The Gila County highpoint was long thought to be mighty Mazatzal Peak, located in the north county west of Payson, along the Gila and Yavapai County boundary. This peak's elevation is 7,903 feet, but this is superceded by two cliff edges along the Mogollon Rim, both coming in at exactly 7,920 feet, or so says the map. Lazy county highpointers such as myself catch quite a break here, as these county highpoints can be reached fairly easily along a good forest road (FR-300, known as the Rim Road, a popular backcountry drive). The one at Promontory Point requires a hike of about a mile in light forest while the one at Myrtle Point is a short walk from a side road and very easy to reach. The roads are closed in winter and this area can get quite a bit of snow. In summer, the forest is crawling with campers, hikers, explorers and lazy county highpointers, such as myself, of course. Even so, I did finally get around to hiking up Mazatzal Peak in November 2005.

First visit, November 1999: Ken Akerman and I decided to snag an easy county highpoint during Veteran's Day. For mid-November we were enjoying near record heat (low 90s), and state-wide the weather was terrific, so we figured it would be a good day to get out and head up to the high country before winter settles in before too long. The Gila County highpoints are two spots along the cliff edge of the Mogollon Rim, which serves as Gila County's northern boundary with Coconino County. One point is on Promontory Butte near the "Promontory" benchmark at 7,914 feet, while another on Myrtle Point does not have a listed elevation but does include a 7,920 foot contour. So to be sure, we visited both areas.

Our day began around 7:30 with Ken picking me up in his 1986 Isuzu. As we headed up AZ-87 (the Beeline Hwy), his vehicle began to run funny so we decided to head back to my place and take my truck instead. In all this added about a 90 minute delay to the trip, but ultimately did not affect us. We headed to Payson, topped off the tank, turned east on AZ-260 through Kohls Ranch and Christopher Creek, and up the steady grade to the top of the Mogollon Rim. The Mogollon Rim is a long (100 miles) band of cliffs that essentially delineate Northern Arizona's high country from Central Arizona's valleys and deserts. It is also the breeding ground for the summer Monsoon storms, which build up at the rim and sweep into Phoenix during the summer.

Almost immediately at the top of the grade is the turn off for Forest Road 300 (Woods Canyon Lake Road). We followed FR-300 (pavement ends after 3 miles), heading generally west. The road is in decent shape but has portions of washboarding. After spotting a lookout tower along the road after 11 miles from the junction with AZ-260, we proceeded another mile to a turn-off to the left. A very small sign mentions Promontory Point. According to our maps, this was FR-76. The road isn't very good, but we never needed 4-wheel drive either. Just rocky and bumpy; so much so, I had a flat about 3 miles in! Ken helped me change the tire and we were again on our way. Finally, we came to the end of the road near the cliff's edge and found ourselves about a half-mile east of the highpoint area. We walked up the easy forested slopes and found the highpoint cairn with no difficulty, and signed in. Benchmark "Promontory" is located on the tip of a finger of land about 300 yards south of the highpoint, but we did not bother to visit it.

Back into my truck, I was alarmed to see my battery light go on. We drove out back to FR-300, and decided to make a go for Myrtle Point, which is about another 10 miles west. Some recent fires have denuded the forest in places, allowing for good views from the road, ignoring the charred trunks. We actually passed the Myrtle Point turn-off (it wasn't marked) but backtracked to it when we discovered our error. We drove in about 0.4 mile, hiked a hundred yeards or so and found the cairn at the cliffs edge which seems to mark the highest point along that stretch of cliffs. With my low battery, we nevertheless made it out of the forest, back on to AZ-260 to Payson and home to Phoenix. Later that night, while getting some dinner, my battery finally gave out, and I needed a tow to the mechanics. The verdict: bad alternator. Lucky I didn't get stranded up in the forest!

Second visit, November 2003: Originally my wife Beth and I were going to hike up a peak south of Interstate-8 called Table Top Mountain, but Beth woke up that morning feeling not 100%, and the weather was sort of unsettled, so we opted against Table Top for now, and sat around trying to decide what to do instead. Beth asked if there was an easy highpoint to do, and I suggested the Gila liners on the Mogollon Rim. So, without any advance planning, we simply hit the road, stopping at the Wide World of Maps shop in Mesa to pick up the necessary topo maps. We left Chandler around 9:30 a.m. and made the 80-mile drive to Payson in a little over an hour, where we had a nice breakfast at the "Knotty Pine" restaurant, a real locals hangout. After getting gas and supplies we made the drive up AZ-260 to the Rim and began our quest.

We essentially followed the exact same road net as I did with Ken in 1999. We hit the point on Promontory Butte first, and made the quick side trip out to the benchmark that I'd ignored 4 years earlier. The weather was getting sort of nasty, with fog and drizzle and temps in the mid-30s. Unfortunately the views from out over the cliffs were occluded by the fog. As a result we didn't dawdle, and pretty much made the round trip hike in about 30 minutes. The point on Myrtle Point was second. We came to it in much denser fog, with sections along road where I could only see 20 feet. We drove in the little access road (FR-300C) and made the quick walk out to the high area along the cliff. I was concerned when I didn't see the cairn I recall from the last time... then I found it, kicked over, rocks strewn about and the register just flung in the brush. Someone had a little fun in the area, obviously. I reconstructed everything, then hightailed it back to the truck. It was really coming down, almost sleeting, and in the 10 minutes or so we were out hiking we both got pretty soaked and downright cold. From here is was just a long slow drive out to the highway and back into Payson, where we ate a dinner and headed for home. The next day: NASCAR! We went to the race out at the Phoenix International Raceway. Lots of fun and a great weekend.