The route to the top ridge of Rockface Mountain is relatively easy, depending on where you start your hike.   If you can drive the back roads, you can get quite close to the trailhead.   If your vehicle has low clearance, you may have to add up to 2 kilometers to the route.    Rockface Cave is along the route and is a worthwhile side trip.

Rockface Mountain is best accessed from the Pinantan Lake area.   The Hale Vinnie Road starts off the main road before you arrive at Pinantan Lake.   It is a good gravel road that services the homes and ranches on the hillside.   The road comes to a junction.   The left fork goes back to the end of Pinantan Lake; the right fork leads up into the hills and if you take the right turns(see the map below), to a pass between Harper Mountain and Rockface Mountain.   There are sometimes large puddles along the route so it is best to do it on the snow or wait for the roads to dry.

With dry conditions, a high-clearance vehicle can drive to a spot near Rockface Cave or higher to the pass between the two mountains.    There is lots of space to park near the trailhead, although it is not easy to see the start of the trailhead which is a faint trail leading off north up through the forest.    On our last visit, there was a cairn at the trailhead and flagging tape along the route.    The trailhead is at N50 43.655 W120 05.419.   If you look up you can see that the trail points to a low saddle on the ridge above.

Follow the trail as it winds up the hill.    The route is fairly obvious, but if there is snow, aim for the low point in the saddle.   At the saddle, the trail dwindles.    There are no views in the saddle, so you can go east (to your right) to a viewpoint at the top of the rock face.   This is not the top of the mountain.   To get to the top, there will some scrambling required since there is another rock face above.   You can skirt the north side of the rock face, following the base of the cliffs on the north side on a long diagonal upward route until there is an obvious gap to climb up to the top of the ridge.   Because this route is a north side of the ridge, it does have a lot of deadfall, so the route is awkward, but manageable, but will not be to everyone’s liking.   Another route would be to drop down below the pass on the south side, and pick your way up a series of ledges on the southeast corner.   It doesn’t look promising from below, but each section is fairly easy scrambling.   We have been both up and down this route and find it better than the north side.   Again, this may not be to everyone’s liking, so the default destination is to go to the viewpoint at the top of the rock face instead (not the top of the mountain).    This photo shows the location of the viewpoint.

Even though the whole route takes a bit of figuring, this is a recommended hike.   It is an interesting area with rewarding views and a side trip to the cave.

For information on the cave, see the separate post on Rockface Cave (use the search function or check the Archives for March (5), 2011).