Hike Salsberry Peak, Ibex Peak, Sheephead Mountain Loop Death Valley National Park, CA

Directions

Route Map

Download GPX

Salsberry Peak, Ibex Peak, Sheephead Mountain Loop GPX Track

I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.

Add to Cart

View Cart

Seen while driving into Death Valley National Park along Jubilee Pass Road, Salsberry Peak and Sheephead Mountain are colorful peaks, enticing from all angles. Ibex Peak not so much, but it has its redeeming qualities. As you can see from my map, this loop involves a long desert slog, and most would likely prefer to do these three peaks as out-and-backs. In my never-ending mission to make hikes into loops, I'd say this one ended up pretty good overall, and with a little jogging through the mostly flat desert, the slog goes by quickly.

Austin and I set out from Salsberry Pass, heading along the ridge up to Salsberry Peak first. The ridge undulates a little bit, and maybe we would have saved a little bit of time had we stayed to the south of the ridge, but we were happy with the additional warmup vertical gain. Plus, the ridgeline views were pretty. About 2/3 along the ridge, we encountered a Class 2 section on bright yellow rock, leading to a large blob along the ridgeline. We dropped a couple hundred feet off this blob on a pretty steep slope. Along the next section of ridgeline, we bumped into a couple of loose Class 2+ moves on the crappy colorful rock, and a light Class 3 down climb on sturdy volcanic-looking rock. A steep incline with some loose rock led to a false summit of Salsberry Peak, the start of the final summit ridge. Some crumbly rock brought us to the summit, where we silently observed quite how far hiking through the open desert Ibex Peak would be. We returned to the false summit and found a route down the loose and unpleasant head of a major drainage (Class 2+) running south from the summit. The drainage involved some Class 2 boulder hopping and become more pleasant the farther down we went, eventually opening up into the desert.

We jogged generally southeast, taking washes when possible, but mostly just trying to stay on flat ground. Fortunately, the desert was mostly dirt and we got down to Jubilee Pass Road pretty quickly. We crossed Jubilee Pass Road and located a dirt road continuing southeast. Just after this dirt road bent to the right, we continued southeast away from that road to follow a very deteriorated road past a "No Motor Vehicles" sign. This old road paralleled a major wash on its right, and we followed the road until we decided to drop into the major wash. Ibex Peak wasn't impressive from down here, moreso just a really large lump rising out of the desert floor. We located a slope (there are a few that would work just fine) and followed it to the summit, passing over a false peak along the summit ridge. The views made up for the otherwise forgettable mountain.

We headed north off Ibex Peak, traversed the desert, and headed up a major drainage coming south off Sheephead Mountain. The hills to the south of the peak were a little annoying to navigate, but after a bunch of small ups-and-downs, we made it to the colorful base of Sheephead Mountain. Class 2 boulders and scree led to the summit. I was impressed at the colors on the northern slopes of Sheephead Mountain.

We headed along a fairly well-established social trail leading west off Sheephead Mountain, following the ridge until we reached a bright yellow section along the ridge. The social trail seemed to disappear here, so we dropped off to the south and jogged through the desert back to the car.

PEAKS ON HIKE
Elevation (ft) / Prominence (ft)

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Salsberry Peak

4255 ft

893 rise

Ibex Peak

4751 ft

1461 rise

Sheephead Mountain

4275 ft

880 rise

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!

Start of the ridgeline to Salsberry Peak, visible ahead on the left.

Lots of bumps along the ridgeline.

Looking back toward Salsberry Pass (left), Sheephead Mountain visible top center.

Salsberry Peak left of center.

Looking back as we continue along the ridge, Ibex Peak visible top left.

Large "blob" of bright yellow rock ahead on the right.

We got a little concerned momentarily that there would be no way to continue along the ridgeline.

But it was only Class 2 on the bright rock. Sheephead Mountain top left, Ibex Peak top center.

Close-up toward the colorful rock Class 2 stuff.

Salsberry Peak ahead, just some obstacles in the way along the ridgeline.

Class 3 volcanic-looking rock section. Pretty solid.

Some pinnacles along the ridgeline to wrap around.

Salsberry Peak head.

Looking back toward the ridgeline. You can see the Class 3 section on the left.

Easy slope up to the false summit (top right).

Looking back from the false summit.

Close-up toward the summit ridgeline, Class 2. Ibex Peak visible top left.

Summit of Salsberry Peak, view back along the ridgeline.

Close-up toward Longridge Peak (left) and Jubilee Mountain (right).

Close-up toward Epaulet Peak (left) and Calico Peak (right).

View toward our chosen descent drainage. We backtracked to the false summit and then dropped in. Sheephead Mountain visible left of center, Ibex Peak top right.

Class 2+ drainage descent, the least fun part of the day.

The drainage opens up into the desert.

View back toward Salsberry Peak as we head through the desert.

Ibex Peak still quite far away. You can see the good dirt road we'd follow for a while in the center.

Salsberry Peak top right, Epaulet Peak top left.

After following the good dirt road, we continued on this eroded dirt road. View looking back toward Salsberry Peak (top right).

Ibex Peak ahead.

We found a ridgeline that looked pleasant and started up.

View back down the ridgeline. We came up the drainage on the left. Salsberry Peak visible top right.

Ibex Peak ahead.

Looking back along the ridgeline, Sheephead Mountain visible center.

Close-up toward Epaulet (left) Salsberry (center), Sheephead (right).

After Ibex Peak, we followed its north ridge toward Sheephead Mountain (visible center).

Navigating the somewhat annoying hills below the summit of Sheephead Mountain.

Looking back at the ups-and-downs we came across, view toward Ibex Peak.

Class 2 to the summit block of Sheephead Mountain.

View back up the slope we ascended. It was colorful, but loose.

We wrapped around to the left and found a weakness in the summit block (Class 2). We also saw a cairn, marking that we had found the standard route.

Sheephead Mountain, view toward Ibex Peak. We ascended Sheephead from the hills on the right.

View toward Salsberry Peak.

Looking back toward Sheephead Mountain.

Beautiful colors on the descent from Sheephead.

We dropped down on the slopes, but the social trail we were following seemed to end.

Looking back up the slope we descended from Sheephead Mountain.

Continuing through the lovely desert, Salsberry Peak visible top right. We just wandered through the desert, found a wash, and made our way back to Salsberry Pass.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!