Trip report
Jan 20, 2020 — Matt and I drove along the good-quality Castle Dome Mine Road, Castle Dome Peak shooting out on the horizon ahead. Our GPS tried taking us past the Castle Dome Mine Museum, but we were blocked by a roadblock. We inquiried at the museum, and were told by a woman that we had to go back and use another road. I assume that recently the road was closed off because it runs along private property, but who knows. So, don't expect as easy of a drive to get to the trailhead anymore. The new turn-off is located at 33.02983, -114.20242, a much less good dirt road, but still passable by my Subaru.
Once at the trailhead, we started east through the wash until Castle Dome Peak came into view. A massive cairned arrow marked the exit from the wash. The social trail then hugs the wash as it tcontinues to travel east. It is easy to miss this social trail and instead continue up a side-wash, but that leads away from the route. The trail becomes quite clear and continues to the northern base of Castle Dome Peak on pleasant Class 2 scree as it wraps around to the east. We passed a lone pinnacle of rock on our left and soon after, we entered a gully critical to gaining access to the peak. It was well-marked, and wide enough to be fairly obvious. A few fun Class 2 moves led up the gully to a notch on the east side of Castle Dome Peak. If you make it to this notch, you'll get some wonderful views to the east, but note that the Class 2/3 standard route is about 50 feet back down the gully. We initially missed the standard route and from the notch, took an optional Class 4 scramble, meeting up with the standard route. It was quite fun and had solid holds and I'd recommend it to add some spice to the peak. Either way you end up going, the route continues around to the southeast side of Castle Dome Peak and ascends on colorful rock to the summit. I know it's a route marked as Class 3 by most, but it's very straightforward, easy Class 3 if you stay on route. The views from the summit are amazing, and looking out into the KOFA, we were immediately inspired to go for all the pinnacles in the area.