"Fellow prominence peak pursuer Matt got us to the trailhead in his Jeep after a long dirt road drive. You need 4WD and high clearance, since the road is pretty sandy in places. Some sections of the road were better than others, and overall we were able to keep up a decent speed for most of it. We didn't have any interactions with the border patrol, and drove by only one truck. The road walk went well, and we entered the canyon and took mostly the usual route up, although we were higher up on the south slope of the canyon on the ascent. There's a lot of trash in the canyon and even up on the summit. For probably two thirds of our ascent route, we avoided seeing trash since we were higher up on the canyon side. But descending, we stayed in the wash more and saw all the trash from illegals. Perhaps a group can request permission to drive into the mouth of the canyon (avoiding having to walk the 8 mile closed section of the road) in exchange for some trash cleanup? It definitely would be nice to drive to the base of this peak, and the mountain and surrounding scenery is really beautiful. We ended up doing 18.3 miles and 2000 ft. of elevation gain, and it took us about 8:18." — ZachTeich • Feb 27, 2024