I was also looking for crystals (found some ok ones) so I made an attempt to take a path less travelled and I started up the hill NE from the Rock Corral picnic area, crossed the ridge, descended again, and ultimately followed the drainage that extends more or less WSW from the summit. At first I thought that I would avoid the bottoms of the gullies, but this mountain has a way of pushing you in one direction. Trying to take the high ground at any point proved to be wasted effort. Surprisingly, the gully bottoms were often the clearest path through the brush. The manzanita only got worse as I approached the summit ridge. This was one of the gnarliest mountains I've hiked and it's not really that far even. I settled the score, now I never have to go back. I only went to the survey marker. 5 hours up, 2 down.
ra3722 - Oct 14, 2020 2:01 pm Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2020
Granite Peak
Climbed with my husband John on 10/12/20 - took us about 4 1/2 hours up and 2 hours down. We were ready for the bushwhacking (long pants and long shirtsleeves); definitely slow going, but we've also been in much worse in other places. That said, I wouldn't ever choose to wade through manzanita if there were a better option. Manzanita, let me go!
We came in from the north and followed the main drainage going south. There are a couple splits in the drainage; stay to the right each time. Especially where the trees mostly disappear and the low scrub begins - looking uphill, things tend to draw you to the left, but it's much better to keep working to the right. If you can stay just south/east of the right-hand drainage (closer to the large rock ridge), you will end up in a much better spot compared to getting stuck on the east ridge. We found that attempting to stay along the border between thick manzanita and the choked drainage seemed the best course of travel (something we discovered on the way back down, of course). Not always possible because of the steepness of the terrain, but helpful when it works. This method also avoids the large rock fins below the east ridge, which is less fun but faster :)
Eventually the right-most drainage goes straight uphill and aims directly for the summit. It takes a good bit of work to ascend, looking for handholds and scrambling up loose dirt. There are usually trees or bushes available every few feet to grab onto.
Just east of the summit there is a nice flat spot with great views of Beaver and to the south. From there we scrambled up the boulders to the top (coming up almost directly east of the summit), which worked OK since we brought a short rope so John could belay me in a couple places. He found a faster way down, a narrow steep gully to the north of the summit, full of loose dirt. If you feel like climbing up the gully, go from the flat spot a bit around to the right and look up.
Going downhill, the terrain tends to draw you downhill into the drainage. When it gets too choked with deadfall or steep with big drops, pop over to the right. When you start wading through manzanita again, try back down to the left.
Quite an experience - less than 4 miles in over 6 hours - but worth the effort.
scgrant - May 23, 2015 12:44 am Date Climbed: Apr 19, 2015
Milford Needle
Having attempted this last fall Greg, Ben, Frank, and I were back several months later to take another crack at it. We all arrived the night before and car camped at the start of the hike, getting an early start the next day. Like last time the hike up Ranch Canyon consisted of a tough bushwhack through endless deadfall and manzanita over multiple bands of granite to the Granite Peak benchmarks. Unlike last time once there we had all day to get to the top of the Needle. Which we needed. Frank led climb the route which he rated a 5.8. From there Frank belayed me as I cleaned the route, followed by Ben and Greg. Once down we started the long bushwhack back down to where we camped the night before. For the most part we all got back after dark where Greg's girlfriend, Kadee had a fire going and hotdogs waiting for us. This was a very nice treat after a 14 hour day. It was close to 11 pm when we left and near 2 am when we finally made it back to SL. Very tough, yet unbelievable day.
scgrant - Jan 8, 2015 5:45 pm Date Climbed: Nov 16, 2014
Granite Peak
This was a tough hike even to get to the benchmark. We went into this one prepared for an attempt on the Milford Needle but knew everything would have to go unbelievably smooth to make that happen. It was not the smoothest of hikes up to Granite Peak. It is a very rugged area and we were forced to be very deliberate in our route up to the top. There was a fair amount of standing around examining the area before proceeding and even then the going was slow due to the thick ground cover, the extensive bushwhacking, sections of scrambling, and a fair amount of snow to deal with. Nevertheless we reached the summit of Granite Peak in a little over 4 hours. But by then we were very short on time as we needed to be back in Delta by 4 pm. That coupled with the extremely cold temperatures on the summit ridge (likely negative 20 F with wind chill) we headed back down chalking this one up to an excellent recon hike for when we come back next time. Hiked with Ben Stokes, Greg Jagielski, and Frank Nederhand.
OwenT - Sep 25, 2023 8:30 pm Date Climbed: Sep 23, 2023
Resistance is FutileI was also looking for crystals (found some ok ones) so I made an attempt to take a path less travelled and I started up the hill NE from the Rock Corral picnic area, crossed the ridge, descended again, and ultimately followed the drainage that extends more or less WSW from the summit. At first I thought that I would avoid the bottoms of the gullies, but this mountain has a way of pushing you in one direction. Trying to take the high ground at any point proved to be wasted effort. Surprisingly, the gully bottoms were often the clearest path through the brush. The manzanita only got worse as I approached the summit ridge. This was one of the gnarliest mountains I've hiked and it's not really that far even. I settled the score, now I never have to go back. I only went to the survey marker. 5 hours up, 2 down.
ra3722 - Oct 14, 2020 2:01 pm Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2020
Granite PeakClimbed with my husband John on 10/12/20 - took us about 4 1/2 hours up and 2 hours down. We were ready for the bushwhacking (long pants and long shirtsleeves); definitely slow going, but we've also been in much worse in other places. That said, I wouldn't ever choose to wade through manzanita if there were a better option. Manzanita, let me go!
We came in from the north and followed the main drainage going south. There are a couple splits in the drainage; stay to the right each time. Especially where the trees mostly disappear and the low scrub begins - looking uphill, things tend to draw you to the left, but it's much better to keep working to the right. If you can stay just south/east of the right-hand drainage (closer to the large rock ridge), you will end up in a much better spot compared to getting stuck on the east ridge. We found that attempting to stay along the border between thick manzanita and the choked drainage seemed the best course of travel (something we discovered on the way back down, of course). Not always possible because of the steepness of the terrain, but helpful when it works. This method also avoids the large rock fins below the east ridge, which is less fun but faster :)
Eventually the right-most drainage goes straight uphill and aims directly for the summit. It takes a good bit of work to ascend, looking for handholds and scrambling up loose dirt. There are usually trees or bushes available every few feet to grab onto.
Just east of the summit there is a nice flat spot with great views of Beaver and to the south. From there we scrambled up the boulders to the top (coming up almost directly east of the summit), which worked OK since we brought a short rope so John could belay me in a couple places. He found a faster way down, a narrow steep gully to the north of the summit, full of loose dirt. If you feel like climbing up the gully, go from the flat spot a bit around to the right and look up.
Going downhill, the terrain tends to draw you downhill into the drainage. When it gets too choked with deadfall or steep with big drops, pop over to the right. When you start wading through manzanita again, try back down to the left.
Quite an experience - less than 4 miles in over 6 hours - but worth the effort.
scgrant - May 23, 2015 12:44 am Date Climbed: Apr 19, 2015
Milford NeedleHaving attempted this last fall Greg, Ben, Frank, and I were back several months later to take another crack at it. We all arrived the night before and car camped at the start of the hike, getting an early start the next day. Like last time the hike up Ranch Canyon consisted of a tough bushwhack through endless deadfall and manzanita over multiple bands of granite to the Granite Peak benchmarks. Unlike last time once there we had all day to get to the top of the Needle. Which we needed. Frank led climb the route which he rated a 5.8. From there Frank belayed me as I cleaned the route, followed by Ben and Greg. Once down we started the long bushwhack back down to where we camped the night before. For the most part we all got back after dark where Greg's girlfriend, Kadee had a fire going and hotdogs waiting for us. This was a very nice treat after a 14 hour day. It was close to 11 pm when we left and near 2 am when we finally made it back to SL. Very tough, yet unbelievable day.
scgrant - Jan 8, 2015 5:45 pm Date Climbed: Nov 16, 2014
Granite PeakThis was a tough hike even to get to the benchmark. We went into this one prepared for an attempt on the Milford Needle but knew everything would have to go unbelievably smooth to make that happen. It was not the smoothest of hikes up to Granite Peak. It is a very rugged area and we were forced to be very deliberate in our route up to the top. There was a fair amount of standing around examining the area before proceeding and even then the going was slow due to the thick ground cover, the extensive bushwhacking, sections of scrambling, and a fair amount of snow to deal with. Nevertheless we reached the summit of Granite Peak in a little over 4 hours. But by then we were very short on time as we needed to be back in Delta by 4 pm. That coupled with the extremely cold temperatures on the summit ridge (likely negative 20 F with wind chill) we headed back down chalking this one up to an excellent recon hike for when we come back next time. Hiked with Ben Stokes, Greg Jagielski, and Frank Nederhand.
byates - Oct 31, 2013 9:45 pm
Via Ranch CanyonVia Ranch Canyon, upper slopes were a nasty bush whack through manzanita and other brush. The top was a tough 56 or five seven move.