Porter Peak is a 9268 foot peak located in Nevada, just south of the Idaho border. The peak has over 2500 feet of prominence and has been on my "to do" list for quite a while.

I wanted to hit a bit bigger of a peak, so I started investigating peaks over 10,000 feet. Realizing there wasn't anything within 3 hours drive that met my 10k criteria, I decided Porter Peak would suffice.

I headed out at a leisurely hour from Boise. The drive is somewhat boring until one nears the Nevada border. When I got my first glimpse of Porter Peak, I was a bit shocked at the amount of snow. I figured it would be limited to just drifts, but the top 700 or 800 feet had solid snow. Thankfully I had kept my snowshoes and larger pack in the back of my vehicle.

Then came my next surprise. As I drove up Rock Creek Canyon, a tree was down over the road just past the old buildings at around 6200'. So that is where I parked, despite knowing I would have a good road leading to at least 7000'.

I headed up the road, enjoying the sunny day and beautiful scenery. I kept thinking it would be shorter to just head straight up one of the ridges to my right and join up with the west ridge to Porter Peak. However, I kept convincing myself the road was just fine and stuck to it.

Eventually, I made it to the 8300' saddle between Blue Jacket Peak and Peak 8986. I finally looked at the map and decided this would make a great loop. So up to the top of Peak 8986 I headed.

Once on the summit, I had great views of Porter Peak. It is also where I encountered long stretches of solid snow. Thankfully, it was firm like the patchy snow I had encountered to this point.

I descended to the saddle separating Peak 8986 and Porter Peak. I now had to climb a fairly steep snow slope to Point 9198. This 500 feet of gain wasn't as bad as it looked from below and soon I was traversing from Point 9198 to Porter Peak.

The views from Porter Peak were impressive! Views to the east yielded bigger and snowier peaks. Views to the west were vast valleys with jagged peaks on the horizon.

On descent, I returned to the saddle between Porter and 8986, then followed a ridge back to the road and Rock Creek.

What a great day, with awesome scenery and near perfect weather!

I simply followed directions from Google to Excelsior Post Office, which is what they call the abandoned buildings in Rock Creek Canyon. Here is a link to those directions from Owyhee, NV:
https://goo.gl/maps/BrqQCmutRZ72

This drive took me exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes from my house in east Boise.

Note: You can drive this road beyond 6200' where I stopped. However, there is a fallen tree just past the old buildings, which I believe will be removed by someone soon. However, at around 7200' there was a major wind storm that knocked down at least 8-10 larger aspens down onto the road. I suspect that will take a lot longer to get cleaned up.

I followed the road in Rock Creek Canyon to the 8300 foot saddle between Blue Jacket Peak and Peak 8986. After ascending Peak 8986, I dropped to the saddle labeled 8678 and located just north of Porter Peak. I then ascended to Point 9198, then traversed over to Porter Peak.