All these hours of bumping around on desert roads save only about 1000 feet of gain. Those who prefer climbing to driving should park on the highway due east of the peak at about 1900 feet. 10 miles round trip, 3000 feet gain.
After this excursion we headed for Beatty, for dinner at the Burro Inn, followed by a quick trip back to Bishop and Mammoth over Westgard Pass.
Four years of drought have left the desert in poor shape. Even the creosote bushes are dry, and the bitterbrush is struggling. The rodent burrows seemed unoccupied, and we saw almost no signs of wildlife, except for sheep tracks on Avawatz. Pray for rain, while you can still find a rattlesnake to pray with.
Should oneself be found a few miles north of Las Vegas on Highway 95 towards Tonopah,. to the west is presented a rather unusual view. Charleston Peak, southern Nevada's highest summit, boldly looms at its 11,918 ft elevation. Between it and our highway reposes a high rocky formation, perhaps half a mile or more long, resembling a reclining mummy with folded palms, oriented in a general N-S direction. It is not too shabby with its 11,530 ft loftiness, and is aptly called Mummy Mountain.
Charleston Peak and Mummy Mtn, part of the Spring Mountain Range, are about a airline mile separated, and though the former is well above timberline, both possess slopes graced with spotty stands of bristlecone pines--quite rare in any forest--and the biggest groves I have seen. They come in two forms--the living and the dead. The dead snags are no less than grotesque--so clean and etched after their long contact with age-old. snows and windstorms, and many still cling tightly to the soil. Bristlecones are considered to be among our oldest living trees. Also at the lower heights, many conifers and other evergreen trees abound. Being true desert peaks, there is little moisture and one wonders how these big trees find support. It has to be the ample snowfall--which fades away quickly in anticipation of an approaching Las Vegas summer. Only one flowing stream is said to exist within Toiyabe National Forest--the locale of both summits--that of Deer Creek--which feeds off the east side of Mummy. The rest of the watersheds are only normally, dry washes.
On a mid-Oct day last year, I found myself on said Highway 95, appearing at the Mummy. I had another day to spare before arriving home solo from Utah, so I decided to try and lick this DPS task.
The $2 Forest Service map is quite void of Mummy info, of which I lamented, and my 30+ yr old USGS Charleston Peak Quad topo sheet does not well explain the situation. Upon a previous inquiry at the