Adventures to Griffith Peak Summit
Overview | Griffith Peak Harris Mountain Circuit | Mt. Charleston Wilderness | Spring Mountains, Nevada
Adventure doesn’t get better than the Griffith Peak / Harris Mountain Circuit!
Prepare for an entire day of immersion in nature’s quite solitude in a largely untouched wilderness area. The last 7 hours and 10 minutes of the journey I did not see a soul, and the continual action of navigating obstacles and smoothing out the route helped create a peaceful, meditative mindset. But in order to experience such peace, you’ll need to invest a large amount of time and effort.
The Griffith Peak / Harris Mountain Circuit is an extreme adventure requiring excellent physical conditioning and altitude conditioning. You’ll want to have previously summited
Griffith Peak and
Charleston Peak. In addition, it will be helpful to have summited
Harris Mountain.
Adventure Route Summary
Beginning at the
South Climb Trailhead in
Kyle Canyon, take the trail to summit
Griffith Peak. Then take the wilderness route over to
Harris Mountain. Descend the Northwest slope of
Harris Mountain to the
Rainbow Sub Division. Finally, take the roads in the
Rainbow Sub Division (or wilderness slopes just above) back to the
South Climb Trailhead. This is the reverse circuit to the
Harris Mountain / Griffith Peak Circuit Adventure.
Time Comparisons
The Griffith Peak / Harris Mountain Circuit actually takes over 2 hours longer than the entire
Mt. Charleston Loop! I’ve completed the
Mt. Charleston Loop in about 7.5 hours including the run from the
Trail Canyon Trailhead to the
South Climb Trailhead. Adding in
Griffith Peak,
Lee Peak and
Mummy Mountain, the
Mt. Charleston 4-Peak Circuit takes me a little under 12 hours, and that could be shortened to between 10 and 11 hours with a little more practice and conditioning.
Time to Complete the Griffith Peak / Harris Mountain Circuit
On the other hand, the
Griffith Peak / Harris Mountain Circuit took me 9hrs and 50 minutes! Why? Because only about 2.5 of those hours are on any kind of established trail. The rest of the journey: 7 hours and 20 minutes, is entirely off trail picking out the best route as you navigate untraveled ridges weaving around cliffs and rocky outcrop dead-ends via avalanche slopes on loose rock footing while dodging abundant fallen trees and finally, through the vortex of the
Rainbow Sub-division! Much of the time these obstacles limit progress to a very slow, careful walk. The good news is that with this slow, careful progress, you may not be very tired at the end of the journey, or sore the next day.
Directions to Start Point | Griffith Peak Harris Mountain Circuit | Mt. Charleston Wilderness | Spring Mountains, Nevada
Head up
Hwy-95 from
Las Vegas and take a left at the
Kyle Canyon exit (less than 30 miles from the
Las Vegas Strip). Travel another 20 miles to the
South Loop Trailhead. You’ll pass through
Charleston Village, pass a fire station, the road will bend to the left, cross a short bridge and then head up about a half mile where you will take the first right after passing some cabins, then on up to the
South Loop Trailhead parking lot (which is also the parking lot for
Cathedral Rock). By the way, in this parking lot are the best restrooms of all the
Mt. Charleston area trailhead parking lots with actual flush toilets and sinks with running water.
↓ Narrative Guide ↓
Narrative Guide | Griffith Peak Harris Mountain Circuit | Mt. Charleston Wilderness | Spring Mountains, Nevada
Descent from Griffith Peak Summit to Harris Mountain Summit
This portion of the adventure takes about 3 hours. (For directions to the summit of Griffith Peak, see the
Griffith Peak page.) Achieving the
Griffith Peak summit takes me about 2 hours. The real adventure begins on the summit of
Griffith Peak. The overall route directions from the
11,056 ft. summit of Griffith Peak to the
10,014 summit of Harris Mountain are pretty simple. From the summit of
Griffith Peak set a direct course to
Harris Mountain (see videos and pictures). You’ll travel the ridge between
Griffith Peak and
Harris Mountain. Along that ridge there are a few places where you will encounter a cliff dead-end. Without an exception, the best route (and pretty much the only route) around the dead-end cliff is to skirt the cliff to the right. In the first 2 instances, this means traversing an avalanche slope. The higher and closer to the base of the cliff you can navigate, the firmer your footing. On the other hand, the lower you traverse the avalanche slope, the more difficult your route becomes.
Later, in another adventure, I discovered the hidden stretch of the
Griffith Peak back wilderness trail which easily bypassed the steep slope on the right (East) side of the ridge by crossing over to the left (West) side of the ridge! That dramatically sped up and streamlined this otherwise pathless stretch.
Fortunately, the final huge cliff before the Harris Mountain / Griffith Peak saddle has a very decent trail down and along the right of the cliff, taking you easily to the saddle. The trail has great footing, but is not very well maintained and becomes faint or disappears now and then. You need to feel it out.
Once you get to the saddle, head straight up to
Harris Mountain summit, about 4-500ft. Again, there is no trail, but you can pick your way by weaving around brushy areas and staying basically on the center of the ridge. That brush is composed of thick groves of
Quaking Aspen and
Mountain Mahogany. It can be quite an effort to weave your way up the slope toward
Harris Mountain’s summit!
The View from Harris Mountain Summit
Harris Mountain Summit affords some unique views from the Eastern side of
Kyle Canyon along the length of the canyon with
Griffith Peak, the entire length of the South Ridge all the way to
Charleston Peak and
Lee Peak directly across at the Western end of the canyon. Simultaneously you can view the entire
North Ridge of Kyle Canyon from
Fletcher Peak to
Mummy Mountain to
Lee Peak. View the
4-Peak Circuit adventure.
Looking to the East you can clearly see the entire
Desert National Wildlife Refuge, largest refuge in the lower 48 states including the
Sheep Range and
Gass Peak.
As you gaze toward the South, the Northern area of the
Las Vegas Valley comes into view along with
La Madre Mountains in the foreground. You can also see
Bridge Mountain,
Mt Wilson,
North Peak and the
Rainbow Mountains Upper Crest Ridgeline along the Northern edge of
Red Rock Canyon’s Scenic Loop area.
Descending from Harris Mountain Summit Back to the South Climb Trailhead
This portion of the adventure alone took about 4 hours due to navigating an untraveled ridge and then the vortex of the
Rainbow Sub-Division. The descent begins by locating the basically gradual, steady ridge between the summit of
Harris Mountain and the
Rainbow Sub-Division. A combination of navigating along the left side of the ridge and heading toward
Cathedral Rock as a guiding reference point helps keep you on track. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to stray to the right side of the ridge you may end up descending off-course to an end-point that would require a few hours to correct. The ridge wants to take you off to the right, so beware! There are a few rocky outcrops to navigate along the way down, but nothing too dramatic. Near the bottom, head off the ridge a little to the left and begin skirting the area above the
Rainbow Sub-division. To set your direction, begin to head straight toward
Cathedral Rock. It will soon disappear behind the lower ridges, but your course is basically set, and true.
Navigating the Rainbow Sub-division
You’ll be surprised at the length of this section of the journey. It seems endless, and could easily eat up an entire hour. You’re skirting ridges above the
Rainbow Sub-Division, at times able to pick out footing that looks like it might have one time been a trail, at other times trying to keep your footing on an avalanche slope. Where possible, keep
Cathedral Rock in view. Actually the rock disappears behind ridges above the
Rainbow Sub-Division, only reappearing near the end of the journey.
Cathedral Rock helps you initially set your course near the beginning of the
Rainbow Sub-Division and near the final approach to the
South Climb Trailhead.
Navigating Back to Your Starting Point: The South Climb Parking Area
Near the
South Climb Trailhead the course actually becomes a well maintained dirt road, ultimately passing through the picnic area below the
South Climb Trailhead. Ascend up and slightly right to the parking lot of this picnic area, take a right in the lot and skirt to the left of an iron fence separating the picnic and parking area from the
South Climb Trailhead parking area. You’re back at your starting point!
