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Elephant Land (aka The Lava Beds) Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map

Areas in Elephant Land (aka The Lava Beds)

"Lava Lightning" Spire 2

"Twin Towers" 1

Cave Man Spire 3

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Elevation:	6,235 ft	1,900 m
GPS:	40.58399, -118.99993 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	7,550 total · 80/month
Shared By:	Ney Grant on Aug 17, 2017
Admins:	Lurk Er, Justin Johnsen Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

Fantastic obscure area of granite spires. Not the best granite, but good enough for a weekend or two of exploration. The name Elephant Land comes from research that shows that desert rat and well known Nevada climber Alvin Mclane (passed away in 2006) discovered this place in the 60s. He was known for keeping secrets but for this place he didn't. He brought National Geographic out here and the results were published in 1983s "America's Hidden Corners: Places off the Beaten Path". I found an old copy on Amazon and bought it. The article's author calls it a climber's paradise and Alvin names it Elephant Land. It is better known as The Lava Beds for 4x4 enthusiasts and Chukar hunters, although it is misnamed as a miner looking for Tungsten in 1921 said, "...but so far as has been ascertained there is not a pebble of lava in the range".

Getting There

The area can be found on maps as "The Lava Beds" (though its all granite) in Pershing County Nevada. Two roads approach from the south. We took the more eastern road although it is high clearance / 4WD whereas the North-western road, to Trail Springs, is a better road but with a longer walk to the spires.

The turn off for the 4x4 road (a lot of fun and a great way to approach Elephant Land) is at GPS 40.500 -119.053. The turn off for the other road is north-west toward the Black Rock Desert.

In the aerial photo we parked at P1, which is the near Elephant Head rock. You can keep going with a 4x4 and end up on near the top of the ridge, near the highest spire at P2.

We visited several spires but the two climbs we detailed are on "Sky Spire" (S1 on the map) and "Spring Spires" (S2 on the map). For all we know there was a kiosk with a map of the spires and names for all of them. We didn't see the kiosk, so we named these two spires for reference. There are more spires to the left and right of the photo!