Overview | Gold Strike Heights South | Gold Strike Mountain | Lake Mead NRA, Nevada

Slide guide coming soon!

Adventure Opportunities Surrounding Gold Strike Canyon

Gold Strike Trail is arguably the most popular and well-traveled trail in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. On a weekend, there’s typically a waiting line at each of the four descent ropes on the lower trail. The end-point at the Colorado River can be a mob scene!

Curiously, a few steps up one of the side canyons or ridges instantly puts you into a pristine, quiet wilderness setting with the feel of being hundreds of miles away from civilization. Two adventures on this website document a bit of this far-away wilderness so close to the trail:

1. Gold Strike Heights North: A loop adventure from upper Gold Strike Trail to Hoover Peak.
2. Gold Strike Heights South: This adventure from lower Gold Strike Trail to the base of Gold Strike Mountain.   

Spectacular Views from the High Points

Both these adventures ascend canyons, ridges and peaks to offer spectacular views you won’t find on Gold Strike Trail including:

• Hoover Dam
• Fortification Hill (Arizona)
• Mt. Wilson and its impressive ridgeline (Arizona)
• The Mt. Charleston Wilderness
• An eagle-eye view of the expanse of rugged volcanic wilderness South of Las Vegas

The Adventure Route

This adventure is my first exploration of the little-known, seldom traveled wilderness between lower Gold Strike Trail and Gold Strike Peak. After descending Gold Strike Trail to the canyon just past the second ropeline on that trail, ascend that narrow canyon toward the base of Gold Strike Peak. Once at the base of that peak, navigate to a high ridgeline overlooking the surrounding wilderness area and at least 3 potential approaches to the summit of Gold Strike Peak. In addition, from this vantage point view Gold Strike Canyon, Rough Peak, Hoover Peak, Hoover Dam, Fortification Hill, Arizona Mt. Wilson and its long wild ridgeline.

Best Time of Year for This Adventure

Mid-Fall through mid-Spring, or the early morning or late evening hours during the Summer are the best. Mid-day Summer temperatures can rise above 120 degrees and many hikers have had to be rescued while experiencing heat exhaustion on Summer days. In fact, Gold Strike Trail is closed during the Summer.                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Trailhead Directions | Gold Strike Heights South | Gold Strike Mountain | Lake Mead NRA, Nevada

Take Interstate 11 South from Las Vegas toward Hoover Dam. Take Exit 2 and turn right at the traffic circle at the end of the exit. Gold Strike Trailhead parking is an unpaved area on the right about 200ft beyond the traffic circle.

Narrative Guide | Gold Strike Heights South | Gold Strike Mountain | Lake Mead NRA, Nevada

Safety Precautions

Start with the first daylight to give you lots of time to explore pathless canyon and ridge terrain. Be sure to have a hard turn-around point. If you are unfamiliar with the surround high points to use as reference points, bring compass and GPS. It’s easy to get turned around in the canyons, and people have become lost, experiencing serious danger from dehydration and heat, even during the Winter months! It’s likely that you and whomever you bring along will be the only people you see once you leave lower Gold Strike Trail, and no other person may traverse this wilderness area for weeks and possibly months.

My strategy is to explore small stretches of unfamiliar wilderness and, piece-by-peace over multiple adventures, create familiarity with an entire wilderness area. For this reason I did not go on to summit Gold Strike Mountain on this first day, though my ultimate goal is to create a huge loop adventure including Gold Strike Trail, Gold Strike Mountain and an upper ridgeline return to the Gold Strike Trailhead.

Gold Strike Trailhead to the First Ropeline

Descend Gold Strike Trail to just below the second ropeline. On the way down the trail, in the video, I point out the two connection points for the Hoover Peak loop (Gold Strike Heights North). The first comes early on just beyond the I-11 bridge above the trail. That is the upper approach to Hoover Peak and involves ascending the steep slope on the left (North) side of the trail, then descending to a large plateau and finally ascending the approach ridge to Hoover Peak. The lower approach (or loop return route) begins just beyond the first ropeline. It involves ascending a canyon to the left (North) that leads to the summit ridgeline of Hoover Peak. Ascending from the upper trail and returning to that point just below the first ropeline turns the Hoover Peak adventure into a grand, spectacular loop.

As you descend Gold Strike Trail, be prepared to weave your way around a few dry fall barriers along the way. Where you are confronted by a barrier, watch for a bypass. The largest barrier on the upper trail has a long bypass to the left. Continue down the trail and descend the first ropeline. Before descending any ropeline on Gold Strike Trail, carefully inspect the rope and its anchor. These ropes experience heavy use, and they do eventually wear out!

First Ropeline to Second Ropeline

I believe there are at least two approaches from the lower Gold Strike Trail to Gold Strike Mountain. I have tested the approach described in this adventure. Below the first ropeline, you’ll enter a wide area with a powerline crossing above, suspended by wooden powerpoles. You could take a right up the gradual slope here. I believe this route might get you to Gold Strike Mountain sooner and more directly than the canyon route I took, but I have not tested this route. There may be vertical barriers along the way.

Instead of heading up the gradual slope, I continued on the Gold Strike Trail to descend just below the second ropeline. By the way, if you don’t like ropes, there is a non-rope bypass to the left (North) of the second rope. Regardless, once below the second ropeline, there’s a canyon branching off to your right. Enter this canyon.

Approach Canyon to the Base of the Gold Strike Mountain Upper Ridgeline

As you enter the narrow canyon branching off to the right toward Gold Strike Mountain, you’re immediately confronted with barrier bolders and ledges to navigate. Study these carefully. Scope out various routes around and over each barrier. All I can say is, each barrier has a bypass route that is a class 3 or less rock scramble. Be sure that whatever boulder or ledge you ascend, you can descend so that you don’t get trapped in an area between, leaving you no good ascent or descent route to safety. I carefully climb and avoid jumping down any descent point I cannot re-ascend if there is a dead-end beyond.

After weaving your way through the narrow canyon, you’ll reach a large opening at the base of the ridgeline between Gold Strike Mountain and Peak 2125 to the East. Peak 2125 is the sharper, pointed peak to the left (East). Gold Strike Mountain is the larger, more rounded peak to the right (West). The main canyon wash weaves to the right beyond this large open area. However, instead of turning right and continuing in the main canyon  wash where, as I found, you’ll soon be confronted by a huge barrier dry fall, head straight up the gradual slope toward Peak 2125.

Base of the Gold Strike Mountain Upper Ridgeline Back to the Main Canyon Wash 

Near the base of Peak 2125 you may see potential ascent points to that peak, though the ascent routes look very steep. If you can get up to Peak 2125, it looks possible to traverse the Gold Strike Mountain ridgeline to Gold Strike Mountain. Instead of ascending here, I angled to the right, traversing the base of the Gold Strike Mountain ridgeline. There was actually a trail (animal or human) that took this route, so I was not the first to decide this was a good route. After crossing one or two low intervening ridges, you’ll again descend into the main canyon wash above the dry fall barrier I just mentioned.

High Observation Point and Three Potential Summit Routes to Gold Strike Mountain

At this point, I continued up the main canyon wash, only to be confronted by another impassible dry fall! Just before this dry fall there is a narrow gully that might lead up to the summit of Gold Strike Mountain. I did not attempt the gully. It looked, from below, pretty well clogged with boulders and brush. Perhaps the barriers would not be as daunting, were you to enter and ascend this gully. The gully does summit the ridgeline between Peak 2125 and Gold Strike Mountain. Future adventure.

Instead, I headed up a more open gully to the right of the main wash. This gully ascended to a high point with a spectacular view of the wilderness between Gold Strike Trail and Gold Strike Mountain. From this high point I could see a third potential ascent route to Gold Strike Mountain. It’s a gully ascending to the West side of Gold Strike Mountain. The views from the high point I achieved on this adventure make the entire experience worthwhile. I could see the wooden pole powerlines crossing over Gold Strike Canyon. Hoover Peak and Hoover Dam were visible beyond, with a background of Fortification Hill. Arizona Mt. Wilson and its ridgeline were visible on the Eastern horizon. I could look down to survey the entire canyon I’d taken to get to this point. Looking up to Gold Strike Mountain, I could see its ridgeline continuing to the West, where I knew it would soon connect with the unpaved  Black Canyon Overlook Road, descending to Gold Strike Trialhead.

Return to Gold Strike Trailhead

Being at my turn-around point and not sure of the wilderness route to Black Canyon Road, I retraced my way back down to the canyon and to Gold Strike Trail. Curiously, though the trip on the way had taken me 5 hours, the return trip, more streamlined, was less than 2 and a half hours! The big loop down the Gold Strike Trail, up to Gold Strike Mountain and returning by Black Canyon Overlook Road may, when streamlined, take less time than today’s adventure of exploration.

Conclusion

In conclusion, bouldering in the canyons offered a lot of challenge and was fun. The ridgelines and peaks offered spectacular views of the surrounding wilderness. And, a one-day, large Gold Strike Mountain loop adventure, including Peak 2125 and Peak 2420 is very possible!