W6/SC-328 Basalt Hill

Basalt Hill is a peak on the south side of San Luis Reservoir. The top is covered in communication towers, and an old lookout tower. I hiked up after getting Sharp Benchmark, as it is only a short distance away. There was no one in the entrance kiosk, but it didn't matter since I had already paid to get into Los Banos Reservoir, which is part of the same park. I drove along the road and parked at Willow Point, which had a large, empty parking lot.

Parking lot. Trailhead behind me. 

Across the street there is an old road. This road is unusual in that it is very wide, and looks like it was paved. I took this a short distance until I found a use trail that went up the hill to the left. I followed this trail, which didn't climb straight up the hill. It crosses a barbed wire fence at a point where the fence is in bad repair, making crossing easy.

Looking back at the reservoir. Red Hill and Peak 1331 were visible the entire way up.

I then continued to the flat area, marked 1035 on the USGS quad. From here it was another 700 foot climb up along the ridge to the summit. Near the top the ground got rocky, with some areas of treacherous footing. There are some oddly shaped contours near the summit, and these are from a long cliff that runs out from the summit. I walked along the base, crossing the fence, to get up to the high point. The views from the actual summit are blocked by the towers, but from just below there were great views.

Almost at the top.

I used the fence near the cliff to hold my antenna, and quickly filled the log once I got everything set up properly. I didn't get any contacts on 40 meters, which surprised me. I got one contact on 2 and 70 each. I had thought that I would have more luck on VHF because I had line of sight to a large area. I had a strong 4G signal at the summit, so spotting was no issue. After packing up, I took the same route back down to the car. It took me about 45 minutes to hike up, and about 30 to get back down.


Trailhead: Willow Point in San Luis Reservoir State Park.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map. Park Site.
Route: Cross the road, then follow the old road up a short ways. Go cross-country up the ridge to the summit.

Red Tape: None.

Second summit. It looked like it was about the same height as the one with all the towers. Pacheco peak in the distance on the right.