Saddle Peak Hills
February 16, 2026 — Stella and I decided to take a short recovery hike (we had a big adventure run on Valentine’s Day) before the storms moved in. We headed to the Saddle Peak Hills, one of our favorite wilderness areas in the region. We parked the Jeep off Ibex Spring Road near BM JRH16 (35.76323N, -116.36318W) and headed up a faint old mining road on the south side of the road. We had to do some seriously route finding just to get across the wash because we wanted to avoid trampling the developing superbloom.
The old 4x4 climbs briefly to (.7606, .3602) el 1308 before dropping into an unnamed arroyo. It continues a slow climb before exiting the south bank at (.7597, .3584) el 1338. The road climbs steeply up the hillside before cresting over a really nice bowl at el 1457. The road just dead ends here, so we headed back and continued southeast up the arroyo.
We continued a steady climb, admiring the flowers, as the arroyo continued to squeeze narrower and narrower. Around (.7577, .3536) el 1474 the gravely floor changed to bedrock cuts as we continued our climb. We stayed in the most obvious fork of the wash, though there were many side options. We could see the storm clouds building to the west so we decided to get to the head of the arroyo and then turn back — no point pushing our luck with weather moving in.
We reached the end of the arroyo at (.7537, .3495) el 1785 with great views of the namesake Saddle Peak Hills and, looking south, we spied some nice wide draws to explore next time. We turned back and made our way back to the trailhead. We actually missed the road exit from the arroyo and overshot a bit, but found a crossover using one of the other parallel arroyos that feed down into Ibex Wash.
Total distance was 3 miles with 804 feet of total ascent. After we got going again, we headed down Ibex Dune Road to Saratoga Spring Road and then back up Harry Wade. Wanted to check conditions for running next week, all was fine, a few spots of deep sand on Ibex Dune Road, but nothing the Jeep couldn’t just plow through in 2WD.
Saddle Peak Hills from the head of the unnamed arroyo we took.
Unnamed arroyo
Unnamed bowl at the end of the old 4×4 mining road.
Desert sunflower (Geraea canescens) covers the entrance to the old 4×4 road.
Notch-leaf Scorpionweed (Phacelia crenulata) on the wall of the arroyo.
Notch-leaf Scorpionweed and Golden Suncup (Chylismia brevpipes).
Desert Fivespot (Eremalche rotundifolia).
Desert Sunflower cover the alluvial fan of the Ibex Hills near Superior Mine Road.
Ibex Dunes before the storm.
