Trip report
Dec 17, 2024 — Located deep in the middle of nowhere and just west of the Aubrey Peak Wilderness, Castaneda Peak is an intimidating volcanic tower that Adam and I have wanted to explore together for years. Although it provided a fun scramble, it turned out to be far less dangerous than we had anticipated. We combined it with a few surrounding peaks to create a clockwise loop.
We accessed the area via Alamo Road, reaching this point (34.60633, -113.81518) before heading southwest on Planet Ranch Road. From there, we took a southern-running road here (34.48789, -113.91097), which became increasingly sandy and unsuitable for passenger vehicles. I originally wanted to park along this road around here (34.44047, -113.90531) to spend more time hiking and avoid a long drive, but Adam insisted on pushing our cars closer so that we wrap around to the south side of the peaks. I think the time spent hiking would have been comparable to the extra driving, so I’d recommend starting from the east and just hiking the additional miles. However, if you prefer to get closer and park where we did, continue south to this turnoff (34.37094, -113.91266) and follow the road north. This stretch has a few challenging spots that really tested our Crossover SUVs.
We started hiking north, gaining the east ridge of Castaneda Peak. We followed a series of ribs and shallow chutes on relatively solid rock to reach the summit, with nothing exceeding Class 3. Given how much time it took to get out here and since the surrounding peaks looked somewhat interesting, we agreed to continue north to Peak 2651. From here its summit block looked troublesome. We descended Castaneda Peak’s north ridge on reasonable terrain and then started up our second peak using its loose Class 2 southern slope. The base of the summit block was a vertical wall, so we wrapped around to the northeast side. Here, we found a Class 3 chute that provided a weakness to the ridge crest. A short, wannabe knife-edge traverse got us to the summit.
Next, we headed toward Peak 2510, an enjoyable Class 2+ scramble that wound through interesting rock. We descended via the east ridge, as the south face presented substantial cliffs. Peak 2625 completed our loop, but it was just a straightforward hike up a forgettable slope. From there, we descended west and returned to our cars.