Tumacacori Peak

January 29, 2006

On one of those hot fudge sundae Arizona days -- the kind where you're shivering at dawn and soaking your T-shirt by noon -- Ruth and David and Dennis and I hiked to a saddle just below Tumacacori Peak.

There are no trails in this area, so we approached via a 4WD road that hooks around the south of the mountain. We parked the Taco Ma about two miles in, and staked out a route that would take us along a comb just to the right of the wash.

The wash is packed with dollops of yellow tuff, and the sides are riddled with caves, pour-offs and abandoned mines.

When the ledge Ruth and I were following dead-ended at a cliff, we had to exit through a rabbit hole.

It took us about an hour-and-a-half to reach the saddle. After more than 100 days without rain, the parched grass filled our boots with clouds of golden dust.

We had come up about 1000 feet from the car. The summit was about 500 feet above us at an elevation of 5151 feet.

Views from the saddle included this great bench looking out toward the Santa Catalina Mountains.

David pressed on to the summit while Dennis searched for better reception. Ruth and I decided we were just fine where we were.

There is an old stone foundation -- what I'd call a "ring fort" -- on Tumacacori Peak. We've found similar remains on several other remote hilltops. Were they temporary shelters built by bored cowboys, or were they ancient Anasazi lookouts?

David also located a badly worn trip log that we'll replace on our next hike.

The tiny dot to the left of the juniper tree is David on the bluff overlooking the saddle. The summit is actually some distance south of this point, and the saddle may not be the best approach. On our next trip we'll try to make our way around the east side following the pipeline.

For the return trip, we decided to cross over to the other side, following along the base of the impressive castle of yellow tuff at the head of the canyon.

The castle contains several sizable caves, and one of them is dripping with honeycombs.

There was even more brush on the west side of the wash, although we did encounter occasional "trail-like" conditions.

There are some fine-looking basins near the bottom of the wash. We vowed to return after a good rainstorm. For today, we had to make do with ice cream and coffee in Tubac.