Peak 6551 - Lakeside Mountains - April 17, 2021

[scatman]

Headed to the west desert with my wife yesterday to summit the second highest peak in the Lakeside Range. The hike consisted of making our way through Vindicator Canyon, where we stopped at an old lead and zinc mine to look around, before heading further up canyon. Eventually, we climbed out of the canyon and made our way up to a ridge and followed the ridge north and then west to the top of unnamed peak 6551.

Solitude was the theme for the day as we saw no one else the entire day. While the day was sunny, the wind blew steadily all day which made it quite chilly when we weren't hiking up hill.


Almost to the trailhead - looking southwest towards Craner Peak which is the highest peak in the range at 6625 feet.


Unnamed Peak 5546 at the entrance to Vindicator Canyon


Peak 6551 at the center of the image. A little over three miles to the summit.


Heading into Vindicator Canyon


Passed a lot of burned Juniper along our route


Craner Peak


A Juniper that survived the fire


Unnamed Peak 5861


Our first wildflower of the hike - Arrowleaf Balsamroot - This was the only one we saw all day


Some red rock in Vindicator Canyon


Old foundation near mining site


Checking out the old mine shaft


Looks like it goes a long way down


Sheila, making her way up Vindicator Canyon


Peak 6551 - seen as we are making our way out of the canyon and onto the ridge


Low Cryptantha


Views starting to open up to the east


Obligatory mountain shot.


Stansbury Island and Castle Rock - our hiking destination two weeks ago


A couple of steep hills coming up


Making our way north along the ridge


Phlox


Sheila, making her way up to the ridge - unnamed peak 5927 behind her


Almost on top of the ridge - Stansbury Island in the distance


Craner Peak again - some snow left on the upper northern slopes


The final push


View to the south from the summit of Peak 6551


View to the north along the spine of the Lakeside Range, from the summit of Peak 6551


View to the west, with Puddle Valley below and the Grassy Mountains in the distance


Sheila, just off the summit (the post is the summit marker) - time for lunch


Brown's Peony, near the summit


A nice look down Peepstone Canyon


We descended down a side canyon to Vindicator Canyon and ran into this adit in the side canyon


Looking down the side canyon


View down Vindicator Canyon


Back at the old Jeep


View of the Stansbury Range on our drive out


The End

 

[regehr]

Love it!

 

[Rockskipper]

Neat country. Is that the black Jeep of the family?

 

[scatman]

Neat country. Is that the black Jeep of the family?

It most certainly is. She's getting old though @Rockskipper. I bought it back in July of 1993 on my birthday. Though I bought it in 93, it is a 94. I'm a little leery of taking it on longer trips anymore, but what the hell. You should feel the shaking when you get up to 70 or above on the freeway. Can't hear anything or anybody. I'm thinking about heading further west to the Grassy Mountains and hiking to the high point this coming weekend, so it'll have to get me out there and back one more time. Fingers crossed! This was my third time to the Lakeside Range, but I've never hiked the Grassy Mountains before, just passed them to the south on I-80.

 

[Rockskipper]

My rig's a 97, almost 200k miles (Chevy). I worry a lot when I get way back out there with it, but not enough to not go. Black Jeep will be fine, that was a good year for Jeeps.

 

[scatman]

My rig's a 97, almost 200k miles (Chevy). I worry a lot when I get way back out there with it, but not enough to not go. Black Jeep will be fine, that was a good year for Jeeps.

Good to know that was a good year. I think I'll pull the trigger and go.

 

[The Trout Whisperer]

Looks more like somebody was sent to timeout to think about what he’d done instead of “looking down a mine shaft”. LOL

Nice trip report.

 

[scatman]

Looks more like somebody was sent to timeout to think about what he’d done instead of “looking down a mine shaft”. LOL

Nice trip report.

Ha! Man you know it. I'm in timeout 24/7. I think I dropped that recipe down the shaft. How am I going to get it back?