Table Top is a distinctively-shaped mountain south of Interstate-8 in western Pinal County. Although remote, it is visible for miles and instantly recognized for its 'blocked-off' summit, giving it a flat, table-top appearance. The peak is visible from along Interstate-10 in Casa Grande and as far north as Chandler and Maricopa, and is located within the Table Top Wilderness, which was recently (2001) incorporated into the new Sonoran Desert National Monument. Beth and I had planned to hike this peak as far back as 2003, but at that time a front blew in on the day we planned to visit it, and we canceled our plans. We always talked about going back but didn't get around to it until just recently. For one thing, it's readily visible from a lot of other peaks we've hiked, and we always commented about hiking Table Top 'someday'. We finally decided to go for it given the fact our window of opportunity was closing - even in late March the weather heats up pretty good and if we didn't do it soon, then we'd have to wait until November. Such are the vagaries of the desert peaks.

We planned our visit for a quickie overnight camp at the trailhead, and a day hike the following day. We left our home Friday afternoon and joined the traffic headed south along state route AZ-347, which heads into Maricopa. Even just outside Chandler we could make out the peak, plain as the late afternoon day. After passing through Maricopa, we stayed south on AZ-347 to AZ-84, then west five miles to Interstate-8 and west some more for 7 miles to the Vekol Valley Road exit (#144). From here it's 15 miles or so to the trailhead. The road immediately turns to dirt. The first two miles it's a very wide gravel road with washboard. At two miles it forks; the left form goes to the Vekol Ranch, and the right continues south. We stayed south, and made decent time on the variable-quality road. It crosses some washes, has some rough spots, seems prone to clay and mud, and gets rocky nearer the end. Some simple signs placed by the BLM point to the trailhead or have arrows at occasional junctions. Nothing much is out here; we passed one set of buildings, completely stripped of their exteriors and showing off its insulation. We finally rolled into the trailhead camping area about 7 in waning daylight. One other couple was there in their truck. We ate dinner and enjoyed the starry night. The weather was pleasant enough that I slept out in the open, while Beth took the bed of the truck. One-way mileage from our home to the trailhead was about 70 miles. The trailhead features three campsites and a new vault-toilet, plus some parking for day use. All of this is amid a thick carpet of cactus and brush in the immediate vicinity of the range's foothill peaks.

The next morning we sat around camp for awhile. The older couple got rolling while a couple of day visitors showed up and started in on their hikes. We packed up everything into the truck and locked everything up tight, and got hiking a bit after 10 a.m. in warm weather. The trail starts at the end of the road, where a fence and 4 sturdy stumps bar traffic from proceeding. This is evidently the wilderness boundary; the trailhead's elevation is a shade under 2,300 feet. The first half-mile is just the old road, which trends northeast and comes to a sign marking the trailhead and a register (presumably the older trailhead). The first two miles overall are very nice and easy, as the trail works its way up and down a series of hills and washes, all the while the mighty summit mass stood to our northeast. We stopped an hour in and took a break. This was classic Sonoran Desert landscape: sandy and rocky soils, numerous saguaro cactus as well as the full range of other common cacti, including the cholla and teddy-bear, plus ocotillo, palo verde and tamarisk. According to the map we had gained about 500 feet elevation in our two miles.

Upon proceeding we immediately started up some steeper and much rockier slopes. The first portion gained moderately and switchbacked numerous times to come to a sharp bend on Table Top's west flank. The trail turned right, dropped about 20 feet into a drainage then started up the other side, now generally on the peak's southwest slopes. We took another break a few switchbacks up, then started up the meat of the route. The switchbacks hug a talus field of classic black volcanic rock, then start a gruelingly steep, tightly-switchbacked portion that took the wind out of our sails and really slowed us down. The trail-builders did a fine job with what they had, and there really isn't a better way up (so far as we could tell), so their only choice was to etch in a trail on the steep slopes. Aside from the steepness, a lot of the rock was loose and rubbly. In any case, we finally stumbled onto the gentler summit slopes after awhile, slowly making our way to the first of the peak's two summits, the slightly-lower one at 4,356 feet. Up on the summit plateau the ground is a dense mix of black rock, agave, grasses, hedge-hog cactus, prickly-pear and lusher succulents. Also up top are some mysterious 'walls' of stacked rock, placed there long ago and for no apparent reason. Beth had turned her ankle on the lower slopes and we took it slow, coming up to the first summit, marked by a wood post. Here we took a long breather. The weather was quite warm and we were going through our drinks pretty fast, so I was minorly concerned about that, too.

The true summit is just 17 feet higher,about a half-mile to the northeast, and sits atop a broad rise of the flat summit plateau. Beth's knees and ankles were flaring up but at the same time she wanted to summit pretty badly. We took a good break here then started our way to the other side. We generally went the long way, around the 'horseshoe', following some paths in parts and going cross-country in other parts to come to the saddle, from which it was an easy hike up to the top, where the grasses and cactus was less dense. We took our photos but didn't spend too much time here. It's a broad summit and any one of a half-dozen rocks could have been the top; two metal poles stuck up out of the 'accepted' summit rocks, but we tagged a couple others just to be sure. When we hiked back to the first summit, Beth went in a more direct bearing and actually found an encampment used by the Mexican crossers (based on the garbage found there). Why they would climb a whole mountain? Who knows. We took another break at the first summit then started down.

Going down was very slow; Beth's ankles and knees were both screaming murder and she had to go very slowly. We covered the 1.5 miles back to the desert flats in 90 minutes - putting us down on the lower bits around 6-ish in the evening. The remaining two miles were a lot easier since the trail was smoother and not as steep. However, our fun was just starting. First, we were both very dehydrated - not deathly so, but more than usual. The volcanic rock reflected and magnified the ambient heat and made for a much warmer hike then we had planned! It just so happened that the state's highest temperature was 89 degrees, in nearby Gila Bend. We were probably about 85. So the result was that were were thirsty, our tongues hanging out! I had visions of cold drinks back in our cooler back at the truck the last two miles out. The final few hundred feet was done in the last waning light of the day, and I was ahead of Beth by about 50 feet when I heard the unmistakably loud and obnoxious rattling of a rattlesnake. I saw the slithery critter off the trail to the side, a huge guy, not coiled, but plenty mad at me and slithering away as best he could. I scampered past him a bit and waited for Beth, to let her know not to step here but to take a little detour. The whole time the snake was rattling away, making a racket. Once past him we hiked out the last few feet back to the truck, gulped down some drinks and got our sunburnt butts back out to the highway.

We drove out in the dark and about halfway out to Interstate-8 we got pulled over by the Border Patrol - two units, even. They asked us what we were up to and if we were coming from the trailhead. They wanted to make sure we weren't transporting contraband or actual Mexican crossers. They also explained to us that this corridor is one of the busiest ones used by the smugglers coming up from Mexico into the United States (even though we were a good 50 miles north of the border). They let us go but then we got stopped again just before entering onto Interstate-8, and had to go through the same rigamarole all over again. Actually, the BP guys were pretty friendly but one guy asked why I wasn't carrying a gun. Are things really that bad this way? News reports of people being robbed in the Vekol Valley are rare so who knows. I think they were trying to scare us a bit (in the good sense) but just the same, travelers to this area should use common sense and keep an eye on their surroundings. I didn't perceive any threats or feel uncomfortable while at the trailhead or on the hike.