Ibapah Peak

September 18-19, 2025

I finally hiked Ibapah Peak this weekend after more than a month of setbacks. I initially planned to go mid-August but I let a slight chance of rain keep me away. After that it was even worse weather forecasts and then a mild cold that stopped me from going. By Monday the weather was looking favorable for a Friday attempt so I got all my camping and hiking gear ready, and on Wednesday the outlook called for only a 20% chance of rain after noon on Friday–that sounded doable! But then on Thursday, the day I was planning on driving out there, the forecast changed to a 30% chance of rain between 9:00 AM and noon, then a 40% chance of rain and thunderstorms after noon. Not ideal weather for hiking a 12,000′ mountain. I stuck with my original plan and left home after work on Thursday, fueling up in West Wendover and then driving south into the Deep Creek Mountains.

Deep Creek Range viewed from Snake Valley

WSA sign near Granite Creek

Point 11,130′ above Cottonwood Canyon

Haystack Peak (left)

Nearly everything I’d read online about the condition of the road up Granite Creek made it sound quite difficult. Road Trip Ryan describes the upper part of the road (beyond what he calls the “4×4 trailhead”) as “Not recommended except for ATV’s and serious 4×4 enthusiasts,” and this SummitPost report shows some mud bogs with an FJ Cruiser stuck in one. Conditions must have changed, though, because I drove my 4-door F-250 to the end of the road easily in 2WD. On the way up I stopped to visit the pictographs along the way, which were better than I was expecting. I arrived at camp a little before 8:00 PM and went to bed at 10:00. I woke up a few times during the night (as I usually do when camping) and it stayed warm the entire time.

Alcove in Granite Creek

Granite Creek road

Gate

Granite Creek pictograph shelter

Granite Creek pictographs

My alarm went off at 4:25 on Friday morning. I forced some breakfast down (since I usually don’t eat until after 9:00 AM), drank coffee, and started hiking by about 5:15. I stupidly bumbled around for several minutes trying to find the trail. An obvious trail that I thought was the old closed road left camp going north but it was quickly apparent that it wasn’t leading where my GPS said the trail was. I soon figured out the trail was south of camp and I actually had to go a short distance (like, 100 feet) down the road before passing a cable gate and getting on the closed road. I hiked for two hours by headlamp, making slow time and with slight apprehension about a possible early morning animal encounter. There were many downed trees across the trail, some that could be climbed over or ducked under, while others required going around sometimes way off the trail before returning to it. By the time it was light enough to take any photos I was only a couple of miles up the trail. I kept steadily climbing, through brushy open areas, thick stands of aspen, rocky sections, and a few creek crossings.

First photo on the trail after two hours of hiking in the dark

Leaves turning yellow

Trail through the aspen

First view of Red Mountain

Deadfall across the trail

Stream flowing across the trail

Yellow aspen

I reached a small, grassy meadow just below 10,000′ that had several flowing springs feeding the creek below. Nearby were some nice camp spots and aspen trees with carvings as old as 1916. A little farther up the trail at about 10,200′ was a big alpine meadow in the saddle between Red Mountain and Ibapah Peak, where I sat on a small boulder and took a break. It was colder here, with a light breeze, but I didn’t put on a jacket because there was more climbing ahead and I assumed the exertion would keep me warm once I started moving again.

Springs in a small meadow

Illegible name, July 27, 1938

A.L., July 18, 1916

E.L. Bates 1926

Trail to the big meadow

Rest break

First good view of Ibapah Peak

From the meadow, the route climbed the hillside through trees and rocks for about a mile and a half before reaching the top of the ridge above point 11,385′. There was no view of the top of the ridgeline or Ibapah Peak for most of the route. I had downloaded several GPS tracks from Peakbagger.com and then drawn a single route that looked the best to me over the top of them in Google Earth, which I then used in my GPS. As I tried to stick to that route it followed a nice cairned route at first, but then either the cairns ended or I lost the cairned route (I wasn’t sure which at the time). I continued following the route in my GPS and ended up back on the cairned route half a mile later. Despite the effort of climbing, the chill in the air was getting to me and I put a jacket and gloves on for the rest of the hike to the summit.

Start of the trail to the ridgeline

One of a very few blazed trees

Fallen tree

Cairned route

More cairned route

The route never quite reaches the ridgetop but instead parallels just below it on the southeast side, but I climbed up to the top just to get a peek off the other side into Deep Creek Valley. The last third of a mile to the summit had a well-defined trail that zig-zagged to the top. Once there I spent 10 or 15 minutes looking for a geocache but I think it had gone missing. I went to the summit shelter, signed the register, and saw the survey marker that was placed in 1889, one of the oldest I’ve ever found. I was perplexed by some sort of collapsed structure made of bricks but after reading the NGS datasheet later I found that it was one of three brick pillars used to support surveying equipment above the marker. The views were, of course, phenomenal, and looking out into the surrounding desert made me wish I had more time to spend out there on this trip.

Finally on the ridge

View down Granite Creek

Deep Creek Valley and Goshute

View over Granite Creek to Red Mountain

Ibapah summit

Haystack Peak

Remnants of a brick pillar

Ibapah reference mark #6, 1944

Summit shelter

Copper bolt survey marker set in 1889

Summit register

View over Granite Creek to Middle Range and Swasey Peak

Middle Range and Swasey Peak

My time on the summit was short because I wanted to get down before any weather rolled in. It had warmed back up and I ditched the jacket and gloves. On my way down the ridgetop I stopped briefly for a quick snack break and then got moving again. This time I followed the cairned route all the way back to the big meadow, which was moderately easier than the way I’d ascended. I got pretty hot during the hike back, removing my hat when clouds would occasionally block the sun, and stopping only briefly to guzzle some water before moving on. It sprinkled for about the last half a mile, wetting my hat enough that water was dripping off the brim, but it felt great. When I was almost back to the trailhead I encountered a guy on his way up the trail and we spoke briefly. I asked if he was on his way to the summit and he said he was, which surprised me considering how late in the day it was, almost 4:30 PM. He asked how the trail was and I said it was pretty decent the whole way, then I wished him luck and he continued on. My inner monologue was taking bets as to whether he was a Subaru guy or a Tacoma guy–something I often think about when I see people on the trail.

Back in the big meadow

Descending Granite Creek

Pretty patch of Populus tremuloides

Trail over the closed road

View back to Ibapah Peak

Ridge south of Granite Creek

Back to the road

I arrived back at the truck later than I’d expected to before I began the trip–I figured I could get the hike done in 8-10 hours but instead it took 11 hours and 20 minutes. My distance was 11.4 miles with about 5,000 feet total elevation gain, made significantly shorter and easier by driving a full mile past what I thought was the “4×4 trailhead.” I may still be a slow hiker but it’s very satisfying to do hikes like this and not even be tired or sore afterward. I still get perhaps a little overjoyed sometimes thinking about how I feel and look now compared to a year ago, when I was doing 5 or 6 mile hikes and those were the longest I’d done all year. There was no other vehicle at the trailhead so I guessed my leaning toward that hiker being a Tacoma guy was wrong. As I drove down the canyon I passed the few other places to park without seeing a vehicle, but below the lowest creek crossing there it was: he was a Jetta guy! I guess that still puts him in the Subaru camp. 😀 It was dark and raining in the upper canyon and I hope he was okay. It was a nearly six-hour-drive home from the mouth of Granite Creek. The sky was mostly filled with dark clouds but as the sun set its rays peeked out above the horizon while I was on US-93 Alt in Nevada. With the early start that morning I was expecting to be drowsy during the drive but I stayed alert the whole time, making it home before midnight, glad to sleep in my own bed that night!

Truck parked at the end of the road