Worthington Mountains
Lincoln County, Nevada
"Learn from our mistakes, please."
Ryan Crockett and the Micron Crew on a disastrous adventure in the Worthington Mountains.
A follow-up visit, with better preparation and success finding Leviathan Cave is reported here.

The main goal of our trip to Worthington Mountain was to explore Leviathan Cave, but by breaking every obvious rule of common sense, we fell short of our goal. Our trip was plagued with one disaster after another, but it was a trip we will never forget.

Surprisingly I was able to convince five guys from work (Justin, Ed, Leon, Carlos, and Kenny) to join me in one of my Nevada adventures. The plan was to hike to the top of the Worthington Mountains near Rachel Nevada, find Leviathan Cave, rappel into the cave opening, and explore the depths of the cave. All were very excited to go after reading a trip description from the following website: http://www.ufomind.com/area51/place/leviathan/

Rule #1 - Never try to find your way in the dark.
We left Lehi Utah at 2:00 p.m. and arrived in Rachel Nevada at 9:00 p.m. We found the dirt road turnoff (Gunderson Rd.) a few miles past Rachel and headed north along the West side of the range. A few things we noticed right away were that it was darker than usual (there was no moon), we couldn’t see Mountains, and there were no landmarks to guide us through the vast, flat, sagebrush valley we were in.

After several wrong turns we finally got back on the main road heading north. We were looking for a turn that would take us around the north end of the range to arrive at our planned camp site on the east side of the mountains.

After driving about 30 miles north I said “I think the turnoff to the right should be coming up any minute.” At that same moment I happened to look at the compass in the Jeep which had said north the entire time, but now it said we were going south! Don’t ask me how it happened, but we had made it all the way around to the other side of the mountain range without turning.

Rule #2 - Try to avoid camping when it’s below freezing.
We decided to pull off the road and set up camp where we were, and then find our starting point for the hike in the morning. The temperature was 28 degrees when we went to bed, but I thought I’d be fine in my sleeping bag. I woke up at 4:00 in the morning shivering with frost all around my head to the sound of a car starting. Carlos and Kenny had decided to get in the Jeep to get warm. By 4:30 everyone was up trying to make toast on Carlos’s high tech camping toaster.

Rule #3 – Don’t begin your hike in the dark.
We unanimously decided that we should try to find the trailhead (there actually isn’t a trail to the cave) and begin the hike in the dark so that we could get there early and have plenty of time to explore the cave. We followed the directions as best as we could considering we didn’t exactly know where we were starting from. Everything started falling into place and we found what we thought was the road to the trailhead. We hiked toward the base of the mountain for about an hour before the sun came out.

When Carlos saw how steep the mountain was in the light, he wisely decided to go back to the car and sleep all day while the rest of us headed on, talking about what a pansy he was on the way up. The hike was extremely steep and every rock we stepped on went rolling down the mountain. After dodging falling rocks, cutting our hands on sharp rocks, and doing minor rock climbing here and there, we made it to the top of the mountain in about 2.5 hours. The cave was supposed to be right over the top of the saddle. After much searching, we figured out that we must be too far South. At that point we decided to keep hiking along the ridgeline looking for the cave at every saddle. By 2:00 p.m. we finally decided to give up and go back so that we would make it before dark.

Rule #4 – In unfamiliar territory, always go back the way you came.
Being out of shape and already having minor heart attacks and strokes from the strenuous hike, I suggested that we go down the canyon in front of us, rather than backtracking all the way back. In spite of Ed’s warning everyone else agreed to try it. Everything went great until we were ¾ of the way down. Then we found ourselves trapped by 500 foot cliffs in all directions that prevented us from going any further. We had to hike all the way back to the top of the mountain and go back the way we came. I was seriously contemplating laying down in the snow and dying, but Ed offered to carry my backpack up for me. We barely made it back to the car by nightfall.

Rule #5 –If you don’t know how you got there, don’t try to go back in the dark.
After getting back to camp we all decided to head do Mesquite and get a room rather than camp in the cold again. We ended up taking several wrong turns on the way back in spite of my flawless mental map of the area. We finally got to the point (after much argument) where we could see the lights of Rachel Nevada up ahead when Carlos noticed that Leon’s car wasn’t behind us anymore. We went back to find Leon had gone off the road and was stuck in the loose dirt. He had swerved to miss a 2 inch piece of sagebrush in the road and gone out of control. Carlos pulled him out with his Jeep and some climbing rope and we were on our way again.

Rule #6 –Always bring extra gas.

We made it to Rachel and the famous Little Ali-Inn. We walked inside and were informed that they were closed, which was funny because there were at least 10 people in there at the bar. I asked if they had gas, and was informed that the closest gas was 45 miles away. When we set off to find gas, the gauge in the Jeep showed that we had exactly 45 miles before we ran out. We made it to Ash Springs right when the gauge went to 0 miles.

Even though everything went wrong, we saw some incredible scenery, we hiked where no man has hiked before, and we had a great time making fun of each other. I also came out $200 ahead on video poker in Mesquite.

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