How far to hike in to Oak Creek Canyon parking from exit for early Solar Slab start? Other ideas for early start?

Does anyone know how far the Oak Canyon Parking is from the exit of the loop? My friend and I are planning on Solar Slab Gully > Solar Slab.

My friend is concerned about finishing and getting back to the ground by dark. I’m not too concerned. He wants to park at the exit of the loop at 4am and hike in.

It's not bad. Though you shouldn't hike to the end of the loop and walk the road, there's a trail that goes directly from the parking to the internal Oak Creek TH. This trail adds maybe 20-40 min extra to the approach.

I misremembered -- this trail does not intersect the Oak Creek TH. This is what I was thinking.

Is this what you mean?Are you talking about the green or the red trail? They seem around the same distance but the green trail passes through the parking lot. Yeah, doesn’t look to add as much distance as I thought. 

It adds ~3/4 mile.  And that part is the easiest hiking.  There is also a small parking area off the highway about 1/2 mile past the exit which is a slightly shorter hike.  I recommend it.  Getting an early start is always good.  You may be confident in your speed, but if you arrive behind 3 parties of 3, guess what?  That is an uber popular route.  Parking at the highway also makes it easier to find your car if you're hiking back in the dark (speaking from personal experience  ).

Peter,

Do you mean park at the blue trail then join up with the red?

I think you would start from the Middle Oak Creek trailhead, which is approximately 0.6 mi. south of the exit road. It adds about a half hour of hiking (compared to starting at the Oak Creek Canyon trailhead on the loop road), but you can start as early as you want.

This webpage has a link to a map of that trail:

https://www.redrockcanyonlv.org/oak-creek-cutoff/

Edit: I believe there is a sign on the highway for Middle Oak Creek trailhead.

You might have missed the hyperlink in my original comment -- this link shows the trail that others are talking about.

I created a GPX and uploaded it to Gaia (link) in case you'd like to download it.

Isaiah,

That’s exactly what we were planning on doing. Thanks for confirming that it works well.

Jack,

I didn’t see the link in your first comment. Thanks for following up. We will definitely make use of the gpx track.

Frank,

Good to know. Thanks

Last week, it took us roughly 20 minutes to hike from the exit parking lot via the paved & dirt roads to the trailhead parking lot.

On our way out, we hiked the dirt road to the paved road and the very first car picked us up and gave us a ride to the exit parking lot. We loved that woman!

We started hiking at 5:01am and got back to the car at dusk with the painted bowl descent. It was well timed. We climbed Johnny Vegas to get to Solar Slab. 

As far as other ideas go, we always talked about laying a couple pieces of plywood over the spikes and driving on in. But we never actually tried it

Get Some!!!!!!

First off, thanks for all the beta. Super helpful. Just a recap for anyone searching the same stuff later.

Middle Oak Tree trailhead parking lot just outside the loop exit is the way to go for getting started before the loop opens. The trail is almost a direct line to the wall.

Painted Bowl descent is a miserable slog. We went pretty slow and stopped for a lunch break. With all this, the descent took 5 hrs total. I’d say a normal pace and not stopping for lunch would take most parties 4 hrs. The boulder hopping for over an hour down the creek got old. Since nobody else was on the route the entire day we should’ve rapped down. With a single 70m we might not have save much time but would’ve saved our bodies. My body felt beat up.

Nobody on the route all day. We heard one other party to our left for part of the day. Maybe on Johnny Vegas? I guess people were scared off by the temps. mid 80’s. I never once felt like it was bad. I’ve felt much hotter at Tahquitz in the low 70’s. We weren’t moving slow but definitely not going crazy. Just being efficient and even slow-ish at times. If you don’t have to wait on anyone, I think any party could climb it in 6-7 hrs without much problem.

Simuled pitches 1 and 2 of the gully then pitched out 3 and 4 because I was getting annoyed managing the slack and cleaning since I was following.

We swapped leads on Solar Slab.

Pitch 1 - Partner led

Pitch 2 - I led

Pitches 3 and 4 - Partner led

Pitches 5 and 6 - I led

Pitch 7 - Partner led

Pitch 8 - soloed, easy, not exposed 3rd/4th class

Pitch 9 - I led

——————

5am - Left Middle Oak Creek TH

6:30am - arrived at the base of route. We went at an average pace but stopped and confirmed we were on the right route to the base a few times so could’ve been slightly faster.

7 - 8:30am Climbed SS Gully.

8:30 - 1:30pm Climbed Solar Slab

1:45 - 6:45pm Painted Bowl descent to the car

Controversial opinion: I liked the painted bowl descent! It took me and my partner about three hours. Strenuous but fun hike with some great views. plus I got to rap off an old Teton which was neat. Honestly it's a big part of what made the route memorable to me.

Yukon Cornelius wrote:

Controversial opinion: I liked the painted bowl descent! It took me and my partner about three hours. Strenuous but fun hike with some great views. plus I got to rap off an old Teton which was neat. Honestly it's a big part of what made the route memorable to me.

Yeah, that titon is still there along with a bomber nut. I was like, “wtf?” when we got to that gap that required a jump or down climb. My partner spotted me as I down climbed it. Not too bad but looked really sketchy before doing it. 

Isaiah aka Zay Foulks wrote:

Glad you got it done, sounds like you had an adventurous day.

I personally loved the Painted Bowl descent. I found it beautiful, engaging, and to be it's own little adventure. Would definitely not want to do it in the dark though!

Can't wait to go back and do the whole thing again. Maybe I'll do Johnny Vegas next time.

Yeah, I was totally thinking I would not want to do the descent in the dark especially for the first time. The slabs after the raps were murdering my toes after 1500’ of climbing then the boulder hopping murdered my knees. It is beautiful though.

Totally going back for Johnny Vegas but not to link up with SS. Just rap down. 

Yukon Cornelius wrote:

Controversial opinion: I liked the painted bowl descent! It took me and my partner about three hours. Strenuous but fun hike with some great views. plus I got to rap off an old Teton which was neat. Honestly it's a big part of what made the route memorable to me.

I agree with ya! Fewer and easier rappels than Solar Slab. You get to hang with your partner more. I consistently beat parties that rap the route when I take the Painted Bowl descent. The boulder hoping does get old and isn't the best on the body, but I still think it's better than rapping a slab and a gully. 

I also loved the Painted Bowl descent! I’m a huge fan of scrambling, route finding and boulder hopping so it was a perfect adventure for me. I didn’t want the day to end.

A guide and his client who descended via Painted Bowl in front of us beat the party behind them down. That party rappelled Solar Slab.

I too love the painted bowl descent, but I'll also scramble way up oak creek for fun so YMMV. I have also beat parties that were rappelling, 2-3 hours from the top is easily doable. I think it's just a matter of whatever you are used to, RR boulder hopping and slab walking could be an acquired taste. 

Next time you go back to do Johnny Vegas link with arch enemy, excellent climb. 

Ashort wrote:

I think it's just a matter of whatever you are used to, RR boulder hopping and slab walking could be an acquired taste.

I love it too but my body doesn’t love it anymore. It’s still not too much of a problem going uphill, but downhill on that kind of terrain is very hard on knees and lower back. I would rap to save the wear and tear on my already damaged body parts, not to save time. 

phylp phylp wrote:

I love it too but my body doesn’t love it anymore. It’s still not too much of a problem going uphill, but downhill on that kind of terrain is very hard on knees and lower back. I would rap to save the wear and tear on my already damaged body parts, not to save time. 

Yeah, that is totally understandable.