Nice day hike. Tried the east side first but couldn't get more than .3 mi into the dirt road w/ my 2WD Kia rental sedan before a washout forced me to back down the road. Had better luck with the west side from Frenchman Lake. Ended up parking and hiking 3 mi up the dirt road before bushwhacking to the top. Ended the trip with a refreshing dip in Frenchman.
davidsanger - Jul 3, 2018 6:23 pm Date Climbed: Jun 30, 2018
from 7120' on west side
no trouble with Forester from Frenchman's Lake to trailhead on Snow Lake Road. Then abandoned road to meadow, up to saddle w/ 8120 then to saddle between east and west peaks. no brush. Registers on both summits.
wmolland - Jun 26, 2016 8:18 pm Date Climbed: Jun 25, 2016
Fom Frenchman Lake
A relatively straight forward ascent. The Eckert direction mentioned in the report before are spot on. I followed the 4x4 road (and saw a bear along the way) to a seldom used ATV road, located just past where the road takes a sharp downhill turn, which led to the north summit. From there its an annoying, but very short, bush bash to the summit. Stellar views!
bechtt - Aug 20, 2015 11:23 am Date Climbed: Aug 14, 2015
Easy west side approach
I used Steve Eckert's excellent directions (and maps) for driving up the west side -- no brush! My reasonable clearance Honda Element didn't have any trouble going this way but I wouldn't recommend going past the gravel roads with a passenger car. I found a washed out version of the road he shows starting at waypoint SPRCK7 (map 3). Better to start about 200' below that point and hike up the draw. A meadow, a logging road, and a trail led me to within 400' of the summit (basically following his directions) with pretty much no brush along the way.
trexkerry - Jun 4, 2015 2:17 am Date Climbed: May 31, 2015
Car Destroyer
Drove up to within 2+ miles of summit through terrible brush and a slow road, the hike itself was actually nice and the summit had great views. TR is HERE.
mtbaxter - Sep 16, 2014 6:48 pm Date Climbed: Aug 30, 2014
Heavy Brush From the West
I summited Adams Peak from the west. Because of the difficult scrub I encountered on this route, I would advise not to take my path. Although scrub was a problem for Dennis Poulin and others who climbed Adams from the NE, it sounds like they had an easier time than the route from the west.
I chose the western route because of its proximity to the drive up route for Dixie Mtn, another Calif 2000'+ prominence peak. Both peaks can be found by driving north on rte 284 north out of the hamlet of Chilcoot, toward Frenchman Lake.
Drive 4.6 miles north out of Chilccot (not the 4.8 described in one report).
Turn R onto an unsigned dirt road just before the "Frenchman Rec Area" sign. This is rd 24N44. Reset your odometer.
0.3 mi cattle guard
Go past 5924 and all spurs
At 4.1 mi a cattle guard. Just past this at 4.2 mi go R. There is no road sign onto this but looking back you will see a miliage sign.
At 5.3 mi go L at a fork not on the topo map.
At 6.5 mi there is a private meadow with a corrigated building on the L, then a fork gated to to R. Go L.
At 7.4 mi there is a ridge line with good parking. I parked here but wished I drove a little farther to the hairpin turn at lat 39.903 long 120.11. I ended up walking the road to here, where a good pullout is located.
From here the peak which is just SW of Adams can be seen, as well as the ridge line which goes S from that false summit. fI climbed E up to the saddle along that ridgeline, at Lat 39.904 Long 120.10. The climb was primarily through forest, with only a mild hindrance by slippery pine needles. There was some brush.
Once past the saddle, however, I saw that the path N to Adams was virtually all brush, and a nasty brush at that.This added about an hour to the climb. Once I reached the notch between Adams and the peak to the SW, the brush was much more avoidable. Here it was steep but the rocks easily climbed. I went up a chute and found myself just W of the lesser SE summit.I would have climbed that too, but now there were these short trees which were a nuisance in their own way, so I just headed NW up to the true HP, which I could now see, with its pole and all. The "pole" was actually a piece of a wired relic of a triangulation station. Nearby was an undated benchmark and a tin cylinder type canister with a climber's register.
Heading down I used Dennis Poulin's chute with little brush to the saddle, then decided to go counterclockwise around the SW false summit. This was a better route, but not by much. I still cursed the brush, and tried to stay in slightly better forest whenever possible.
seano - May 29, 2014 2:58 pm Date Climbed: May 19, 2014
From the west
Definitely the lamest of the northern SPS peaks. Bushwhacked from a 4WD road up to the quad-bike road along the ridge, then followed the standard route to the bush-whack to the summit. Found an abandoned logging road on the descent. Trip report.
BobD3 - May 6, 2014 8:53 am Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2013
From Frenchman Lake
Nice hike on with fall colors at their prime. Windy on top. Minor bushwack near summit but nothing serious.
BCL - Mar 8, 2014 8:17 pm Date Climbed: Mar 8, 2014
From the East
Was able to drive to 7000'. Not enough snow to ski. Brush wasn't bad, some easy bushwhacking just below the summit. Tagged both summits, but did not find a register.
DaveWillmott - Aug 21, 2012 1:57 pm Date Climbed: Aug 17, 2012
Frenchman's Lake route
It is good to go via Little Last Chance Canyon up 284 with nice rock formations. Cross the dam, go to the end and turn right. The sign says Adams Peak. The trailhead that we chose is obscure with parking for 3 cars or so at 4.9 miles. Go east until you find an old road and follow it to the summit. While you are there be sure to hike Crystal Peak which is in the same area. It is a white quartz mountain.
Don't know why this is an SPS peak -- it's just the top of a pine ridge rising from the scrubland north of Reno. There are a few piles of sierra granite near the top.
Drove on 24N22X from Constantia road -- ruts were particularly bad for a mile or so after the turn at 1.4 miles. After 45 minutes, parked my freshly-scratched car at 8.5 miles, and was on the summit an hour later. Saw bear tracks but no human footprints.
mengbo - Jul 2, 2012 8:22 am Date Climbed: Jul 1, 2012
From Frenchman Lake
Parked the car somewhere along the dirt road. Lots of bushes to deal with.
cdog - Jun 24, 2012 8:46 pm Date Climbed: Jun 22, 2012
Diamond Mountains high point
drove NFS Road 24N44 to the saddle at 7000 feet, where I began my cross-country summit trip. I found some cairns along the ridge from where I parked, but the route was pretty obvious. I bushwhacked up and over the false summit, then on to the true summit. From the top the SE summit looks very similar in elevation, so I ran over to check it out. Found a solar yard light on top, kinda weird. I noticed some controversy in the summit register as to which peak was higher, but it seems the newer topo maps helped decide it was indeed the NW summit. Great view, pretty gusty winds on this 2nd day of summer. I was the 3rd to summit this year and the 2nd this week. High point of the Diamond Mountains!
soslaw - Jul 18, 2011 11:25 am Date Climbed: Jul 17, 2011
West Side Schwack
Bushwack from 7200 to the 7800 saddle south of the false summit. Underbrush thinned out from the saddle over false summit and to the summit.
ckerth - Jun 18, 2011 10:04 pm Date Climbed: Jun 13, 2011
West Side
Bushwhack on the approach up the west face. A better approach would have been up the north ridge, which I took on the way back. The ridge was still partially covered in snow and has a Jeep trail that runs up near the crest. There is a nice network of Jeep trails in the area that is also worth checking out.
sierramtngoat - Aug 21, 2010 4:03 pm Date Climbed: Aug 19, 2010
North Western Approach
This was the 5th peak that my wife and I climbed during our vacation in northern Tahoe. We drove on OHV roads to the NW side of Adams' NW summit; there is an abandoned road that begins there at ~7120' that goes up the drainage on the NW side; this road will eventually link up with another road that will go up the northern drainage and basically bisect the main summit and the NW summit; the road becomes more crappy the higher you get and will eventually try to take you to the NW summit so don't get suckered into that as the view is better from the summit; stay in the drainage until the saddle and approach the summit from its SE ridge; we found a route that didn't involve any major bleeding in the bush by traversing up the south face to the SE ridge. Only ~2 people climb this peak per year, so the log goes back to 1972.
fedak - Aug 3, 2009 10:06 am Date Climbed: Aug 2, 2009
East Side
Meh, not sure why this is on the OGUL.
Did both summits.
With 4x4 made it to 6800 ft just before the road tops out, then snowdrifts stopped us. Wife and I hiked up mostly snow-free to 7600 ft, then a horrid bushwack and a much easier way down (wrap way around to the south near the summit!) Dixie Mtn the next day was a much more enjoyable snowshoe trip.
Adamus - Oct 29, 2007 2:42 am Date Climbed: Oct 28, 2007
West Slopes
The brush was pretty nasty from the saddle, but the view was worth it.
ericnoel - May 12, 2021 8:44 pm Date Climbed: May 12, 2021
Adams StandardVanilla peak.
GlennD - Sep 9, 2018 5:16 pm Date Climbed: Sep 9, 2018
SPS #27Nice day hike. Tried the east side first but couldn't get more than .3 mi into the dirt road w/ my 2WD Kia rental sedan before a washout forced me to back down the road. Had better luck with the west side from Frenchman Lake. Ended up parking and hiking 3 mi up the dirt road before bushwhacking to the top. Ended the trip with a refreshing dip in Frenchman.
davidsanger - Jul 3, 2018 6:23 pm Date Climbed: Jun 30, 2018
from 7120' on west sideno trouble with Forester from Frenchman's Lake to trailhead on Snow Lake Road. Then abandoned road to meadow, up to saddle w/ 8120 then to saddle between east and west peaks. no brush. Registers on both summits.
wmolland - Jun 26, 2016 8:18 pm Date Climbed: Jun 25, 2016
Fom Frenchman LakeA relatively straight forward ascent. The Eckert direction mentioned in the report before are spot on. I followed the 4x4 road (and saw a bear along the way) to a seldom used ATV road, located just past where the road takes a sharp downhill turn, which led to the north summit. From there its an annoying, but very short, bush bash to the summit. Stellar views!
bechtt - Aug 20, 2015 11:23 am Date Climbed: Aug 14, 2015
Easy west side approachI used Steve Eckert's excellent directions (and maps) for driving up the west side -- no brush! My reasonable clearance Honda Element didn't have any trouble going this way but I wouldn't recommend going past the gravel roads with a passenger car. I found a washed out version of the road he shows starting at waypoint SPRCK7 (map 3). Better to start about 200' below that point and hike up the draw. A meadow, a logging road, and a trail led me to within 400' of the summit (basically following his directions) with pretty much no brush along the way.
trexkerry - Jun 4, 2015 2:17 am Date Climbed: May 31, 2015
Car DestroyerDrove up to within 2+ miles of summit through terrible brush and a slow road, the hike itself was actually nice and the summit had great views. TR is HERE.
mtbaxter - Sep 16, 2014 6:48 pm Date Climbed: Aug 30, 2014
Heavy Brush From the WestI summited Adams Peak from the west. Because of the difficult scrub I encountered on this route, I would advise not to take my path. Although scrub was a problem for Dennis Poulin and others who climbed Adams from the NE, it sounds like they had an easier time than the route from the west.
I chose the western route because of its proximity to the drive up route for Dixie Mtn, another Calif 2000'+ prominence peak. Both peaks can be found by driving north on rte 284 north out of the hamlet of Chilcoot, toward Frenchman Lake.
Drive 4.6 miles north out of Chilccot (not the 4.8 described in one report).
Turn R onto an unsigned dirt road just before the "Frenchman Rec Area" sign. This is rd 24N44. Reset your odometer.
0.3 mi cattle guard
Go past 5924 and all spurs
At 4.1 mi a cattle guard. Just past this at 4.2 mi go R. There is no road sign onto this but looking back you will see a miliage sign.
At 5.3 mi go L at a fork not on the topo map.
At 6.5 mi there is a private meadow with a corrigated building on the L, then a fork gated to to R. Go L.
At 7.4 mi there is a ridge line with good parking. I parked here but wished I drove a little farther to the hairpin turn at lat 39.903 long 120.11. I ended up walking the road to here, where a good pullout is located.
From here the peak which is just SW of Adams can be seen, as well as the ridge line which goes S from that false summit. fI climbed E up to the saddle along that ridgeline, at Lat 39.904 Long 120.10. The climb was primarily through forest, with only a mild hindrance by slippery pine needles. There was some brush.
Once past the saddle, however, I saw that the path N to Adams was virtually all brush, and a nasty brush at that.This added about an hour to the climb. Once I reached the notch between Adams and the peak to the SW, the brush was much more avoidable. Here it was steep but the rocks easily climbed. I went up a chute and found myself just W of the lesser SE summit.I would have climbed that too, but now there were these short trees which were a nuisance in their own way, so I just headed NW up to the true HP, which I could now see, with its pole and all. The "pole" was actually a piece of a wired relic of a triangulation station. Nearby was an undated benchmark and a tin cylinder type canister with a climber's register.
Heading down I used Dennis Poulin's chute with little brush to the saddle, then decided to go counterclockwise around the SW false summit. This was a better route, but not by much. I still cursed the brush, and tried to stay in slightly better forest whenever possible.
seano - May 29, 2014 2:58 pm Date Climbed: May 19, 2014
From the westDefinitely the lamest of the northern SPS peaks. Bushwhacked from a 4WD road up to the quad-bike road along the ridge, then followed the standard route to the bush-whack to the summit. Found an abandoned logging road on the descent. Trip report.
BobD3 - May 6, 2014 8:53 am Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2013
From Frenchman LakeNice hike on with fall colors at their prime. Windy on top. Minor bushwack near summit but nothing serious.
BCL - Mar 8, 2014 8:17 pm Date Climbed: Mar 8, 2014
From the EastWas able to drive to 7000'. Not enough snow to ski. Brush wasn't bad, some easy bushwhacking just below the summit. Tagged both summits, but did not find a register.
DaveWillmott - Aug 21, 2012 1:57 pm Date Climbed: Aug 17, 2012
Frenchman's Lake routeIt is good to go via Little Last Chance Canyon up 284 with nice rock formations. Cross the dam, go to the end and turn right. The sign says Adams Peak. The trailhead that we chose is obscure with parking for 3 cars or so at 4.9 miles. Go east until you find an old road and follow it to the summit. While you are there be sure to hike Crystal Peak which is in the same area. It is a white quartz mountain.
LincolnB - Jul 6, 2012 5:20 pm Date Climbed: Jul 6, 2012
East sideDon't know why this is an SPS peak -- it's just the top of a pine ridge rising from the scrubland north of Reno. There are a few piles of sierra granite near the top.
Drove on 24N22X from Constantia road -- ruts were particularly bad for a mile or so after the turn at 1.4 miles. After 45 minutes, parked my freshly-scratched car at 8.5 miles, and was on the summit an hour later. Saw bear tracks but no human footprints.
mengbo - Jul 2, 2012 8:22 am Date Climbed: Jul 1, 2012
From Frenchman LakeParked the car somewhere along the dirt road. Lots of bushes to deal with.
cdog - Jun 24, 2012 8:46 pm Date Climbed: Jun 22, 2012
Diamond Mountains high pointdrove NFS Road 24N44 to the saddle at 7000 feet, where I began my cross-country summit trip. I found some cairns along the ridge from where I parked, but the route was pretty obvious. I bushwhacked up and over the false summit, then on to the true summit. From the top the SE summit looks very similar in elevation, so I ran over to check it out. Found a solar yard light on top, kinda weird. I noticed some controversy in the summit register as to which peak was higher, but it seems the newer topo maps helped decide it was indeed the NW summit. Great view, pretty gusty winds on this 2nd day of summer. I was the 3rd to summit this year and the 2nd this week. High point of the Diamond Mountains!
soslaw - Jul 18, 2011 11:25 am Date Climbed: Jul 17, 2011
West Side SchwackBushwack from 7200 to the 7800 saddle south of the false summit. Underbrush thinned out from the saddle over false summit and to the summit.
ckerth - Jun 18, 2011 10:04 pm Date Climbed: Jun 13, 2011
West SideBushwhack on the approach up the west face. A better approach would have been up the north ridge, which I took on the way back. The ridge was still partially covered in snow and has a Jeep trail that runs up near the crest. There is a nice network of Jeep trails in the area that is also worth checking out.
sierramtngoat - Aug 21, 2010 4:03 pm Date Climbed: Aug 19, 2010
North Western ApproachThis was the 5th peak that my wife and I climbed during our vacation in northern Tahoe. We drove on OHV roads to the NW side of Adams' NW summit; there is an abandoned road that begins there at ~7120' that goes up the drainage on the NW side; this road will eventually link up with another road that will go up the northern drainage and basically bisect the main summit and the NW summit; the road becomes more crappy the higher you get and will eventually try to take you to the NW summit so don't get suckered into that as the view is better from the summit; stay in the drainage until the saddle and approach the summit from its SE ridge; we found a route that didn't involve any major bleeding in the bush by traversing up the south face to the SE ridge. Only ~2 people climb this peak per year, so the log goes back to 1972.
fedak - Aug 3, 2009 10:06 am Date Climbed: Aug 2, 2009
East SideMeh, not sure why this is on the OGUL.
Did both summits.
Pics are here.
mrchad9 - Jul 7, 2009 12:58 pm Date Climbed: Apr 18, 2009
West sideWith 4x4 made it to 6800 ft just before the road tops out, then snowdrifts stopped us. Wife and I hiked up mostly snow-free to 7600 ft, then a horrid bushwack and a much easier way down (wrap way around to the south near the summit!) Dixie Mtn the next day was a much more enjoyable snowshoe trip.
Adamus - Oct 29, 2007 2:42 am Date Climbed: Oct 28, 2007
West SlopesThe brush was pretty nasty from the saddle, but the view was worth it.