Trip report
Mar 19, 2016 — Eagle Mountain is a peak on the southern side of Joshua Tree National Park. A couple of years later I formulated a big loop that included Eagle Mountain, and I highly recommend that route over this more standard access route to Eagle Mountain. However, if you want an easier and more direct route to reach the summit, this is the one.
I started at the Cottonwood Campground and headed along a dirt road leading northeast before leaving the road and continuing more or less directly east to the canyon draining west from the summit. Overall the terrain is easy enough to navigate, but has some arroyos to hop in and out of. There were some nice granitic features and small arches along the way (one of which I thought was pretty cool and marked it on my map), but it's overall a bit of a slog. Once within the canyon, I used a social trail when available to navigate the bouldery ascent (Class 2). The scramble up was surprisingly fun, and overall not particularly loose.
At the top of the canyon, there was still some route-finding to be done. Eagle Mountain is visible ahead, but a drop separating me from the peak would add a fair amount of zig-zagging through boulders. While I did find a few cairns along the way, the sandy terrain made it hard to know the best way at times. Ultimately it ended up being a fun bit of hiking with some nice views amongst the granitic boulders, and I eventually made it to the summit without too much difficulty.