Hike Hanna Benchmark and Southern Sloan Canyon NCA Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, NV

Feb 1, 2026 — Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area is best known for the Petroglyph Canyon Trail, but as part of the greater McCullough Mountains, there are lots of peaks to reach. Hanna Benchmark and Peak 3960 are little more than lumps within the McCullough Range, located south of Black Mountain, and I honestly couldn’t discern them on the horizon until many miles into my hike. These are a pair that get very little attention, the landscape is pretty bland, and the features are sort of without texture. However, the trailhead being 15 minutes from my house, I couldn’t resist going for them any longer.

A few years ago we attained Peak 4121 from the east after reaching a couple of other summits lower in elevation. The plan was to also snag Hanna Benchmark on that outing, but we ran out of time, and plus, I reasoned approaching from this direction would make for another day out. In hindsight, Peak 4121 would certainly be more easily reached via this route, but since I’d already done it, I decided to skip repeating it today. I’ll note that you could more easily approach Hanna Benchmark from the west, but that would leave Peak 3960 abandoned, so despite the long mileage I decided this was the best way to go.

The first few miles are on a very good trail, but shortly after passing a fence with a pedestrian-only entrance, the trail slowly began to fade. On my ascent I lost the trail many times, but did a much better job on my descent and therefore used that track for my attached map. The trail does exist for most of the hike leading to the base of the slopes, ending with an old road bed and an open mine shaft.

Past the mine shaft, the hike continued fully cross-country over the typical McCullough Mountains terrain consisting of black embedded boulders set in soft ground. Fortunately, the boulders were a trifle compared to other parts of the range, so the outing ended up being fairly straightforward and enjoyable. Even if the scenery isn’t the best the Las Vegas area has to offer, I had a nice time in this sweeping landscape.

I entered a wash for a half mile, deciding to head up to Peak 3960 first. I left the wash on its east side took the gradual slope up to the summit, where there was some Class 2 due to the steep terrain. I continued south, dropping into a drainage before ascending again up toward Hanna Benchmark, where I was surrounded by more of the same expansive landscape, and Las Vegas was pretty neat to see at this distance. I headed northwest from Hanna Benchmark along what sort of resembled a ridgeline until determining a spur slope that would take me gently down into the wash I’d left earlier.