6 NEVADA RANGES GUIDE NO. 6.4

MOUNT JEFFERSON 11941 FEET CLASS 1

MILEAGE: 420 miles of paved road, 12.3 miles of excellent dirt, 7.4 miles of good dirt, 1.7 miles of poor to

4WD dirt road

DRIVE: From the intersection of US Highways 6 and

95 in Tonopah, NV., drive 5.3 miles E on US Highway

6 to its junction with State Route 376. Turn left (N) on State Route 376 and drive 13.0 miles to a paved road

signed "Monitor Valley via Belmont". Turn right here and drive 18.9 miles to the end of pavement, passing

the junction to Manhattan, NV. in 18.0 miles. From the end of pavement follow excellent dirt for 7.0 miles to

a sign indicating the Belmont, NV. town limits (the road from this sign through town is paved). From the

town limit sign, continue through Belmont and drop into the Monitor Valley, reaching the signed Meadow

Canyon Road (Road 20B) in 5.3 miles. Turn left here on good dirt and drive 5.8 miles to a fork at an

abandoned stone cabin. Bear right, driving 1.6 miles to a fork, where you'll bear left on signed road 010,

following it (poor dirt

, 4WD recommended) for 1.6 miles through a cattle guard to Jefferson Summit. 4WD's

park approximately 0.1 miles past the cattle guard. Park.

CLIMB: From the

4WD parking area, walk N along the W side of the barbed wire fence to its end in about

2.0 m

iles. Continue just W of the ridgeline on a very

faint use trail for 2.0 miles

to the highest (south summit)

of Mt. Jefferson's three summits. You'll find a scattering of communications equipment around the top.

ROUND TRIP STATS/2WD: 3200 feet elevation gain, 8 miles, 5 hours

SIDELINES

1. Mt. Jefferson is the highpoint of the Toquima

Range. The Toquimas, or "black backs" as they were called,

were a Mono Indian band living in the lo

wer Reese River Valley of Central Nevada.

2. Belmont, the small town S of Mt Jefferson was at one time the county seat of Nye County. The historic

Belm

ont courthouse, now a State Historic Monument, was built in 1876. Because of waning m

ineral

production over the next 20 years, the county seat was moved from Belmont to the boom town of Tonopah in

1905.

3. Mount Jefferson was named for the nearby Jefferson Cany

on Mining District on the west side of the

range.

Jefferson was a short-lived boom camp of the late 1800's.