The highpoint of Pinal County is along the north slope of Rice Peak, itself just a bump on the Oracle Ridge, a major ridge emanating off of the Catalina Mountains inside Pima County. The Pima-Pinal County line runs across the north slope of Rice Peak, and a nearby mound of rocks also reaches the same elevation. The highpoint is easily reached via a hike from the Catalina Highway and the Arizona Trail, or from the north via Peppersauce Canyon, mainly following jeep roads and some trail. Only the last little bit of hiking is amid the brushy slopes. Despite the "lameness" of this highpoint, it's a nice hike and an enjoyable outing.

First Attempt, July 1997: I decided to try this from the south, coming off the Catalina Highway. I got an early start from home and got to the Arizona Trailhead off of Oracle Control Road, near the Fire Station up on the Catalina Highway. The sign said Rice Peak was 6 miles away.

The trail drops about a thousand feet to Dan Saddle, and I did well, following the trail past Dan Saddle and on beyond a nearby hill. But the day was warm and I had severely underestimated my water needs. I rounded a bend, saw Rice Peak still about two miles distant, and had just a half-liter of water. I knew I'd never have enough to do the round trip, so I bailed, and started the slog out. Back at Dan Saddle I had drank what I had left. I still had a fairly strenuous uphill hike back to my car. Obviously, I made it, but I was about as dehydrated and desperately thirsty as I have ever been. The day was quite warm: 90s even at this elevation. It was very unpleasant.

I had water in my car, but it was hot after sitting in the car all those hours. Nevertheless, I gulped some down, then drove into Summerhaven and drank my head off at a small cafe. It took me a couple hours to rehydrate and feel better. I learned a pretty good lesson there. I salvaged the rest of the day with a casual hike up Mount Lemmon.

First successful visit, December 1999: Ken Akerman and I teamed up to seek out this highpoint. Ken had tried it sometime in the past and did not feel too comfortable about his attempt back then, so we both had reasons for wanting a second try with this highpoint. Ken drove, and we followed a route through Florence into Oracle. A marathon was being run, and lots of runners were on the highway (AZ-77) from Oracle Junction to Oracle. Ken did a good job of not hitting a single person.

We parked in Peppersauce Canyon south of Oracle (the town), and followed a series of jeep roads up and up and up, eventually getting near Rice Peak. I had a little excitement along the way, catching a glimpse of a large cat stealthing its way across the road ahead of me. It's the only time I've ever seen a big cat in the wilds of Arizona.

Finally, Ken and I arrived to the top of Rice, where some guys in their Jeeps had driven up. We chatted, then started down the north slope. Ken went one way and I another. Ken was gone for awhile for some reason. In time we found one another again, then just tromped on the north ridge up and down, crossing the county line in the process. The ground was brushy and we found no cairn or any sign of a supposed highpoint, so we just had to trust our gut here. We spent quite some time here, so the statistical likelihood of success was very good, in my mind.

We then walked out to the rock outcrop and tagged its highpoints, and in doing so, could make a confident claim to Pinal County's highpoint. We were back to Ken's car at about 4 p.m., almost dark so close to the winter solstice. The drive back to Phoenix was mostly boring with moments of terror thrown in, like when Ken skidded to a stop on AZ-79, then reversed while still in the road, so he could check out the Tom Mix roadside memorial. We almost became part of this memorial, had there been someone tailing us.

Second visit, March 2003 (with Beth): I wanted to re-do this highpoint with my fiance, Beth, so she could claim it for herself. We left our home in Chandler and arrived in Oracle around 10:30 a.m., taking a break for goodies, before continuing on to Peppersauce Canyon. We would follow the same route as Ken and I did in 1999.

This time, I would take more notes and detail the series of roads we would follow in case I wanted to, say, write a book on the county highpoints. We had a good hike and the scenery was very lovely (especially Beth's scenery). The main difference on this hike was the abundance of snow. By the time we arrived onto Rice Peak's top, the snow was about a foot deep here, and up to three or four feet on its north-facing slopes.

So we descended and tried to seek out the highpoint. I used my GPS to gauge elevation and compare across to the rock knobs and felt we did a very good job, given the uncertainty. The hike was very enjoyable and we took our sweet time ... almost too much time, as we realized it was about 3 p.m. and we needed to get moving to beat the dark. Actually, it wasn't as dire as it sounds. We actually descended from the highpoints directly to the road, and were back to my truck as it was getting pleasantly dusky. I just didn't want to be driving these roads in the dark.

The drive home was boring, with moments of terro ... no, wait, sorry. That was with Ken. The drive home was nice, with Beth, and we tried to find somewhere to eat in Florence and Coolidge, but they have nothing much, so we ate when we got all the way back to Chandler.

Update, Oct 2003: Much of the northern slopes of the Catalina Mountains, which includes Rice Peak, were wracked by the enormous "Aspen Fire" over the summer of 2003. The fire assuredly burnt much of the area, making for a possibly very different landscape than as we found it in March.