Date: November 24, 2024 • Elevation: 5,802 feet • Prominence: 562 feet • Distance: 6.5 miles • Time: 3 hours • Gain: 1,600 feet • Conditions: Hazy high clouds, cool but not cold

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ

Peak 5802 rises in the northern Santa Rita Mountains, the next bigger peak south of Mount Fagan. It is similar in appearance to Mount Fagan, with long ridges and slopes covered mostly in grass, low brush, and scattered trees such as mesquite and oak.

The peak lies within the Coronado National Forest, so access is not fettered. A rough dirt track gets high up on the mountain, offering a good walking path. There is a ranch inholding down low, called the Hidden Valley Ranch. This was the location for the historic Scholefield Ranch, which sits within Scholefield Canyon. George Scholefield was a contemporary and friend of Walter Vail and his son Edward, founders of the nearby Empire Ranch. Scholefield held various positions in and around Tucson and the area between 1890 and 1910, including livestock inspector and firefighter (this is gleaned from newspaper indices of the era and are very thin on details).

I left Bisbee a little before 7 a.m., stopped in Sonoita for snacks, and drove up AZ-83 about fifteen miles to the turn-off for the Hidden Valley Ranch, Forest Road 4062. I followed the road southwest, crossed an arroyo, then came to a Y-split. A straight leads to the ranch property, FR-4062 goes right.

To here, the road was in great shape. I hoped the continuation of FR-4062 would be decent to where I could drive in a little, but that was not to be. I got in about 150 feet, came to a rocky arroyo with a cleared spot beside it. I took the hint and parked here. I wasn't that far from the peak, about three miles, so starting from here was fine with me.

I started walking at 8:30 a.m.. This time of year, mornings are very cold, in the high 30s, but as soon as the sun comes up, temperatures can rise 20°. The high was expected to be in the mid 60s. There was a sheen of high clouds which muted the sun. I went light and wore hiking shorts, since I was walking a road. That, and I discovered my hiking pants were not in the car but in the washing machine back home. There is a little off-trail hiking at the end, and I hoped my legs would not get too shredded.

Walking the road was easy and I made good time. Its condition gets rougher fast. I might have got in another quarter mile but that would have been about it. It gains a small hill, then drops into a drainage and rises again to come to a gate. The road here was rocky and uneven, my Subaru would not have handled it at all.

The road wiggles with the terrain. It bends northwest and curls around Peak 4931, then bends south and drops about 130 feet, meeting and crossing the Arizona Trail along the way. The road then gains upward toward Point 4943 where it splits, FR-4879 going left toward the peak. I covered this stretch, about two and a half miles, in about an hour.

I followed FR-4879 upward and as far in as it would go. This spur ran about a half mile and ended tucked into the folds of a canyon, elevation about 5,250 feet. There was a salt lick here, so cattle get this far (and higher, as I would discover).

The roads overall are very rough and would require 4-wheel drive. There were some arroyo crossings that looked messy and some spots where erosion had created v-channels in the road itself. I saw tracks that looked recent, and clearly someone comes up here on occasion to drop off a salt lick. A smaller Polaris-type rig would be best for these roads, in my opinion. For walking, they got me where I wanted to be, but the loose rock, the gravel and uneven footing meant I had to pay attention as I walked.

I looked for a way up past the end of the road, and the cattle had provided one: a steep cattle track that busted up the closest slope. I followed it upward, and followed cattle and game paths whenever I could. The slopes were grassy, as I expected. The mesquite trees grew thick in spots but I could usually walk around them.

Unfortunately, there was a moderate amount of thornbrush and catclaw, as well as thick patches of lechuguilla. This meant I had to zig and zag often to find ways past the worst of the clumps. There were some rock outcrops that sometimes helped in that they were free (mostly) of brush, but the rock itself was friable so I had to step and grab carefully. There wasn't any actual scrambling, but I used my hands to balance myself.

The off-trail portion covered less than a half mile but gained almost 600 feet. Fortunately, it was never more severe than what I described. Some parts were fine with open grass and easy footing, and other parts were loose, pointy and sharp. The top fifty feet was much steeper and I had to move slowly just to keep from kicking loose small rock torrents.

I was soon on top the peak, somewhat amused to see a fenceline crossing over the top. The top was open but covered in lechuguilla, many of them sprouting stalks about six to eight feet tall. The highest natural rocks seemed to be a patch within the lechuguilla, so I carefully stepped into the mess and onto this rocky patch, then back out onto more open ground.

I found a cairn on the other side of the fence and a bottle within it, but no paper nor pencil. I keep some golf pencils and scraps of paper in my pack, so I signed myself in and rebuilt the cairn. This peak does not see much visitation, just a fraction compared to Mount Fagan and other sexier Santa Rita Peaks.

Views were pretty good, given the sky was still mostly the high white sheen of clouds that mute everything. Mount Fagan rose to the north, the Empire Range and the Whetstones to the east, and the bigger peaks of the Santa Ritas to the south and southwest. I spent just ten minutes up top. It had taken me 90 minutes to get here.

Going down, I followed the same route back to the road. The rock was very loose and more than once I slid a foot or two on the rubble before catching myself. I generally had good luck avoiding the lechuguilla, but at one point got one flush in the fleshy part of the ankle, and that stung for another hour. The thorns were bothersome but not impossible and my legs got scratched, but nothing serious. Bees were a problem, though. A couple buzzed me for yards at a time. I just kept my mouth shut and kept moving.

Once back on the road, the walk out was easy and fast, taking just over an hour. As I returned to my car, some guys rolled in looking for a place to park for shooting. I told them I'd be leaving and they could have my spot, but they decided against it, saying there was too much brush here. I could hear shooters all day, even way up on the peak, the amphitheater-effect on sound enhancing the noises from down below.

The round trip hike took exactly 3 hours. It was 11:30 a.m. when I egressed. I drove back through Sonoita and into Sierra Vista for gas and a quick Ace Hardware run, then back to Bisbee.

This peak was fun and uncomplicated. It's not the greatest peak ever and there are better options nearby if just visiting in the area. This peaks fills in one more blank as I slowly tag all the ranked peaks in this part of the range. As of now, I still have a few more to go.