on Potosi Mountain was at its height from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. Beyond the mine you’ll pass the old dilapidated Wildhorse Cabin which was a mining claims office built around 1980. Continue along Cottonwood Valley West Road, taking a right split to cross a shallow gully before ascending another quarter mile to ascent gully on the North side of the large ridge ahead.

Ascending and Crossing the Ridgeline

Since you’ve become aware of your bearings along the way, it will be pretty obvious when you need to angle left off Cottonwood Valley West Road and into the ascent gully on the South side of the ridge. The gully has usual gully boulders and brush to navigate, but it’s all a class 2 walk, as is this entire adventure from the trailhead all the way to the crash site. About 2/3rds up the gully, angle off to the left up an adjoining gully. There is a line of cliffs through which this adjoining gully creates a very steep, loose rock channel all the way to the upper center of the ridgeline. Two guiding references will help you navigate up through the channel. First, you may notice faint signs of people having passed along this way before, creating a very faint pathway. Second, just hug the left base of the cliffs all the way to the top of the channel. The faint pathway will be visible nearly all the way up along the cliff base. Turn around often to see what this route will look like on the return trip. On the return things look different and the angle of the slope wants to take you away from the cliff base, off to the right and down to a dead-end ledge!

At the summit of the channel you arrive on a plateau on the center of the ridgeline. You’re now less than a quarter-mile from the crash site! Note the location of this plateau as this is the all-important point where you will later begin your descent down the channel during the return trip. There is no alternate non-vertical descent on the way back if you miss this plateau!

Crossing the Ridgeline and Ascending the Crash Gully

Cross the ridgeline and descent the short stretch to the gully on the opposite side. This is the crash gully–the gully below the impact cliff. The sooner you enter this gully, you’ll see more debris all the way up to the crash site. The debris have had nearly a century to make their way down the crash gully. The crash gully becomes steeper as you approach the impact cliffs above. In fact, someone placed a rope near the summit of the gully to aid the ascent. I don’t trust old ropes, and you really don’t need the rope anyway, unless you’re hauling large pieces of the plane down the gully. You don’t want to do that, as the crash site and debris are part of a memorial to the tragic event in 1942. It’s best to observe, take photos and videos, and leave things as you found them so that others can see the same things when they visit the crash site.

Your Return Trip

Getting back across and down the ridge to Cottonwood Valley West Road was for me the greatest challenge of the day. Using the Caltopo GPS App, I was able to correct my course a few times in order to locate the ridgeline plateau and stay on course during the descent chute. I made one minor but streamlined variation once I cleared the lower cliffs. Rather than return to Cottonwood Valley West Road via the ascent gully I’d taken earlier, I took the ridgeline downward to the road. There were plenty of open spaces between the brush. However, if you try this route on the ascent, beware! All the brush is angled against you making progress horrible! I tried it on an earlier trip! Take the gully during the ascent and the ridge during the descent.

Memory of a Similar Event

My grandmother died in a plane crash only 14 years later than Carole Lombard’s crash. It was the 1956 Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9 from Vancouver to Calgary Canada. Her name: Georgina Wenlock Kafoury. I was one year old at the time. The flight was the worst air disaster in Canadian history. 62 passengers and crew lost their lives when that plane slammed into the third peak on Mt. Slesse, well in excess of its 325 mph cruising speed. Production of the Canadair DC-4M powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines first began in 1946, just 4 years after the Carole Lombard crash.