Northshore Peak, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Hiked Friday, March 5. I have a Valley of Fire hike from a few weeks before this but still need to go over pictures. This post contains only my phone camera shots, plus a panorama that google automagically stiched together for me.

This was a late afternoon hike, after I drove up from the LA area. The title may seem odd, because I've previously posted for Northshore Summit. This is different. But if you look at the third to the last photo on this post, you'll see where I went.

You can park in the same lot but rather than going up the obvious trail past the vault toilet, you go back down, cross Northshore Drive, and head towards the left (east) end of the impressive Northshore Peak. You achieve the ridge, then head along or behind the ridge, working your way west. Mostly a walk up, until the last few peaks.

I'm pretty sure I got to the peak right of the notch (not the rightmost peak). Hard to tell, as I turned around before heading up that short, steep bit, as I was running out of daylight.

All of the pictures except the last were taken from the ridgeline. The panorama at top is looking east and northeast, towards Lake Mead. The second is from the second-to-last saddle I got to, shooting north. The top left of that photo is looking towards the east section of Bowl of Fire, which I also recent hiked. The ridge you walk along to for Northshore Summit is at the right. The next shot is looking more or less southeast, I think. Lake Mead is that way, too.

The next shot is looking a bit further east than the previous shots. The parking area for Northshore Summit is about 60 percent of the way from left to right, at the center, vertically. On the original (on my computer), I can zoom in and see the parking lot, then see the trail, heading atop the low ridge, into the shadow of the higher ridge, then along that higher ridge, to the summit, and beyond. From this angle I can see what AllTrails probably meant me to take to get to Bowl of Fire, although I can also see the ridgeline I took instead.

The last shot gives you an idea of how dark it was before I got back. Means I definitely turned around at the right time, because I made it off the steep section with light to spare, but then had to walk the last 3/4 of a mile or so in late twilight. Couldn't see very well, but the lower section is sort of cross-country, anyway, and there are no dropoffs or even significant rocks to trip over. Just need to avoid the creosote bushes.

Set the ISO to 6400, opened my zoom up to f/4, 24mm, for 1/2 second. Tilted the camera back, with one edge resting on the car roof, and tried to hold still. Orion is visible pretty easily, which I guess is all I figured I could get, under the circumstances.

Only about 2.5 miles for the day, with about 900 feet of elevation gain. Short, but somewhat slow going, as there was a fair amount of picking and choosing and backtracking, trying to find the easier route up and down the ridge. Pretty spectacular views from the top, though. I'll likely return when I have a bit more daylight, to reach the official summit.