Cunningham Mountain is a little-known but often-viewed peak, sitting just a few miles south of Interstate-10 between Quartzsite and the Colorado River in far-western Arizona. It is the highpoint of the Dome Rock Mountains, which run for about 10 miles north-south, parallel to the river. Coming in from California, it is the first big peak one sees entering into Arizona. Although just 3,316 feet high, it rises over 2,000 feet above the desert plains and has a nice, well-defined profile. Its prominence makes it an attractive location for communications towers, and a very rough jeep track leads to the top, which allows for a fairly easy hike as a result. Beth and I were looking for an easy hike and something to do for the Valentine's Weekend (which we arbitrarily chose to be the 10th and 11th, since V-day fell on a wednesday this year).

I hadn't been having too much luck in recent weeks with my peaks. I was 0 for 2 so far in 2007, failing on Kitt Peak on New Years Day when the road was closed due to snow (how about that), and on Sierra Estrella when I simply got in over my head on its heinously steep slopes and cliffs. I wanted a peak that was idiot-proof - trail to the top, no route-finding required, no scrambling. Beth and I had looked at hiking this peak back in December on our trip west to Anza-Borrego Desert, but some weather nixed that plan. So we postponed it to this weekend, and set ourselves up for two nights in Salome at the Shefflers Hotel, where we stayed back in 2004 when we hiked Harquahala Mountain. Granted, Salome isn't closest to Cunningham - Quartzsite is just 15 miles of driving away, and Blythe not too much further - but it is a neat little place and one that we enjoyed when we were there in '04, so we didn't mind the extra 30+ miles each way of driving. We left the Phoenix area at 4:30 pm on friday and hit awful traffic immediately. Even way out west past Buckeye the traffic was pretty heavy. We took Salome Road off of Interstate-10 for 30 miles and came into Salome 'the back way'. Our hotel was just a short bit to the west along US-60. We got in, ate and crashed!

The next morning we got moving around 9:30 a.m., in no real hurry. We followed US-60 to Quartzsite where we stopped for drinks, then US-95 south for eight miles to the El Paso Gas Line Road near a set of large power lines and a red-and-white valve system, presumably for the gas line. Turning right on the Gas Line Road, we traveled another 7+ miles into the range, where we could see the road work its way through a low pass just to the right (north) of Cunningham Mountain. We took this good dirt road slowly, stopping often for photos. Soon we were up into the range. We came to a four-way junction near the Copper Bottom Mine, and turned left, driving up the road for about a quarter-mile to a sharp bend near a locked gate. I parked off the road here, butting back into a cleared rocky knob that had the added bonus of keeping the truck invisible from below. The locked gate bars regular traffic from driving up the road to the towers. We pegged our location at 1,560 feet elevation. Across the way were a few people and vehicles, hanging around doing something we couldn't tell. During the day we saw a few quadrunners and motorbikes, plus jeeps and trucks, so this area definitely gets action. However, no one seemed interested in the mountain itself, and we had it all to ourselves. The big draw seems to be the Copper Bottom Mine. There are still some buildings here and there but I couldn't tell if it's still active; I don't think it is. A number of side roads not shown on the map attract the quads and motorbikes.

The hike to the top was as easy as it looked on the map. Once past the locked gate, the road starts up steeply and never really lets up. The road switchbacks sharply, with many tight turns and very few level spots. We saw evidence of a recent hiker and some quads that drove this road possibly within the past week. The main summit body is always visible to the west, although the true summit stays hidden behind some foreground rocks. We took a break after about 30 minutes, then pushed on to where the road meets the main ridge at elevation 2,460 feet, where we took another break, very roughly about a mile up and the half-way point of the hike. Here we had wonderful views looking south into the rest of the range, with its craggly peaks and sharp ridges. It certainly did occur to us that despite the road's general lack of beauty, it did allow for a fairly easy, if strenuous, way to the top. Otherwise, a climb of Cunningham would be one long rock scramble with cliff after cliff to negotiate.

From the ridge we could see the road continue upwards, cut into the side of the ridge and zig-zagging through the various rock outcrops. We plodded forward, taking another break after another 30 minutes at a nice overlook, this time to the north and east where we could see our truck, all tiny, way down below. Power lines line the route, and some were 'humming', either by the wind or probably by the juice pumping through them. In spots along the road there were exposed veins of glossy-white quartz. Beth picked up a few to take home with us; I got to carry the extra weight in the backpack. We continued forward, and finally, the road made a sharp right turn from where we could see the top, now just a few hundred feet up ahead. Beth was going slow due to her knees giving her trouble. I went off ahead for the last 100 feet or so, but waited below the top for Beth; we walked the final short amount together, and took a deserved break beside the summit rockpile and gatorade-bottle register. Lacking a pencil, we signed in with some of Beth's colored lip gloss. The only other signers were a handful of others, most of whom I know from other hikes.

The summit is full of towers and little buildings, all running on generators and timers so that there was always a din of humming fans going on. Even so, the views were excellent in all directions. The day had started kind of spotty cloudy, and had become steadily more overcast, but we could still see peaks way off on all the horizons - a complete 360-degree panorama. The Dome Rock Range itself dominated the north and south views, and we could make out Interstate-10 as it winds through the range about five miles north of our position. The town of Quartzsite and his thousands of RVs lay out to our northeast, while Blythe and its farms were to the west. The Colorado River was a blue squiggle on the valley floor. To the east, big Signal Peak stood tall like a ship on calm waters, the flat desert plain rising up to meet the rocky cliffs. The spires of the Kofa Mountains were also visible to the southeast with Castle Dome rising most obviously. We could even make out the broad hump of Harquahala Mountain to the far northeast. Many other peaks and ranges lay in all directions, too many to name. It had taken us exactly two hours to reach the top, covering almost 1,800 feet of gain in about two miles. We spent about 40 minutes resting and eating. I taped up Beth's knees for the hike down.

We took the downhills slow, hiking together so that if Beth slipped she wouldn't tweak her knee any worse. We also took some breaks and plenty more photographs. The weather had become cooler under the clouds, with a steady light wind. In time we were back to our truck, where we changed out of our hiking clothes and got rolling back toward Salome. We celebrated with salmon and cheese bread sandwiches, plus episodes of Law and Order, one after another.

Cunningham Mountain proved to be quite a nice hike. In the cooler months it's a nice easy dayhike getaway, and the road makes for an easy straight-shot to the top. The views are rather nice; we were expecting less, I guess. The El Paso Gas Line Road is pretty good, although a low-slung passenger car might struggle with some of final mile into the range due to some rocky bits, some sand and steepness. I can imagine what this place would be like in July - yikes! But for a winter hike, it's perfect.

Explanation of the Mysterious Humming Orange Ball (MHOB): It's one of those 'don't fly your helicopter into me' warning balls strung up on the power lines. There were a few others, but this one hummed for whatever reason. Again, probably the electricity in the lines, and maybe an effect of the wind. It was kind of cool. We're thinking of sending it in to the Phoenix ABC Channel 15 news, which in recent days has been at the forefront of the 'mysterious lights/UFOs' nonsense that comes and goes in the Phoenix area. We can tell them it's some mysterious orange humming ball, and let them run with it.