- Nevada County HP: #4
- Difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Summit Elevation: 9,838 feet
- Mountain Range: Humboldt Range
- Ancestral Lands: Nüümü (Northern Paiute)
PLANNING DETAILS
Location: Star Peak is located on BLM-managed land approximately 40 miles south of Winnemucca, NV. The closest town with amenities is Lovelock, NV.
When to Visit: May to October. Access to this CoHP requires navigating a dirt road that crosses the El Dorado Canyon wash. This route to the hike’s start can be difficult to traverse or even impassable after heavy rain or snow.
Fees/Permits Required: No.
Getting There: Visitors generally begin this trek from miner’s camp in El Dorado Canyon (6.7 miles below the summit).
Directions from Winnemucca: Follow I-80 west for 40 miles to Exit 138 (Humboldt). At the bottom of the off-ramp, turn left and cross under the interstate. At the first stop sign, turn right onto the highway frontage road that parallels I-80. Follow the frontage road south for 4.5 miles toward the Star Peak Geothermal plant. (Note: this frontage road transitions from pavement to dirt after 2.5 miles.) Just beyond the Star Peak Geothermal facility, the dirt road makes a 90-degree turn left toward the far side of the building. Continue on this dirt road for 3.2 miles as it crosses under some raised geothermal pipes and heads east toward El Dorado Canyon. You will reach the old miner’s camp 7.8 miles after departing I-80.
Directions from Reno: Follow I-80 east for 125 miles to Exit 138 (Humboldt). At the bottom of the off-ramp, turn right. Take another immediate right turn at the stop sign for the highway frontage road. Follow the frontage road south for 4.5 miles toward the Star Peak Geothermal plant. (Note: this frontage road transitions from pavement to dirt after 2.5 miles.) Just beyond the Star Peak Geothermal facility, the dirt road makes a 90-degree turn left toward the far side of the building. Continue on this dirt road for 3.2 miles as it crosses under some raised geothermal pipes and heads east toward El Dorado Canyon. You will reach the old miner’s camp 7.8 miles after departing I-80.
Parking: There is room for 3-4 vehicles to park near the old miner’s camp. High-clearance and AWD vehicles may choose to continue 1.25 miles beyond the miners’ camp, to a dispersed campsite. Additionally, 4WD vehicles may continue up to 3.1 miles beyond the miner’s camp before the road becomes too steep to drive safely (>30% grade). When driving beyond the old miner’s camp, use caution, as the unmaintained road is steep, with loose rock, tight turns, and grades ranging from 10% to 30%.
Difficulty Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hard) — Star Peak is one of Nevada’s 8 ultra-prominent peaks. If starting from the old miner’s camp, this 12.4-mile round-trip hike requires hikers to ascend more than 4,000 vertical feet with steep grades. Non-acclimated hikers may experience minor AMS symptoms as this hike begins at 5,700′ and ends above 9,800′ elevation.
Pets Allowed: Yes.
Kid-friendly: This high point is best suited for ages 16 or older due to the hike’s distance and grade.
The Summit: There is an antenna tower near the summit. A circular windbreak made of rocks sits beside the antenna, with a survey monument and an ammo can containing the summit register.
TRIP SUMMARY
Date Visited: June 28, 2026
Route Used: Dirt road and minor trail from the old miner’s camp – 12.4 miles round trip
After a snowy ascent of Granite Peak (the Humboldt CoHP) yesterday, I made the 2.5-hour drive south to Rye Patch State Recreation Area, which was the perfect place to camp overnight before my ascent up Star Peak this morning.
Rye Patch is a 22-mile-long reservoir with milky water that seems unnaturally turquoise. The public campground itself was wonderful and allowed me to dry my shoes in the evening sunshine so I wouldn’t have to head up this crazy hike with wet shoes this morning.
Rye Patch is only 10 miles from the highway exit away from Star Peak, so I was able to get an early start before most of my fellow campers were even moving. Plus, the early hour meant I was in the shadow of Star Peak for the short drive east on I-80 to the start of this hike.
Nevada has the distinct bragging rights to 8 ultra-prominent peaks (i.e., mountains that rise at least 1,500 meters, or 4,921 feet, above their surroundings). The only US state with more “ultras” is Alaska. Four of these prominent Nevada mountains are also CoHPs, including Star Peak, the highest point in Pershing Co.
Locating this CoHP isn’t terribly difficult. There are only a few buildings or landmarks out in this sparsely populated part of the state. Star Mountain is the biggest thing between the “big city” of Winnemucca (45 minutes north) and Lovelock (35 minutes south).
The unofficial trailhead is set several miles back from I-80, tucked in a canyon behind Star Peak Geothermal, LLC. This geothermal plant is a long, narrow building located beside the interstate and is hard to miss.
One interesting aspect of driving past a remote geothermal plant (other than the excessive number of no trespassing signs) is that you get to drive under the facility’s pipes en route to the trailhead. The facility’s engineers raised the pipes in places to allow trucks to move back and forth on the dirt roads, so there is a distinct “pipe arch.”
A mile beyond the pipes, I entered El Dorado Canyon and followed the narrow, sagebrush-lined road east for two more miles until I reached the old miner’s camp. This aluminum-sided building is the unofficial trailhead for Star Peak, and it’s where I chose to park because I wasn’t 100% sure how steep the dirt road would become after that point.
In hindsight, I could almost certainly have driven my RAV4 another 1.25 miles up this road to a dispersed camping spot and cut the hike to 9 miles. But my guidebook (and AllTrails) started the hiking route at the miner’s camp, and I didn’t want to blindly risk heading up a road my SUV couldn’t handle.
It was better to hike the 4,000 vertical feet of prominence than risk getting my car stuck in the middle of nowhere. Besides, there wasn’t anything technical about this hike. It was essentially just an 11.4-mile round-trip hike up a dirt utility road.
Of course, the fact that there was a dirt road to follow didn’t mean it was an easy physical hike. The road had an incredibly inconsistent grade. Sometimes it was a steady 5% slope; other times, the route exceeded 30%. My calves were on fire from almost the start.
I heard a rumble coming behind me before I was even a mile into my ascent. When I turned around to check out the noise, I saw a red Jeep Wrangler approaching. The couple inside seemed to be smiling and joking while I was huffing and puffing. Perhaps I should have thrown out my thumb to see if they would give me a ride up this miserable climb.
The first two miles of the climb toward Star Peak were fairly steep, but then the road leveled out a bit between miles 2 and 3. As I stopped to catch my breath at one of the turns, I could see the long, turquoise-blue gash of Rye Patch Reservoir in the brown desert landscape off to my west.
I turned east to gaze up at Star Peak, and I was pretty sure I saw a nearly level road running across its green slope. But it seemed so much higher than my current position, and the insanely steep road leading uphill toward that point wasn’t something that I was looking forward to climbing.
As I continued my hike, I could see the red Jeep parked below the steepest part of the road. When I eventually pulled even with the Jeep, it was empty. The driver and passenger must have parked here at 8,100 feet and continued on foot rather than attempting to take it up the loose, steep 30% grade up ahead.
I didn’t blame them for parking here. The route was super sketchy and covered in loose dirt and scree. It might be possible to ascend it in a Jeep Wrangler, but getting uphill was only half the battle. You’d also have to white-knuckle your way back down that slope and hope you don’t slip or lose traction.
The next three-quarters of a mile of the climb was just as miserable as I thought it would be. Thank goodness I had trekking poles to help relieve some of the pressure from my legs. I haven’t really climbed anything this prominent since my ascent of Boundary Peak (Nevada’s highest point) back in June 2024 or possibly my Colorado Trail thru-hike later that same summer.
Once I was 3.75 miles into the climb, though, I was treated to a lovely flat respite. The level road I’d seen wrapping around Star Peak was now before me, and it was just as sedate as it looked from below. I was now up at 8,800 feet and had nearly a mile of flat, easy road walking with epic views for dozens of miles.
The only notable part of this stretch of the route was hiking past an abandoned mine perched just below the road. It looked to be in serious disrepair, so I didn’t bother to stop and inspect it. This mine was just one more reminder that Nevada’s history is all about resource extraction.
Whether it was the Comstock Lode (the first major silver discovery in the US in 1859) or the Carlin Trend (the largest gold discovery in the US in 1962), Nevada is rich in mineral resources. Today, the most valuable of these mines might be the McDermitt Caldera lithium reserve on the Oregon-Nevada border, which is part of an ancient supervolcano that holds the world’s largest lithium deposit.
At mile 4.6, I reached a fork in the road, with the right side leading uphill toward one of the mountain’s subpeaks and the left one leading farther north. I didn’t even need to look at my map to guess that I should probably follow the uphill option. As I reached 9,000 feet in elevation, barely 0.2 miles later, it was time to take a sharp right turn and head south on an old two-track jeep road for the final mile to the summit.
At first, I thought I could see the summit rising toward the sky at the end of the road. Unfortunately, that distant point was a false summit with a rocky outcropping. The true summit was still hidden.
Once I crested the distant rocks, I was surprised to see a sloped tableland unfolding ahead of me, dotted with rocks and low grass. The jeep road had petered out at the false summit, but the rest of my route was clearly visible. Directly to my south sat a distinctive bump with a narrow tower sitting atop its summit.
As I approached the top of Star Peak, the biting wind picked up from the west. It was noticeably colder now at this elevation, even though the sun was out and the skies were blue. I might not have to endure the snow (like yesterday), but the cold front that pushed into Nevada clearly had not moved out yet.
During my final approach, I finally spotted the duo from the red Jeep. They were departing the summit just as I closed to 100 yards of my goal. I was somewhat surprised to see that I’d caught them. They’d had an obvious lead on me. Nearly an hour elapsed between the time they passed me and when I reached their parked Jeep. So the fact that I caught up with them near the summit showed I was clearly moving at a decent clip, despite the challenging climb.
There were no other people out here on this sunny Sunday morning. So this meant I now had the summit 100% to myself, and I made my way into a large, circular rock-wall windbreak and ducked into its protection.
The windbreak held a green ammo can with a summit register inside, and the sloped boulder with the geodetic survey monument formed a solid seat for me as I wrote my name and info in the small notebook register. This was officially my 4th Nevada CoHP. It was humbling that this peak — which was less than 10,000 feet high — had been so physically challenging. That’s the thing about “ultras,” though. The elevation isn’t the achievement, the massive prominence is.
After less than 10 minutes atop the summit and eating a snack, I decided it was time to head back down. My hands were hurting from the cold wind, and I could barely feel my fingertips anymore. If I stayed up here any longer, I’d have to layer on a second pair of gloves to protect my fingers from the biting cold.
I began my descent with relative certainty that I’d catch the duo in the red Jeep. They only had a 10-minute head start on me. And maybe they would even give me a ride back down to my car so I wouldn’t have to hike the rest of the way to the miner’s cabin.
But the duo must have been moving fast because I never caught them. I only made it to the top of the 30% slope above where they parked when they returned to their Jeep. Damn! I was out of luck and would have to hike the full way down. My quads would take a beating for the rest of the descent, and I knew I’d feel the physical pain of this stupid climb tomorrow.
Once back at the car, I carefully began my drive back out through El Dorado Canyon. I was just making the final turn onto the frontage road when I got one final surprise from Star Peak. Several pronghorn emerged from nowhere and began to run beside my car before crossing the dirt road to graze in front of the geothermal plant. Nevada, you never cease to amaze me!
BONUS MATERIAL
Public camping nearby:
- Rye Patch Campground is located 10 miles of Star Peak, along the 22-mile-long Rye Patch Reservoir. This state recreation has two campgrounds open year-round, offering 50 campsites, picnic tables, potable water spigots, flush toilets, showers, and a boat launch. Cost: $15/night for NV residents; $20/night for out-of-state vehicles. (Campsites are reservable online for an additional $5 fee).
- Water Canyon Recreation Area is located just 4.5 miles southeast of Winnemucca. This BLM area has 11 dispersed camp spots available year-round along Water Canyon Road. Vault toilets and trash receptacles are spaced every 1/4 mile through the camping area. All sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis, with a max stay of 3 consecutive nights. Cost: Free
Resources:
- Overview of Star Peak (Summit Post)
- Rye Patch State Recreation Area (NV State Parks)
- Current Wildfire Conditions (Nevada Fire Info)
- Pershing County (official site)
A quick note on my difficulty ratings:
- ⭐️ = Easy hike (0-5 miles long, defined trail, flat or limited vertical gain, good for all ages)
- ⭐️⭐️ = Moderate hike (<5 miles round-trip, on trail, some vertical gain)
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Challenging (5-15 miles round-trip, possible off-trail navigation, steep climbs, or bouldering)
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Hard (10+ miles roundtrip, with off-trail navigation or very steep climbs)
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Very Hard (20+ miles round-trip, and/or technical skills or equipment required)