3 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY RANGES GUIDE NO. 3.14

TURTLE MOUNTAIN 4298 FEET CLASS 2

MILEAGE: 229 miles of paved road, 2 miles of good dirt, 7.75 miles of fair to poor dirt

DRIVE: Drive 83 miles E of Twentynine Palms, CA. on State Highway 62, turning left on

an unsigned good

dirt road 0.7 miles E of a railroad track crossing at highway milepost 117. Approaching from the east, this

turnoff is approximately 8.1 miles W of Vidal Junction. Drive 0.2 miles, crossing an MWD (Metropolitan

Water District) aqueduct siphon. Turning left (W) here, follow a good dirt road running parallel with a dirt

berm on the right for 1.8 miles to a junction. Bearing NW, continue straight on fair dirt 1.3 miles to a fork.

Bear right and drive 4.0 miles to a faint dirt road on the right. As a check, this faint road turnoff is located 150

yards before reaching a US General Land Office Survey Marker surrounded by a two foot high rock cairn just

off the right (E) side of the road. At this point turn sharply right (SE) onto the faint dirt road and follow it 0.25

miles to a wash. Carefully follow the road through the wash 0.2 miles as it turns E then NE, emerging out the

E side of the wash in a northerly direction. Continue 2.0 miles to the Turtle Mountains Wilderness boundary.

Park.

CLIMB: Hike 2.7 miles NW up the road to a fork. Bear left, following the road 0.5 m

iles W to where it

drops into a large sand wash on the left.

Drop into the wash and follow it W then NW for about 1.25 miles to

a broad, low saddle at UTM 021923. Walk WNW from the saddle, crossing a few deep washes en route to

the saddle (UTM 013927) just W of point 910+. Drop into the wash N of this saddle, hike up it for 200 yards

and exit right, gaining the ridgeline to the north. Climb the ridge W to where the summit comes into view,

then diagonal NW to the saddle between the peak and point 1285. From here it's a short climb to the top.

ROUND TRIP STATS: 2700 feet elevation gain, 13 miles, 7 hours

SIDELINES

1. Turtle Mountain is located within the boundaries of

the Turtle Mountains Wilderness Area. This new

wilderness area was created as part of the California Desert Protection Act

of 1994, Public Law 103-433,

Section 102 (68). The Turtle Mountains Wilderness Area encompasses approximately 144,500 acres of land

and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Revised 2/6/18