Distance

4.8 mi to summit

9.5 mi total

Elevation

5,722 ft start

8,553 ft max

Vertical

2,804 ft gain

Time

3 hr 49 min to summit

6 hr 46 min total

Laszlo agreed to drive us in his Jeep, so I finally got to take a shot at Dead Horse Mountain with him and Chris. The drive in was long, but not terribly difficult. You could probably get by without 4WD, but high clearance was definitely needed. 4WD is nice for the washed out areas. Once we got to the head of the canyon, we parked and started trudging along. None of us were feeling particularly energetic, but we decided to go until we didn't want to go anymore. We did drive all the way out there! We started on a single horse track made by the wild horses in the area (we saw a couple on the drive in). After a while, it dumped us into the main wash/canyon that runs parallel to the ridge. The longer we were in the canyon, the brushier and more convoluted it got. We were going to head to the saddle, then take the ridge up, but we decided to just go up the steep, loose slope instead. It was slow going, but we eventually topped out and made the short ridge walk to the summit. Surprisingly, there was already a register, but with just 2 names since 2012. We added 3 more and came back pretty much the same way.

Route name

NE Slope

out-and-back
Obstacles

road/access issues, routefinding, bushwhacking, no water source, rockfall/loose rock

Key gear

GPS device