A few days after hiking big Arc Dome about 150 miles to the west, my father and I made a short three-day journey up the east side of Nevada via highway US-93 toward the Ely area, planning for one or two big hikes (me), exploring old ghost towns and ruins (both of us), and just enjoying the scenery while shooting at rabbits (my dad). On the agenda was Ward Mountain, the highpoint of the Egan Range which runs south of Ely for about 30 miles. I also had maps and possible plans for big North Schell Peak, about 30 miles north of Ely. I would make a decision on that one after hiking Ward. Both my dad and I enjoy Ely (pronounced Ee-lee), which is the biggest city in eastern Nevada with about 6,000 people. It’s about 250 miles from Las Vegas and almost 300 from Reno, situated in the high desert valleys of the Great Basin; Ely itself is over 6,000 feet elevation. So while it is still mostly desert up here, it’s high enough to be up in the junipers and cooler temperatures (usually low 90s at the hottest). Ely’s well known to hunters as it sits central to some of the finest deer and elk hunting areas in the western United States. It’s also the “gateway” to Great Basin National Park, which is about 100 driving miles away to the east. Suffice to say, Ely is in the middle of nowhere. Even small towns are 80 miles away. The drive to Ely is always very scenic. It wasn’t hard to talk my dad in coming along for the trip.

For hikers and peak-baggers, the Ely area offers a lot of great choices. Foremost would be the Great Basin National Park, even though it’s two hours away. Nearer to Ely there are the Schell and Egan Ranges, both of which run for miles with numerous big summits to choose from. I chose Ward mainly for its combination of location (less than 20 miles from Ely), ease of access (no rough roads), historical significance (the ghost town of Ward sits at the base) and logistics of climbing (I would be off the peak by noon, thereby not stranding my dad at the campsite for too long). I knew my dad would like the Ward area, and wouldn’t be too bored while I was up on the mountain itself. So off we went, leaving the day before from Henderson.

Heading north we took US-93 where it broke from Interstate-15. About 60 miles up US-93 we passed through the Pahranagat Wildlife Area, an area of flowing springs and a natural lake in the middle of the desert. The small towns of Alamo and Ash Springs lie here; we always make a gas and food stop at the last Shell Station in Ash Springs. On this day, there must have been 40 people crammed into the small food store, a fluke confluence of big RVs and families. Within minutes they had cleared out. It’s rarely this busy! Just up the road US-93 bends east toward Caliente and Pioche, but we took a left onto state highway NV-318, signed for Hiko and Lund, and eventually, Ely. This is the short-cut to Ely, about 40 miles shorter than via US-93. As such, there were more trucks on this route. Nevertheless, the traffic was very light. Hiko is just a small collection of homes and ranch properties, no real center of commerce. We passed through pretty fast. About 40-something miles more is the community of Sunnyside, near the Kirch Wildlife Area. Again, very few people, but scenery for a life-time! Lund comes after nearly 100 miles from Hiko, a surprisingly big town (by interior Nevada standards). Obviously Mormon, with a small grid pattern of streets, neat orderly homes, a small “downtown” and the obligatory LDS building. This is ranching country up here. Lund and nearby Preston number maybe 500 people. A veritable metropolis! Finally, 30 miles later via US-6 we were in Ely, where we got food, gas and basics. From Ely we went south on US-93 to Cave Springs Road, then south to the Ward Historic District sign, then west up the alluvial fan on good roads to the base of the range. It was about 4 p.m. when we arrived.

Not surprisingly there were some trucks parked up here with ATV trailers, and we could hear their occasional buzzing as they rode the various roads up on the mountain. We had driven about three miles up the final road and parked in a broad clearing below the “Ward Townsite” sign, very near the turn-off to the road that leads up to the mountaintop. It was fairly warm, even at roughly 7,800 feet. We decided to walk up the road to some buildings we could see further up the canyon. Old buildings from the actual town of Ward? We’d soon find out. The walk went quickly as we only had to cover maybe a quarter-mile, but both of us were kind of winded from the elevation. The road is bermed closed anyway, so walking is the only way to get up here. The buildings were definitely not from the Ward town of the 1880s. They were big shed/storage buildings and in total disrepair and disarray. Thousands of cylindrical rock core samples had been stored here, presumably from mine explorations from all over the region. The cardboard boxes holding them were still in decent shape, but the shelving was all knocked over, and everything strewn about. We actually entered into one of the buildings and I saw lost of paperwork strewn about in one room. I tried to find a date on one, with no luck. It was definitely mining/assayer paperwork. Judging by the style of font and writing, it seemed to be possibly 50+ years old, but the papers were in good condition… My guess is the dry climate helps preserve this paperwork, but the “strewn-ness” was recent, probably with the help of local yahoos. The building windows were all shot out and the walls covered in bullet and shotgun holes. I took some photos, which are on the left sidebar. Very interesting!

In time the ATVers had come down off the mountain and left, leaving my dad and I alone up here, the mountain to ourselves. He camped in the bed of his truck while I slept on a cot. It was a new moon and the sky was crystal clear. We literally slept under the stars, and that night the stars shone like I have rarely seen – millions and billions of little specks of light covering the sky. Just amazing, and truly beautiful. I was able to find the usual constellations: the Big Dipper, Orion and Cassiopeia. With the abundance of stars I could pretty much form any shape I so desired. Thus, I think I actually saw the two constellations Jerry the Cowboy, and Alan the Cowboy (reference). We both slept okay despite the glare from all the stars. I had set my alarm for 4 a.m., which actually was too early, so I slept in until almost 5 a.m. Knowing it would be warm and that I’d be on the east-facing (i.e. sun-facing) side of the mountain, I wanted to be moving pretty fast. Apparently others had the same plan as by 5 a.m. two trucks had rolled up and driven up the road into the mountain. I was hiking at 5:30 a.m. sharp. I walked up this mountain road and saw one of the guys was parked at the end in a clearing, getting his bow set and ATV ready. It was day three of deer archery season. We had a 5-minute chat, mainly to be sure we wouldn’t cause one another trouble in our various pursuits. He pointed where he’d be heading and I to my destination, and fortunately we’d both be well far apart from one another. The other guy I never saw him nor his truck the whole day.

The hike to Ward Mountain follows an ATV road all the way to the top, so route-finding would be very easy and I knew I would make good time even though I had a net 3,200 feet of elevation gain in about 5 miles to cover. I told my dad I’d be gone about 5-6 hours round trip. At first the road is wide and moderately rough, so that most stock 4-wheel drive vehicles would be okay for the first mile or so, but not littler trucks or passenger cars. Higher up the roads narrow so that ATVs are by far the better mode of travel. ATV roads criss-cross the whole mountainside; I could see these roads on the mountain looking across various canyons. The mountain itself is a broad hulk, mostly bare with vast carpets of sage and grass interspersed by stands of aspen, birch and limber pine, with bristlecone higher up. Most of the hike would be in the open. The first mile or so works up about 1,200 vertical feet to a saddle at about 9,100 feet elevation. To here the road is still wide enough for most vehicles and the saddle itself is broad with room to park and possibly camp. I took a good break here, having walked for about an hour to get here. Ward Mountain was visible to the northwest, plain as day, even the roads were visible. It was nice to be able to see my destination, but I knew I had some work to do still.

From here the main road angles up a prominent ridge, then switchbacks once, angling back to the ridge spine. It was kind of steep here so I took it slow. The gain to here was another 400 feet. Here, the road junctions and the better-looking road actually goes left, but I stayed straight which put me back onto the north-face of this ridge, again with Ward Mountain in view. I was making good time, and all was going well. The road actually drops here, losing about 150 feet, before entering into a very pretty (and shaded) stand of birch and aspen, roughly 9,300 feet elevation. I saw a number of deer up here, but mainly does and adolescents—no big antlered fellers the hunters wanted. Staying on the main road I left the cover of shade, took a left at a Y-junction and went steeply up the track, which angled up and to the right, again coming into some more trees, this time scragglier limber and bristlecone pine, which offered some shade. This was at roughly 9,900 feet. Even this high, and this early in the morning, the sun was pretty warm. The shade felt wonderful. There was no breeze to speak of, and conditions were spectacular. I had million-mile views, especially of gigantic Wheeler Peak off to the east.

I still had about 1,100 feet of gain to go in a bit over a mile, so I got moving again, going my usual slow pace. After another long moderately-steep gainer I came onto a small flattish bit (and spooked more deer). The final 600 feet to the top was up very steep road – way too steep for most vehicles and probably fit only for an ATV (actually, any non-ATV should he been stowed back at 9,100 feet, but I am sure people have pushed their luck up here in regular trucks up here in the past). This uphill bit was loose and it sucked, plain and simple, but it went fast. Then it was just a matter of hiking up the remainder to the top. Even the last 100 feet was kind of steep – I was really huffing and puffing right up to the very end. But by 9:00 a.m. I was on top! The summit as a bare hump of grayish rock, topped by a tiny little box and solar-panel slightly off-set from the very top. I had a cell signal so I called my dad to tell his where I was. The views were tremendous in all directions. No clouds anywhere! I stayed for about 10 minutes. Of interest to me was a noticeable plume of smoke in the Schells—an active fire, obviously. It looked close to North Schell Peak so that made that decision simple: North Schell would have to wait another day.

The hike down went very quickly as it was all down hill all the way save for the 150-foot regainer near the birch trees. I was pretty sore, still aching from Arc Dome four days earlier, and it was dang hot the lower I got, so I was pretty happy to finally egress back to the truck at 11:30 sharp—exactly 6 hours on the hill, just like I called it. I changed into drier clothes and we got moving. My dad had spent the morning walking some of the lower roads and as he put it, nearly getting himself stuck in a steep drainage when he couldn’t manage the rubbly slopes to get out (he did, obviously). We drove down then south a tiny bit more to the Ward Charcoal Ovens, which date from the Ward townsite era. They were quite well-preserved after 120 years. The visit was interesting and short, and from here we drove on into Ely to the Ramada Hotel where we’ve stayed in the past. I took a shower then crashed for a little bit. We both rewarded ourselves with good burgers and prime rib that night at the hotel restaurant. The next day we scouted some peaks in the Pioche area for future visits, then drove on to Henderson that afternoon.

The hike up Ward was quite fun and easy, insofar as technical requirements go, but tiring as far as effort went. The area is classic high-desert Great Basin interior Nevada, and we both had great fun. I was not too bummed to miss out on North Schell this time – it just gives us an excuse to go back next year. I had given myself a good case of hiker’s toe also, so I really could use the extra days off to let my dogs heal. I am definitely getting older.