We left the springs at 7am Sunday, and parked in the Pinon Pines near the ridge to Waucoba. We started hiking at 9am, and never did find the gentle ridge to the peak, so we took the steep one, and lunched on top at 11:30. We walked through a few drifts the last 1500 feet, but it was still powder, and the day was warm, and there were no problems. Barbara Hoffman discovered a rare type of fungus near the summit, and was going to cart the curly red stuff down to the Visitor's Center until it was stretched a bit and declared a balloon. We left the top at 12 and found the cars at around 1:45. It was an enjoyable climb, but I am interested in seeing Ann Fulton's (BRE) route that took her to within 20 minutes of the summit by 4WD!
Other trip participants were Cyril Weaver, Doug Hatfield and Jack Wickel. --Scot Jamison
November 9-10, 1991 Co-leaders: Paul Bloland and Ed Lubin
The Approach. Needle and Manly Peaks are both located in Butte Valley, one of the most remote areas in Death Valley National Monument, reached from either the east or west by bad roads. Our original plan had been to use the eastern approach both ways so that we could stop at Tecopa Hot Springs on our way out on Sunday. In a phone call to Park Headquarters I learned that a conventional Subaru had made it in and out of Butte Valley via the Warm Spring Canyon Road several weeks before but that Goler Wash was also feasible for 4WD. We decided on the Goler Wash/Mengel Pass route as the more conservative choice for our approach. Later, after talking with several drivers which had entered from the east, we were glad that we had decided upon our western approach.
We used the DPS Road and Peak Guide information to direct people to the almost vanished and now privately owned 1897 ghost town, of Ballarat, several miles east of the Trona/Wildrose Road north of Trona. Members of our party arrived through the night at our off-road camping spot, a strictly utilitarian turn-out a quarter of a mile south of Ballarat which we had marked with an orange cardboard sign.
After finishing breakfast, the 17 members of our party consolidated cars and left at 7:00am to caravan down Wingate Road, a good, well-graded dirt road, apparently well-traveled by mining trucks during the week. Fifteen miles south of Ballarat we turned left up the Goler Wash road which was narrow but also well-graded as far as the Keystone Mine. It was in this area, according to Barbara Reber and Owen Maloy, that the notorious Manson Family hid out at the Barker Ranch after the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969.
Above the mine, the road got much rougher so we shifted into 4WD. Several very bad sections were luckily by-passed by short detours. About 9:3Oam we dropped down into Butte Valley, distinguished by Striped Butte, a small gray and white-banded peak that rises abruptly from the level valley floor. After a brief look at the cabin at Grand View Spring, we drove across the valley on a good track to park (plenty of parking) at Willow Spring for our climb of Needle.