PICACHO PEAK
(3374’)February 15, 2012
By Tim Briese
3.6 miles, 1800’ elevation gain, 2:50 roundtrip time
Picacho Peak is a dramatic landmark jutting out of the desert along I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson. A steep and exposed trail with several safety cables leads to the top. The climb involves quite a bit of class 3 rock scrambling and is a lot of fun. About 10,000 people a year climb it.
i was eager to climb picacho peak after seeing this view of it from I-10 in 2009!
I left Surprise at 8:45 a.m. and drove 110 miles down the freeway to Picacho Peak State Park, where I arrived at 10:25. A ranger at the entrance station directed me to the trailhead parking area for the Hunter Trail, which leads to the summit, and at 10:40 I struck off up the nice trail. It was a beautiful sunny February day with a temperature of about 60 degrees. Picacho Peak loomed above to the south.
picacho peak, the trail climbs to the saddle at the right, then traverses along the other side of the peak to the summit, at the upper left
It had rained the day before and the trail was noticeably wet in places. The initial, easier part of the trail climbed 900 feet in 0.9 miles up to a saddle along the west ridge of the peak. The route to the saddle looked improbable at first because of an imposing cliff band, but the trail circled neatly around to the left of the cliff band and traversed across a slope above it to the saddle. It took me half an hour to get to the saddle. I overtook a couple from Tempe who were resting there. The elevation at the saddle was about 2900 feet.
at the saddle
From the saddle the trail dropped steeply down a smooth rocky pitch to the south, losing about 200 feet of elevation. Cables along this stretch were quite helpful.
the steep route down from the saddle
The trail then traversed eastward along the south slopes of the peak for a couple of hundred yards.
the trail traversed across this terrain
Then I made a steep hand and foot scramble up and around a rugged corner, again with the assistance of more cables. It was necessary to wait a couple of times for other climbers going down to pass by.
the climbing began to get more interesting
The cables kept the difficulty of the climb at class 3, without them some of the climbing would probably have been at least class 4 in difficulty, and would have been much more dangerous and exposed. The rangers recommend using gloves for the cables, especially in hot weather, but I did without them today.
this spot had a mesh fence in addition to the cables to keep climbers from falling
I met a party of ten or so older climbers coming down, then a couple of smaller groups.
other climbers coming down
saguaros were abundant
I came to a steep 40 foot high crack and promptly climbed up with the assistance of cables on each side.
two climbers can be seen at the right going up the crack
looking back down at a climber coming up the crack, at the lower right
Then the route went acoss a thin ledge on the face of a rugged cliff, complete with cables and even a plank at a particularly tricky spot.
looking back at the ledge with the plank
There were a few more switchbacks above that and at 12 noon I stepped on the summit. I was a bit surprised to find a young fellow there with four young children, aged perhaps 8 to 12 years old, eating their lunch on top. Taking that many youngsters up such a rugged and exposed route seemed kind of risky to me. I wondered if their mother knew what they were doing today.
on the summit
The exposed summit was comfortably spacious, maybe 30 feet wide and 50 feet long or so. The guy left with the kids and I had the summit to myself for ten minutes or so before others arrived. Conditions were perfect with no wind and a temperature of 58 degrees. The surrounding views were incredible from this lofty vantage point.
in the distance are mountains near tucson; i-10 lies below
view to the northwest; the trailhead is along the loop road at the lower right
After twenty minutes on top I left and headed down. It was just as much fun going down as it had been coming up. The cables made the difficult places relatively easy. I met several more climbers coming up and soon overtook the party of children going down. It took me 40 minutes to get back down to the saddle and an additional half hour to the car, where I arrived at 1:30. The day was so strikingly pleasant that I drove with the car windows down for a while to enjoy it to the fullest. I left the park and got back on the freeway and headed back to Phoenix.
