Turn north onto Cottonwood Springs Road from I-10 on Exit 168, 37.5 kilometres west of the junction with Highway 177 or 37.1 kilometres east of the junction with Highway 86 in Indio, California.  Drive 11.0 kilometres to the Cottonwood Visitor Center (washrooms), and turn right onto Cottonwood Oasis Road.  Drive 1.9 kilometres to road's end at the parking lot for Cottonwood Spring trailhead.

Electing to climb Mastodon Peak first, Zosia and I followed the Lost Palms Oasis Trail southward for about a kilometre before turning left onto the Mastodon Peak Loop Trail.  About 400 metres further, a spur trail goes right and swings around to the southeast side of Mastodon Peak where there is an easy scramble route to the top.  Three Hispanic women were already lounging at the top when we arrived, but we ignored them to climb up the highest boulder.

	Fan palms are an arresting sight near Cottonwood Spring trailhead. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	Zosia passes more traditional desert scrub along the Lost Palms Oasis Trail.
	After turning onto the Mastodon Peak Loop Trail, the first objective of the day is within sight.

The top of Mastodon Peak is accessed by a scramble route on the southeast side.

 

	Sonny scrambles up a boulder on top of Mastodon Peak. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	Zosia stands on presumably the summit of Mastodon Peak (1053 metres).

Having tagged the summit of Mastodon Peak, Zosia and I quickly turned our attention to Eagle Mountain as we descended the same scramble route and headed eastward into the open desert.  Travel was initially easy despite the lack of trails, but my main concern was figuring out which part of Eagle Mountain to aim for.  Based on the online trip reports I had read, I knew that we had to find a canyon to access the upper mountain, but from a distance, the entire western aspect of Eagle Mountain seemed featureless.  As we got closer to the mountain though, we also began running into increasingly more gigantic boulders strewn across the landscape.  Though interesting in and of themselves, the boulders presented serious route-finding challenges for us, and we expended a lot of time and effort trying to navigate over and around them.  With some trial and error, we eventually found the canyon--basically a large drainage--and began ascending the mountain in earnest.  Although we made steady progress up the canyon, this part of the ascent felt interminable, and we were already feeling quite weary by the time we topped out on a plateau of sorts.  The remaining traverse to the summit turned out to be more complicated than expected as we had to lose hard-won elevation and also do some extra route-finding to get past more problematic boulders.  A few cairns proved to be helpful, but I did not feel a sense of relief until we finally stepped onto the summit.

Zosia and I took a well-deserved break atop Eagle Mountain before commencing our descent.  The return across the plateau went a little more smoothly since we avoided some of the route-finding mistakes I made earlier.  Descending the canyon felt just as long as the ascent but was otherwise uneventful.  When we reached the desert flats, we veered a little further north in an effort to steer clear of the boulders that gave us so much trouble earlier in the day.  Whenever we could, we tried to take advantage of easier walking in the sandy washes, but this seemed to constantly pull us further away from where we were aiming to go, namely Mastodon Peak.  Inevitably, we had to take a more direct line, but this involved lots of ups and downs and additional route-finding.  With daylight waning, we finally stumbled into a big wash that eventually led us back to the Mastodon Peak Loop Trail.  Turning right, we completed the loop in the same counterclockwise direction that we started the day with and made it back to our car just as darkness fell.

	Zosia begins the long off-trail approach to Eagle Mountain in the distance.
	Flat, sandy washes allow easier progress across the desert.
	Sonny inadvertently wanders into boulder-filled terrain where route-finding is much more challenging. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	The mouth of the canyon which grants access to the upper mountain is straight ahead but still difficult to discern from this distance.
	Sonny finds the skull of a bighorn sheep. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	Zosia enters the canyon which leads to the upper mountain.
	The canyon narrows in some spots but is generally easy to ascend.
	After climbing out of the canyon, Zosia enters a plateau of sorts on the upper mountain.  The summit is visible in the distance but is still deceptively far away.
	Boulder formations on the plateau present more route-finding challenges.
	Zosia approaches the final rise before the summit.
	Sonny and Zosia stand on the summit of Eagle Mountain (1625 metres).
	The Salton Sea is visible to the south.
	This is looking back west at the approach across the innocuous-looking plateau.  On the distant horizon at far left is San Jacinto Peak.
	Part of a solar panel farm is barely visible at distant centre in this view to the east.
	To the southeast, the I-10 can be seen running across the length of the valley.
	Sonny descends the access canyon. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	Zosia finds herself back in the desert flats after exiting the canyon.

Zosia is almost back at the trailhead after sunset.

 

Total Distance:  19.9 kilometres Round-Trip Time:  9 hours 38 minutes Cumulative Elevation Gain:  789 metres GPX Data