Desert Peaks Emblem Peak
Hiked: 3/17/2025
Distance: 3.8 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 4877'
Prominence: 3477'
Elevation Gain: 2159'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.7
Round trip time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Signal Peak trailhead
Difficulty: Easy
I met up with my buddy Ben Baumann, a rare time our schedules and locations synced, to tackle Signal Peak, AZ (DPS #70), P3K. It's in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, set up for bighorn sheep. The refuge's name (KOFA) was derived from an acronym for one of the area's notable mines, the King of Arizona gold mine. The road to the trailhead was rocky and bumpy, high clearance suggested. The trail was marked with wooden posts but not signed. It was mostly easy to follow, but splintered into different trails in some places, then usually converged. Vegetation and saguaro cactus made it feel like a different world from the California desert only 50 miles away. Agave brandished half inch thorns along each leaf, compared to the smooth California variety. The trail followed Indian Canyon for awhile, then up a ramp on the left side avoiding dry falls. It was steep and steady most of the way, with sporadic class 2. Sharp towers of rock rose up all around. Gain accumulated quickly, along with stunning views that emerged as we got higher. The best views were from the summit. This was my first summit of Signal and Ben's second. The trail went all the way to the summit. The summit area was large and flat. The ammo box that held the register was under some rocks. The benchmark was stamped KOFA2. We hung out on top for a while, then took our time heading down. It was fun catching up with Ben and an awesome start to another Blythe-adjacent tour of desert peaks.
Hiked: 3/10/2025
Distance: 3.3 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 2865'
Elevation Gain: 1544'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.2
Round trip time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Stag Cove turnout off Highway 78
Difficulty: Moderate
Lizard Peak is small mountain above Lizard Canyon East Fork, on the NW side of the North Pinyon Mountains. I started at Stag Cove on Highway 78, walking a few hundred feet up the dirt road before clambering onto the slope. I stayed above and left of the main gully. There were three false summits along the ridge. I had to choose between two ascent gullies. One right of the false summit was lower angle, but looked slightly out of the way. I chose the steeper one on the left. There was a fair bit of scrambling over small, but solid rocks, and a lot of agave and large cactus like ocotillo and barrels. At the top of the gully, I saw the next two false summits, though I didn't know the third one was false at the time. I skirted the right side of the second bump, then stayed on the ridge to the top of the third. Sharp stuff grew more dense. Ocotillo and barrels gave way to cholla and smaller cactus. Finally, I spotted the true summit. I trudged up the final ridge to a pleasant, open summit area with large boulders. The summit block was 10' with a tricky class 3 move through a wide crack that started half way up. It took me a few tries to get my footing right, reach the crack, then press myself to the top. I did not find a benchmark or register, though other people had reported a register. Gravity made the descent easier, but agave and cactus kept my pace in check. Coming off the first false summit, I met a chuckwalla that jammed itself in a crack under some rocks. I tried to get a good photo of it, wondering briefly if it was snake. I left convinced it was a chuckwalla. Near the bottom, I decided to drop into the main gully and follow it all the way out. Lizard Peak was a little more challenging than expected.
Hiked: 3/10/2025
Distance: 2.1 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 1942' (Pass), 2051' (Ridge)
Elevation Gain: 530'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.4
Round trip time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Recommended water: 16 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at turnout on Highway S3
Difficulty: Easy
With a large storm on the way, I decided to shoehorn a desert hike into the schedule a day before it arrived. First stop was a loop to Yaqui Pass and Yaqui Ridge from the Bill Kenyon Trail. It started at a turnout just before the Yaqui campground. The trail led to an overlook, but the Yaqui Pass Peak was an extra quarter mile up a use trail. There was a small rock cairn, but no register and no benchmark. I returned to the trail and followed it to the end, in the shadow of Yaqui Ridge. I left the trail and climbed a steep slope with some light class 2 at the top. Like the other Yaqui, I found a rock cairn, but no register and no benchmark. I descended the same way, following the trail a little before heading directly back to the car. It was a quick warm up before attempting Lizard Peak in the North Pinyon Mountains.
Hiked: 2/26/2025
Distance: 2 miles round trip on use trail
Summit Elevation: 5240'
Elevation Gain: 730'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.6
Round trip time: 2 hours
Recommended water: 16 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Forest Road 1N34 (gate open seasonally)
Difficulty: Easy
I was looking for an easy HPS peak I could do as a day trip. San Sevaine (HPS #260) was one of the closest left. When I checked the status of forest road 1N34, I discovered it was going to close in 3 days for the summer. It would reopen in September. That was motivation enough. I drove on Sierra Avenue to the gate for 1N34. It was open and I started the 8 mile drive to the radio towers near San Sevaine. The road definitely needed 4x4. It was rutted, rocky, and muddy. The last quarter mile to the towers was the worst. The drive up was about an hour. I spotted the use trail about 100' down the road. It was in decent shape as it dropped down the slope toward the knob where the lookout used to be. I spotted either a coyote or deer sprinting downhill not far from the road. I brought along loppers since the trail gets quickly overgrown with whitethorn. The vegetation grew thicker as I went along. While there were signs of clipping, I had to do quite a bit of my own to get through some areas. I hit an old road bed near the saddle and followed that through some turns. On the way up the knob, the use trail went through 4 tunnels cut in the whitethorn. I had to crawl anywhere from 10' to 40' at the longest. The last tunnel was not even visible until I cleared the opening of branches. Loppers were a must. Maybe you could get by if you followed someone within a week. Even with the loppers, I garnered a collection of scratches passing through. At the very top was a small boulder pile. Two registers were in a PVC pipe with a lid, but both were soaked and mostly ruined. San Sevaine needs a new register. The views were OK. Nice look at Etiwanda and Cucamonga, but this was not an HPS peak that will wow you. It was easier on the way back with fresh cuts, but no faster. It's about a 600' climb back up to the towers.
Hiked: 2/23/2025
Distance: 10.9 miles round trip on use trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 2884' (Towsley), 3745' (Oat)
Elevation Gain: 3540'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.8
Round trip time: 8 hours 50 minutes
Recommended water: 112 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Towsley Canyon Park
Difficulty: Strenuous (brush, route finding)
Nate Underkuffler planned a hike for his 39th birthday from Towsley Canyon Park to Oat Mountain. It was a revenge hike with route modifications from his unsuccessful attempt the prior year to rach Oat from the northeast. The standard route was a road hike from the south. In early 2024, I was still recovering from an ankle break and could not join the group on a cross country scramble. I was able to reach the top of Oat Mountain that day via the standard route, and I waited for the group to reach the road until they informed I was informed they had cliffed out. This year, my ankle was solid, and seven hikers were determined to make the eastern route work. The group included Nate, his father Craig, Dima Kogan, and three people I hadn't met before: Matt, Wes, and Dave. Most of the group were young and strong. Craig and I were in our 60s, relying more on our experience and skill. We expected severe brush on the upper ridges. I was armed with Fiskar loppers. As a group, we had four loppers and a hand saw.
The first few miles were on the Don Mullally trail, then we followed an overgrown use trail up a drainage, to a ridge and Towsley Benchmark. The benchmark was immaculate, but no register was around. We took a break in the shade, then continued east on a good use trail up and down along the narrow ridge. We turned south on a connecting ridge that would take us to the fire road. We expected the brush to get much worse. At first, minor clipping was all that was needed to reach a large sandstone outcrop. The brush got steadily worse, but everyone was chopping and sawing through it. The sun was out in force and temps increased to the low 80s. The worst part of the ridge was the last 1000', but we made steady progress and burst through the last of it onto the Palo Sola fire road.
Towsley Peak center
(L to R): Matt, Dima, Craig, Nate, Wes, Dave (and tailgate)
Thicker brush near the top of the ridge
We gathered in the shade below Oat Mountain to decide the next course of action. Nate wanted to make a game time call on whether to take his planned route down a different ridge back into Towsley Canyon or bail on the standard road route to the south. Dima and a few other people were planning to bail due to low water. The heat had taken its toll. It was already 2 PM and I was concerned about having enough time to complete the other ridge. I donated a 32 oz gatorade and a 16 oz water to the group that wanted to take the ridge down. That was enough for Dima to change his mind, then Nate, Wes, and Dave geared up for it. Craig, Matt, and I planned to summit Oat, then take the road down. We parted ways. The three of us continued up to Oat and had lunch under a large tree. We made our way down, encountering one bull, a coyote, and a few calves grazing on the green slopes. We took a shortcut near the bottom to explore the abandoned Nike missile silos. Nate's wife was kind enough to pick us up and shuttle us back to Towsley Canyon. On the way, we got word the ridge group had run into harsh brush and were going to come down the south side as well. When we got back to Towsley, I found my tailgate missing. Gone. It had been stolen in broad daylight at a busy county park with a lot street traffic. The thieves left my bags in the bed alone. It was brazen, but at least there was no other damage to the truck. I said my goodbyes, then drove home, knowing I would have to deal with the tailgate the next day. It was a fine hike with an unfortunate end. The initial estimate to replace it was $4200, covered by insurance except for the deductable.
