Turtle Mountains

Feb 1954

By: Willard Dean

none

The last week-end of February saw 41 persons willing to drive a long way to the Turtle Mountains area. Most of them arrived at windy campsite early Saturday evening. Randall Henderson enlivened our campfire program with some local history and Indian legends of the area. Sunday morning he and Thomas Corrigan generously gave the group a lift on their four-wheel drive Willys along a boulder-studded road to a point half a mile below Mopah Springs. From there the climbers hiked to the base of high walled Mopah Peak. Encountering a wide chimney on the west side which required considerable rock climbing, the group retreated and sent out scouts to search for a better route. Ed Gammon and Tom Corrigan found a feasible rock-climbing route and led 5 of the party to the summit after a long rock climb with several 4th class pitches. Lee Wininger led a group searching for a route without considerable rock climbing and they finally returned to campsite without reaching the summit. Still others in the group went rock hunting for chalcedony roses which are found in abundance in this area. Those five led to the summit were Randall Henderson, Bob Bear, Pauline Saylor, Lillian Casler, and yours truly.


Detailed information for visiting one or more peaks mentioned in this article can be found in the
Desert Peak Section Road and Peak Guides

DPS Archives Index | Desert Peaks Section