Pine Nut Mountains, NV
Trip Report - May 2009
At Slater Placer Mine in the Pine Nut Mountains
We were headed no where in particular except in the general
direction of Mt. Siegel, then hopefully south towards the southern end of the
Pine Nut Mountains near Wellington. The Pine Nut Mountains have hundreds of
miles of dirt roads and trails, but we did not find any that were marked. Mt.
Siegel isn't hard to see from Gardnerville as the peak is the highest point in
the Pin Nut Mountains.
Our trailhead was in the Carson Valley off of highway 395 at the
end of Johnson Lane. The GPS coordinates where you can stage are - 39°
1'37.16"N, 119°42'16.86"W (Google
Maps).
We headed out Sunrise Pass Rd., but we were determined to head
south as soon as possible. This turned out to be a challenge, even with a
Lowrance 540c GPS that was loaded with all the road and trail detail for the
area.
We finally got far enough south to get on Lone Pine Canyon Rd.
which loops around the north end of Mt. Siegel. The trail is a bit overgrown but
passable in a UTV with lots of branches hitting the roll cage.
Once at the top of the trail, with Mt. Siegel lying to our
south, we decided to check out Slaters Mine before attempting the loop around
Mt. Siegel to the south.
Slaters Mine is an old placer mine site about 15 miles east of
Minden/Gardnerville Nevada and lies sits at just over 7,100 feet in elevation.
There are several routes that can lead you to the mine so it makes for a nice
destination where you can loop and not take the same trail in and out.
GPS Coordinates for Slater's Mine: 38°55'23.38"N,
119°29'21.31"W (Google
Maps)
After exploring Slater's Mine, we headed south to see if we
could loop around the backside of Mt. Siegel and head back to Johnson Lane on a
different route. Mt. Siegel is over 9,000 feet high, and we could see lots of
snow on the north facing side.
We climbed a lot after leaving Slater's Mine, and low and behold
we finally hit a patch of snow on the trail. After a bit of work, we made it
through the drift and climb higher and higher.
We were pretty bummed that we could not make it up and over the
pass, but as we descended back towards Slater's Mine, I searched the GPS for
another route to the trailhead.
From Slater's Mine, we headed north on a well established trail
near Mineral Valley and around the east side of Mineral Peak. We ended up
hitting Sunrise Pass Rd. at GPS Coordinates 39° 4'9.59"N, 119°33'1.78"W (Google
Maps). From there, it was an easy trek back to the trailhead at Johnson
Lane.
If you wanted to explore the Slaters Mine area from Johnson
Lane, this route is probably the easiest and most direct route. The first part
of Sunrise Pass road is a two lane graded road, but as you climb, the scenery
improves. Even though you are heading a bit too far north, Sunrise Pass Rd. gets
you into the heart of the Pine Nut Mountains very quickly and you can explore
from there.
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