Southwest Ridge Diamond Pk, NV

Dean and I summitted Bunker Hill on October 3, 2004 and then drove to Eureka County and the town of Eureka on Hwy 50. The trailhead for Diamond Peak is not too far out of town. We took the easy route from town that passed the landfill site and then continued up to the Newark Summit. This is a pretty good dirt road and 2WD low clearance cars can make it with no problem. Beyond this point you need high clearance and past Poison Spring 4WD is a must. My car is only 2WD but it is high clearance. We scouted out the road the night before and in the morning drove up past Poison Spring at about 7,900ft and parked. There is a barbwire gate that you have to open and close at Poison Spring. An informative nice hunter who was camped at Poison Spring informed us that two days preceding there was a “real turd floater” that muddied up the road. In the morning we hiked up the road until the first road on the right that heads up to Bold Bluff and Alpha Peak. This road is very steep. The road takes a sharp left turn and follows the ridge line over to a saddle at about 8,200 ft. Here the road ends and it is cross country from here all the way to the summit. There are game trails along the ridge line and it is not too difficult following them and the ridge line north and then a little northeast towards the summit. I stayed on the ridge line as much as possible and finally crested the summit ridge at 10,480 ft. The summit was still a little ways down the ridge but it was an easy walk the rest of the way. The mail box shown in Scott’s pictures was not there. There is a register and Dean and myself signed in. Returning to the car the skies clouded up and we were again hit with snow pellets and a little rain. We got to the car just before the skies opened up and there was a “real turd floater” of a storm as we were driving back to Eureka. Total time was 3.3 hours up and 2.3 hours down, about 8 miles round trip and 2,800ft EG.