Painted Hills, Monkey Condos, and Needle Point (Washoe County, Nevada)

I've explored the area in and around Pyramid Lake a bit over the years, but one area that I have not visited is a series of sandstone rock formations known to local hikers as the Monkey Condos. When my backpacking plans fell through this weekend, I wanted to find some other outdoor adventures. I saw a meetup post for the area around the Monkey Condos and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Meeting up with the three more hikers at a Starbucks in North Reno, we carpooled out towards Pyramid Lake. The hike organizer mentioned that while he had a pretty good idea of the route, there would be some route finding involved. I always like doing a little cross-country and rock scrambling, and so this sounded right up my alley.

We take some jeep trails into the red hills southeast of the giant lake, until we find a place to leave the vehicles a short distance away from Pig Rock, which I visited a couple of years ago. After tossing our packs on, we head further along the road on foot. As we pass Pig Rock, my companions struggle to see the 'pig' until they realize it isn't up on the hills above us, but is the large red boulder right in front of us. It really does resemble a pig and once you see it, it's impossible to miss.

Continuing on down the road, we make our way into the Painted Hills. Eventually, we leave the road and start heading up a dry wash, which heads in a more northerly direction. After a short distance, we are forced to make our way up a steep scree field. It's actually really challenging. With each step we take up the steep hillside, we slide back a few inches. I do my best to find larger rocks that won't move with my weight. My companions take a similar tactic and we eventually reach the top.

From here, we are afforded some amazing views of the surrounding area. To the west, an area of jutting sandstone boulders reminds me of a recent trip to the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park. The others agree with the comparison. In fact, this entire area is often thought of by local hikers as reminiscent of southern Utah.

At this point, we pause to survey our surroundings and figure out our route. Eventually, we settle on making our way around the backside of the canyon in front of us and up to the far ridge. It takes a bit to get there, but eventually we do. Along the way, we encounter some interesting sites. First, we find what appears to be an exploratory mind shaft. The whole into the red basalt was obviously man-made, but as there is no visible quartz vein, the intention of the wanna-be miner is a bit unclear. Gold and Silver (and all precious metals) tend to be found along large veins of quartz. The absence of such a vein leaves a us a bit confused, but in this remote area, it's unlikely, we'll ever get an answer. 

Leaving the shaft and work our way down the other side, we finally find what I'm pretty sure are the Monkey Condos. This natural formation looks like small caves hollowed out from large sandstone pillars. Dozens of such holes are visible in the red stone before us. And while there are no monkeys to be found here in the high desert of northwestern Nevada, one could easily imagine small primates make a home of these 'caves'. It's a pretty striking feature.

Continuing up the next ridge, we decide to stop for some snacks. In the distance, we have an amazing view of Pyramid Lake. From Anaho Island, to the Pyramid, all the way up to the Needles section, the enormous lake sprawls out before us, probably five miles distant. This lake is the terminus of the Truckee River, which is somewhat unique in the world in that its entire purpose is to carry water from one lake to another (Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake). The contrast between the blue tones of the lake and the surrounding dessert is stunning.

From here, we make our way down a short distance to Needle Point, which is a basalt formation that juts a eighty or so feet out of the hillside. It's a pretty striking feature, but there is no way I'm going to try to climb up this thing. We admire it for a bit and then work our way around the backside and down towards another jeep trail in the distance.

As we make our away around the winding jeep trails and back towards our starting point, we discuss what a great hike it has been. The route proved to be a bit challenging, especially with all of the scree, but the views were spectacular and with it only being a few miles from Reno, it's been a nice easy day. I check my tracking app once we reach the cars and see that we've hiked about 6.5 miles. We head back to Starbucks to collect the other cars, say our goodbyes, and part ways. It's been an all around good day.