The Mountains of Arizona
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Peak 9067 • Peak 9194 These two peaks lie side by side of one another, on the east side of Escudilla Mountain. I was interested in them as they're both ranked 9,000-foot elevation peaks. There is a third peak nearby, nicknamed Turner View (from Bob Martin's Mountains of Arizona book) that I also hoped to tag. It had been a long day so far, but fruitful too. I had already tagged five peaks, and including five from yesterday, was at ten for the weekend. But I was also starting to tire. However, I wanted to hike all three of these peaks today, rather than stay an extra night. It was 2 p.m. when I finished my last peak, Peak 8992 on the west side of Escudilla Mountain. From that peak, I got onto US-191 and followed it north about ten miles, dropping elevation. I then got onto Apache County Road 2116, which heads east and south through a scattered community of homes. About four miles in, the road then magically turns into Forest Road 275, which heads east toward Loco Knoll, which I hiked last year. This is a good wide all-weather gravel road that wiggles with the terrain. A few more miles, and I came to FR-851. I went east a little, then followed FR-851A diagonally northeast about a half mile, placing me in a meadow directly south of the two peaks. It was close to 3 p.m. by now.
Date: May 19, 2024
• Elevation: 9,067 feet (Lidar)
• Prominence: 304 feet (Lidar)
• Distance: 0.6 mile ascent, 0.25 mile descent
• Time: 75 minutes whole hike
• Gain: 495 feet ascent, 304 feet descent
• Conditions: Sunny and warm
Arizona
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Interactive map
I parked in the shade of a tree but also in the open, so I could see the car as I exited. I walked north across the meadow. Peak 9194 rises to the west (left) and Peak 9067 to the right (east). It did not matter which one I climbed first. I just walked until I started up a slope. It happened that this slope would lead to Peak 9067 first.
The forest here did not get burned by the big 2011 fire, so it was healthy and dense, but with light underbrush and open enough to generally allow me to see my way. I hiked up, angling a little left to try to bet "near" the saddle between the two peaks. I followed any open lane or attractive slope as I found them.
The grade steepened, but the terrain was clumpy grass holding it all together nicely. There were some rocks, trees spaced out, some downed logs and branches, and thickets of brush. I moved slowly here, zig-zagging up to mitigate the grade. More toward the top, I came to a thicket of small gambel oak. I hiked within them a little. It's tight and branchy, but there are no thorns. This led me to an open slope, which then fed me to the top.
The top was narrow, with steep drops to both sides. I found the cairn and a regsiter dead center along the short ridge, and signed myself in. It had taken me about a half hour to get here. I didn't stick around. As soon as I signed in and tagged the highest rocks, I started right back down.
Here, I angled deliberately toward the true saddle, not wanting to dip farther down than necessary. The downhill went well, just going slow to be sure not to slip or slide. I was down in about ten minutes.
Elevation: 9,194 feet (Lidar)
• Prominence: 528 feet (Lidar)
• Distance: 0.4 mile ascent, 0.6 mile descent
• Gain: 431 feet ascent, 622 feet descent
• Conditions: Sunny and warm
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Then I started up the slopes to Peak 9194. Like on Peak 9067, it was steep with grassy slopes, but a little more forested here. The grade steepened quickly... then steepened a little more. It was just a tad too steep for my comfort, maybe 2 degrees steeper or something like that.
I was on a slope that looked okay, but every rock was loose. I found paths (game paths, probably) that tended to traverse and go up at an angle. I followed these. A couple times, I'd bust up a slope of rock and scree, only to slide right back down. I literally slid, that's how loose and steep it was. I got to thinking I may have chosen a bad line.
But I was dang close to the lip of the upper ridge. I would get up a slope to get above a tree, then repeat, using the trees as waypoints and also to help me keep from sliding. I only needed to get up about 40 feet of this. I did, but I didn't like it.
Now on the upper lip, the grade lessened, and I had about a 200-yard walk to the top, gaining about 40 feet. Up here it was lovely grass and trees, with enough room to see my way, but no views down over the forest or lower hills.
I was soon at the highpoint. I found a cairn but no register. The highpoint seemed to be between two downed logs. I did not stop, turning right around. I was really bushed now. This was my seventh peak of the day. Although they'd all been short, when I added up the miles and elevation gains, I had put in over 12 miles and nearly 3,000 feet of gain. And this last peak with its loose slopes just made me more tired.
I went down the exact same slopes, following my own footprints and where I had kicked loose rocks, leaving small divots. I moved slowly, and once off the steepest, loosest stuff, moved much faster. The walk out to my car went very quickly and was an enjoyable walk. I was back to my car at 4:15 p.m.
I piled in and got back onto FR-275. Turner View rises about three miles to the south, and would be the only remaining Arizona 9er back here. But when I got to it, suddenly, I wanted no part of it. It looked like it would take an hour, and I was really tired now. I could feel myself melt into my car seat. I hated to pass on it, meaning that I'll have to come back for it, but so be it.
I had other plans now materializing in my head. First, I needed to get back out to the highway. Going south on FR-275, the road quality dropped a notch, still a good road but narrower and not gravelled. After about fifteen minutes, I was close to Alpine because I started to pass some homes, but I had no idea how far I had to go. The Forest Road designation ends, and the road then becomes FR-2117, which finally fed me onto US-191 east of Alpine. I did not track miles, but from the peaks to the highway, I covered about fifteen miles or so.
My new plan taking shape was to look at two peaks in New Mexico that I had not planned on for this trip. But since I had achieved almost all my goals here in Alpine about a day faster than planned, I realized that I would have the time now for those peaks. I had about a hundred miles of driving from Alpine and two hours of sunlight. I hoped to get to the area before night fell so I could set up a simple camp for myself.
The story picks up with my hikes up Escondido and Fox Mountains.
The two peaks do not have summit elevations on the printed maps, and the lower peak was a borderline ranked peak to begin with. Fortunately, this area is mapped to the refined 1-meter Lidar. Using the dataset "USGS 1 Meter 12 x67y377 AZ_USFS_3DEP_Processing_2019_D20", I came up with elevations of 9,067 feet and 9,194 feet for the two peaks, and prominence figures of 304 and 528 feet, respectively.
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