Mount Grant is a gigantic hulk of a mountain, the highest point of the Wassuk Range in west-central Nevada. It sits west of Walker Lake, a natural remnant of the ancient Lake Lahontan that once covered much of this region many tens and hundreds of thousands of years ago. Mount Grant is also the highest point in Mineral County, one of the many remote and unpopulated counties of Nevada. Hawthorne is the county's only city, and the remaining towns are all tiny little places or ghost towns. Hawthorne is home to a huge military installation, the United States Army Ammunition and Ordnance Depot, where all sorts of bullets, bombs, tanks and other things that make loud noises are stored. It is clearly the lifeblood of the Hawthorne and Mineral County economy. Most people coming into Hawthorne are probably making the long drive between Las Vegas and Reno; Hawthorne is about two-thirds of the way up from Vegas to Reno along US-95, set amid the typically gorgeous and vacant high desert of the Great Basin, surrounded by numerous high peaks, with Mount Grant, of course, the highest, visible north of town. Mount Grant sits within the Ordnance Depot's boundaries, which prior to the September 11th attacks in 2001, was not an issue as the Depot would allow people onto the mountain if they signed out for a key to a locked gate. Since the attacks, the depot has been closed completely to civilians, and Mount Grant is legally shut out for visitation for the forseeable future.

My visit to Mount Grant was part of a week-long trip with my father, as we planned to explore the Nevada interior as we have done in the past. I had two peaks on the docket: this, and nearby Wheeler Peak. I finished my summer teaching at ASU, flew up to Las Vegas, visited with my folks and then a day later, my dad and I got moving. We journeyed up US-95 from Las Vegas to Hawthorne, covering the 300 miles in about 7 hours, making some side trips along the way - notably, bypassing Tonopah by following some minor routes through Dyer and driving right below mighty Boundary Peak, which I had climbed back in 1995. It was nice to see the peak again after all these years. We arrived in Hawthorne in the early afternoon, time enough to go on to the base and inquire about the key. The base is run by a civilian subcontractor, but they still made us sign all sorts of waiver forms before handing us the key for the access gate. My dad's background in the Army (20+ years, rising to Colonel) helped. The people were friendly overall. At the time, it just seemed like business as usual. We walked some of the grounds for a little bit, then took a cheap but clean hotel in town for the night.

We hit the road the next day around 7 a.m. toward the town of Walker Lake, about 10 miles north of Hawthorne. In Walker Lake (the town), we took Cottonwood Road up about a mile past some homes and into a canyon, coming to the aforementioned locked gate. Out came the key and we passed through it no problem. My dad was driving. The road up Cottonwood Canyon is moderately steep and in mostly excellent condition. The road actually heads west then south as it approaches Mount Grant from the north, steadily gaining elevation. As it does, it passes through lower elevation desert scrub, pinon and juniper, some poplar, passes through larger firs, then rises above all the trees into a low-scrub expanse. It is about 11 miles of driving to an obvious junction, during which the road gains from about 4,000 feet to almost 9,000 feet. The photo at left was taken just north of this junction.

From this junction, we turned left and headed up the road as it switchbacked up the broad west flanks of the peak. We passed some mining claims and a spring, and finally parked at a big flat bend in the road at an elevation of 10,369 feet. It was now about 8 a.m. We decided to hike the rest, although the road goes all the way to just below the summit rocks.

The hike went well as we followed the road as it meandered up the slope. This was my dad's first time ever at elevation this high, but he felt mostly well and did fine. It took us about 45 minutes to hike to the end of the road. Here, the summit sits just 200 feet higher up a very rocky slope. My dad opted not to climb it, so I went in by myself. I found a foot path somehow hewn out of the talus, and it led to a saddle just north of the highpoint and south of another knob. The map shows an elevation of 11,239, but this is for the northern knob, whereas the highest point is almost 50 feet higher. However, from the saddle, the highpoint was hemmed in by imposing cliffs so I backtracked about halfway. From here, I just made my own way up the loose talus. It wasn't unnecessarily steep, but the rocks were very loose, and I had to ensure at each step that I had a solid footing or hand-hold, so it took a bit longer than I intended. But in short order I topped out at the summit, and signed in the register. The views were beautiful, with all of Walker Lake in view, and the spider-web network of roads, bunkers and warehouses of the Ordnance Depot down below.

I stayed at the top about 10 minutes then headed down, carefully, of course, back to my dad who had watched me scale the rocks from below. We hiked back down, following a drainage down part way to cut some distance (I should emphasize we followed a well-worn drainage, and did not cut our own way through the scrubby vegetation). We were back to the truck at about 10:30 and back to the Ordnance Depot to return the key around 11:30.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Battle Mountain on Interstate-80. We went through the town of Gabbs up to US-50, then stopped at the "Shoe Tree", an enormous Cedar (?) along US-50 near the junction of NV-722 in which people have tossed shoes into it over the years. A very peculiar sight! We took NV-722 to Austin, which is much prettier than taking US-50. Turns out my dad knows a big shot in the Lander County Sheriff's Office and wanted to see if he was in. After an hour or so in Austin, we made the long drive to Battle Mountain, where we stayed the night. Nothing special in Battle Mountain, just a place to crash and eat. Battle Mountain is the anus of Nevada, easily. One of the ugliest towns on the planet.

Updates:

The events of September 11, 2001, prompted the Hawthorne Ordnance Depot to restrict access to Mount Grant completely - i.e. no one gets to go up there via the road we followed. Over the years there has been no change to this policy. They do not store anything up there, and there are no communications towers up there (at least there weren't in 2001). It's probably just a hassle the Depot people don't want to deal with. However, hikers have made it to the summit by following long cross-country routes from the south. More recently, these routes have been posted against trespassing on military property, so getting caught would be very bad news. Obviously, my Dad and I were lucky in our timing.