Trip report
Apr 6, 2022 — Gold Mountain is a remote peak named for the mining history of the area. It's best accessed from Gold Point, a cute little well-maintained mining ghost town that apparently offers tours on weekends and is worth a quick visit. Its historic buildings were purchased by some folks psyched about the Nevada gold mining history and now this is a tourist destination, though I can't imagine it sees a ton of traffic way out here. From Gold Point, head south on 2nd Street here (37.35217, -117.36366) navigating the good web of mining roads leading to this waypoint (37.33862, -117.36346). Take this road south and follow it to this junction (37.30244, -117.33772), keeping right and desending south. This road continues for a while to this junction (37.26888, -117.34559). Head east here, where the road continues to be excellent. Keep left at this split (37.26342, -117.33291), and the this is where passenger cars likely have to stop. Crossover vehicles can continue along this road to where I parked at a nice flat area, located at a confluence of many old, bad roads.
The hike was a bit short for my taste relative to the amount of driving, but I didn't extend the hike to make this a longer and more enjoyable outing because I had another peak I wanted to get for the day, plus with my cursory research of the area, there didn't seem to be many oustanding points of interest in this area worthy of formulating a loop. I was content to get Gold Mountain and call it a nice leg stretch.
From my parking spot, I headed south on a dirt road, which wrapped around a hump on the slope and ended shortly after, just east of Gold Mountain. I followed the ridgeline, which consists of some sandy terrain and short spurts of Class 2. I recommend trying to stay close to the ridge crest when possible since the south slope seemed to be more brushy than the crest itself. The summit has some nice views toward the valleys to the south.