Tucki Mtn. (6732) via Mosaic Canyon March 13-14, 1982 John McCully

Tucki Mtn. (6732) via Mosaic Canyon March 13-14, 1982 John McCully This particular hike was spent mostly sleeping. The first nap was from 8-10, the second from 11-12, with the final tucking in occurring at 5:30 and lasting until eight the next morning. Self indulgence as serious as this is difficult when other people are along. As the 13th was my 42nd birthday I apparently chose to celebrate the occasion with sleep.

Going up I managed to spend my usual amount of time thrashing about on ridges and pondering waterfalls, frequently within eyesight of an excellent trail on the opposite side of the canyon. I used this trail for coming down, finding it fairly easy to follow except for an unmarked spot where it leaves the streambed heading east and north at about 3100 feet. Going up this trail might be somewhat more difficult as it has long since been washed out in the places where it uses the streambed and it is necessary to turn out of the streambed in three spots.

Following is a description of how one might make use of this trail to get to the top of Tucki. This description might be taken. with a grain of salt as I used it only for descending and my altimeter has never completely recovered from it's second trip to the laundry.

The roadhead (about 1000 feet) is easily achieved via the Mosaic Canyon road which begins a few feet to the west of Stovepipe Wells.

A 20 foot tall white boulder sits in the middle of the streambed at about 1500 feet. A few feet south of this boulder a trail can be seen leading up a small wash to the east. This piece of trail deposits one at about 2100 feet above a major waterfall. The bottom of this particular waterfall apparently forms the limit of the tourist tide pouring up the streambed of the main canyon. It might be noted that this waterfall is in the longest branch of the canyon rather than the one marked "Canyon" on the map. As I missed the turnoff described above I bypassed this waterfall by backing off a couple of hundred yards and scrambling up a ridge to the north to join to trail.

At about 2200 feet some ducks mark the large gully coming in from the east. About 50 feet into this gully some more ducks on the right mark the beginning of a trail which bypasses an extensive series of quite beautiful waterfalls, depositing one back in the main creekbed at about 3100 feet. If the turnoff to get onto this piece of trail is missed a major waterfall blocks the way an eighth of a mile further up the main streambed. Going up I chose to bypass this waterfall on the right, thus winding up on the opposite side of the canyon from the trail.

At about 3200 feet a 2 foot tall duck with a frying pan sticking out the side marks a ridge on the right with a nice trail that takes one to the plateau at 5200 feet. From this plateau the summit plateau can be gained by scrambling up to the east of the bump 5920+. Then by heading due south over a low east-west ridge one can get into the north running creek, which can be followed to the end with minor difficulty. At this point Tucki can be differentiated from various similar bumps by the small tower on the top.

Although I did this as an overnight it would appear that this route might be used for a somewhat strenuous day hike, the gain being about 6000 feet and the total round trip distance being about 15 miles. I found the canyon quite beautiful. The entire route is either trail or easy class II.
 
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