The Mini But Mighty: Picacho Peak
We have said this before, hiking in Arizona hits differently! There are so many variables unique to this area that make it more rugged, beautiful and inspiring. There are no fall zones, mostly because of the risk of falling into cacti. The mountains are very rugged in southern Arizona. They have an exposure element that is more akin to high alpine in the rocky mountains, than desert hiking. Even some of the smallest peak jet straight up from the valley floor with large cliffs, steep inclines and a kind of exposed rock that will tear your skin up! One of these peaks is called Picacho Peak. It sits about an hour north of Tucson, and it right off the interstate connecting Tucson to Phoenix. The valley floor around the peak sits at 1,891’ of elevation, while the peak itself goes up to 3,374’ above sea level. This little mountain packs some serious punch and has some of the most hair rising hiking lines we have done. With only 1.5 miles to get to the top, we are very excited to check this one off the book!
Mile: 83,897
Quote of the Blog: “You will always feel fear, but over time you will realize the only way to truly manage your fear is to broaden your comfort zone.” - Alex Honnold
Song of the Blog: “Livin’ on the Edge” - Aerosmith
We wanted to get an early start on this hike. It has been really hot lately, and we know there is no real sun relief on this hike. We also wanted to extend the hike a little more, by taking an alternative route down and around the mountain. This took what would have been just over 3 miles there and back, and made it into a loop hike that was just over 8 miles. Another reason we wanted to get an early start is because we knew this hike was going to entail holding onto some metal cables to hike through certain zones. We didn’t want to give them a chance to heat up. The trail started next to a campground, and was a fairly gradual climb to start. The first mile continued like this. We eventually worked our way up to the first cliff face, which had a couple caves and indentations into the cliff face that gave us some shaded zones and some really cool perspectives on the valley below. This is also about when the trail started to get serious. We worked our way up the face of the cliff on what was slightly more than a goat trail. We weren’t high off the valley floor, but the exposure on the cliff was enough to wake up both up! We eventually made it to our first saddle on the hike and stopped for some pictures and to take in the view.
The trail then took a dramatic turn from your standard trail, to traversing steep faces and climbing down a rock wall that required our first cable line to hold onto. At this point, Amity laughed and jokingly said, “Who picked this hike?” Fully knowing she was the one that suggested we do this today. The trail wrapped around the backside of the peak and along some amazing cliffs and vistas of the western valley below us. It was right about here where we came across the first real challenge on the hike. The cables lines told the store of where we were going. It informed us that we were going to be climbing straight up a cliff face, then traversing along the face, with nothing but a couple cables and a basic chain-link fence to keep you from falling off the mountain. We navigated this spot, to find that we had another quick vertical climb to make to get up to a small basin tucked into the mountain side. We both took our time, and made sure to move with purpose and confidence until we had a chance to take a deep breath and take in this beautiful spot.
We were not the only people hiking today, which gave us both confidence and knowledge that this hike was not impossible. Although, it did make both of us question our decisions a couple times. The next challenging spot was another vertical cliff that we had to climb up. This one had two parallel cables on each side of you to hold on to. It was like walking up the most vertical stair case, in which the steps were no wider than the front half of your feet. This one both had us thinking about what this was going to be like when we headed down, but that was not the mission yet. We still had another mile to get to the top. We worked our way up the trail to what appeared to be the last major challenge of the trail. This spot, the trail was no longer climbable on the rockface, as it was too steep and exposed for you to get a foot hold, so they built this rudimentary bridge that was held up by cables and felt more like walking the plank than hiking. We were both white knuckled, slightly stressed and adrenalized with the mission to get to the top. Once we passed this spot, we were back on hard ground, hiking on a relatively normal trail. We reached the last ridge line on the trail, and up to the peak! We lucked out, and got to spend our time at the top with no one else up there! We took some pictures, ate a snack and discussed how wild that hike was. We now had the mission of getting off this mountain and back to the car. In order to do that we had to go down everything we had just climbed up.
Going down turned out to be slightly easier than up. We at least knew what we were getting into, and just focusing on making every step with strong intentions and purpose helped us navigate these cable climbs relatively easy. Once we hit the turn to extend our hike around the mountain, we thought we might be done with these cables, but we were wrong! The steepest downward climb was still in front of us. Once we were on it, we could do nothing but laugh. We both took our time and made it down unscathed; outside of some bruises and cuts we got on our arms and knees from the rocks. We slowly made our way down the west side of the mountain into the valley below. The terrain became less rugged and started to fill with gigantic Saguaro Cacti. At this point, we had left the state park boundary, and into a zone where I could fly my drone. We had some fun getting a couple desert and mountain shots as we walked through the Saguaro forest. The remaining 4 miles were not challenging in the sense of the terrain, but were challenging in the sense that we were hiking in the desert sun, with no sun relief, and it was getting hot!
The last two miles ended up being on paved road. It was nice to have a smooth surface to walk on, but the black pavement was even hotter than the desert sand! Along the final walk, we were treated to a couple amazing view and some beautiful desert flowers. We saw our first Saguaro Cactus Flowers of the spring, and some vibrant Barrel Cactus and Prickly Pear Cactus Flowers! We walked around the base of the mountain with pride knowing that we had just conquered that peak. We celebrated with ice cold beers and some much needed time on our couch! This hike was one that will go down in the books as one of the most rugged mini hikes we have ever done! We have hiked further, higher and in much larger mountains, but Picacho Peak is a mighty little beast that deserves the respect it has! Big props to Amity for picking this hike, even if she spent the first half of it questioning her life and her decisions. What an epic way to Live Rad!