Mojave National Preserve / Hiking Granite Peak

Hiking Van Winkle Peak & Granite Peak | Mojave National Preserve, California | December 2, 2026

I have a special fondness for hiking in the desert. It’s where I started hiking 10+ years ago. It’s where my friends hike the most. And the geology and topography are unmatched in my opinion. The desert ranges and sky islands stand separate from each other. And if you can make it to the top of one, the views are almost always amazing.

But, compared to the hiking I did while living in Tucson over a decade ago, the mountains I’m climbing now almost never have established trails. For the past year, the number of peaks I’ve climbed without established trails has increased dramatically and our time in the Mojave was no different.

Van Winkle peak was a shorter mountain just South of our chosen campsite and once we arrived, I knew I had to climb it, even if it didn’t have my normal prominence goal. I cut cross country through the Mojave desert to reach the base of the peak, and then made good progress up the slopes. It was mostly treeless, with some cholla cactus so climbing was easy. At one point, looking up, the profile of the mountain looked distinctly like the iconic Kirkjufell in Iceland: the green and brown bands, the shape of the slope.

The top of this peak was rocky but fun to traverse and the views were unobstructed everywhere. The center of attention were the peaks just to the North. From this vantage, the change from the desert flats to the granite peaks looked so abrupt. Giant rocky outcrops just suddenly erupted from an otherwise flat slope. And what seemed impossibly far away, Granite peak towered above.

The single largest obstacle to my hiking is mileage. At this point, I think I can safely bushwhack some pretty daunting scenery, but getting to a good starting point can prove very hard. We’re just a bit squeamish of taking our van (and home) down any but the most established forest roads, and so if I want to hike, I have to hike down those same roads, turning 7 miles hikes into 14 miles hikes or even longer.

After our day at Kelso Dunes, we scouted out some of the access roads to the traditional starting point for Granite Peak. And naturally, nothing looked especially friendly. We ultimately opted to park at the top of the pass near a comms facility and I would walk the roads. Fortunately, they were generally flat and scenic in their own right. I ended up passing by some other boondockers as well as the edge of the Sweeney-Granite Mountains research preserve which is completely off limits to hikers.

At just over three miles in, I reached the ‘trailhead’; a large flat parking area at the end of the road. And from here I continued on old OHV trails along the valley floor. There was an old dilapidated corral and some other structures, but otherwise I was naturally alone.

I think technically, the road I was on leads up another neighboring mountain to an old mine. But I had my eyes set on the highest peak (and just because there’s a road on a map doesn’t mean there’s a road in real life). As I progressed, the granite boulders increased and grew in size. It reminded me a lot of the Cochise Mountains in Southern Arizona.

And then began the climb up the slope. And friends, this was the hardest peak I did this winter. And it was all because of the iconic boulders. It felt that every route I took led to some precarious drop or dead end in the boulders. Progress was extremely slow and extremely steep. The granite offered great traction for boots, but was rough whenever I had to use my hands. There was never a point where I felt unsafe, just tired and worn down.

But, as always seems to be the case, once I made the peak it felt so gratifying. Endless views of the preserve. Far to the North, Mount Charleston in Nevada showed off a nice snow cap. I may have been able to even see as far as Telescope Peak to the North West. I even had enough energy to go tag another nearby ‘pillar’ requiring some class three scrambling to reach the top.

But what goes up must come down and going down, while easier physically was still daunting from a navigation aspect. I tried to stay higher on the ridge to avoid the traps and difficulties of the boulders I had on the way up, but somehow ended up even further down slope!

At long last, and almost nine miles of walking, I reached the end of the mountain. Which only left me five miles of road walking to get back to Jess. Needless to say, I was quite tired and we took a day off the next day to recuperate. But it only seems fitting that my first and last major peaks of 2025 were both in California. You can see a full recording here.

And so ended my peak bagging journey of 2025. Definitely one of my biggest years for several metrics. My highest and most prominent peak was also my first peak of the year: Telescope. But I also netted 26 additional P300M+ peaks towards my 300 peak goal, and 51 peaks in general (where a peak has 100 meters of prominence).