Spangler Hills / Hiking Red Mountain
Hiking & Camping in the Spangler Hills Area | Hiking Red Mountain | Ridgecrest, CA | December 2025
When we left Walker Pass and continued driving East, the sky was becoming more overcast and there was a chill in the air. We had been tracking the forecast for the past few days, watching the hype for multiple Christmas Eve/Day storms grow. Rain seemed unavoidable in Southern California, but at least the high desert was supposed to get slightly less precipitation than the coast and the Sierras. Today’s goal was to scope out the area and see if there was a place that we felt comfortable hunkering down in during the storm. We had the advantage that we have lived in the desert before, and we have also seen in the past how the desert reacts to getting a lot of rain. We know how quickly we could end up in a sticky situation, so we were trying to be as informed as we could, and ready to move to safety if necessary.
However, we also still wanted to enjoy these last days before the storms moved in, so we went searching for a boondocking spot in the Spangler Hills southeast of Ridgecrest, specifically near the Wagon Wheel OHV area. We ended up finding a spot that worked for tonight, but because of the road, which was already a little rough and rutted, we didn’t think we wanted to be here during the storm. At first look, the area didn’t look like anything too special, but once we started wandering on the roads and off-road vehicle tracks, we found that we were surrounded by beautiful desert scenery, cool rocks, wildflowers, and the gorgeous snow-capped Sierras to the West. It was the perfect spot to go wandering — it reminded us a little of the Alabama Hills, while the views weren’t quite as spectacular, it was much less busy. (Though we’re sure that the OHV events make the area much less attractive).
We spent most of the afternoon outside, either by the van or wandering around. After the sun set, we retired to the van for a quiet night — the calm before the storm.
The next morning, we did a little more wandering before packing up. The rain was predicted to start in the early morning hours of the next day, on Christmas Eve. However, it seemed like the timing kept getting pushed back, so we thought that we would be okay with boondocking one more night, just somewhere closer to a paved highway. And since we still had a full day to spend outside, we decided to move closer to a trailhead of a peak Curtis wanted to hike. We drove down to the trailhead for Red Mountain right off the junction with US-395, and Curtis set out for a hike under gray skies while I hung out in the van.
Curtis: After my previous foray up Scodie Peak, I was a bit more hesitant to go off and climb any peak. At least not without doing more research. But Red Mountain proved to be one of my favorite desert peaks of the winter. Good prominence, a good use trail, not too long, and some interesting history.
I started from the van following OHV roads towards the base of the mountain. The OHV road sort of continued up to a saddle along the ridge, and then surprisingly, continued up and along the ridge, weaving between some of the minor sub peaks. But the grade on some of those sections was incredibly steep and loose that I don’t know how anyone could get anything wheeled up there. But to the west of the peak was a nice flat area that clearly had been used as a campsite.
From here, a foot trail/use path continued even higher and steeper up to the main ridge leading to the peak. I normally focus on letterboxing, but letterboxers seldom plant boxes on long strenuous hikes. Geocachers however frequently put caches in remote areas (so long as they aren’t wilderness, National Park, forbidden….a long list of don’t’s). Red Mountain was no different, but this time I was able to be the first finder on the cache. Kinda neat.
Once on the ridge, the hiking was easy with great views all around. I love these desert peaks that not only have good prominence but good isolation. You can see all around including Scodie Peak which I had hiked two days before and the snowy peaks of the High Sierra that were fast becoming engulfed in clouds.
The summit area had a really interesting structure. Or rather the remains of one with four very large propane/gas cylinders lying around. Fortunately, I wasn’t left puzzling for too long as a local historian had included their research on the station in the summit log. As best as anyone can tell, the summit had been used by the China Lakes Naval Air Station (or its predecessors) as a signal in the mid-20th century. The propane would have fed some type of flame, the burner of which was also still there. Another fun site from the top was nearby Cuddeback Dry Lake – the filming location of one of our favorite movies: Holes.
Jess: When Curtis returned, we considered staying right here, but then studied the satellite map and found a spot just down the road that was a bit more discreet, and still close to pavement. We parked in such a way that would make it easy to pull onto the road as soon as the rain started, and left the front of the van in ‘drive mode’ for an easy escape. After discussing our options, which mostly revolved around either driving to Barstow and stealth camping on pavement or getting a hotel, we realized that hotels in that area had very reasonable deals with using points, and decided to treat ourselves to a hotel the next night, which would be Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Hopefully that one night would get us through the worst of the bad weather, and after that we could return to desert camping!
