• The Sierra Estrella are the high range of peaks south and southwest of Phoenix, contained mostly within the Gila River Reservation. Only one trail to a summit in the range is available, the popular (relatively speaking) Quartz Peak trail. The actual highpoint is unnamed, but readily visible from Phoenix. I teamed up with a few other hikers to tackle this peak on this January Sunday afternoon. We met in Maricopa, then drove through Mobile and endless miles of gas pipeline road before coming back to pavement in the middle of the Rainbow Valley. Technically most of this is within Goodyear city limits. Some more dirt roads and some really sandy tracks, and we were finally at the base of the peak. There is no trail, just a direct assault up a ridge, complete with rocks and brush. Off we went.

We covered about a half-mile on mostly flat alluvial fan ground, following a drainage a ways, before tackling a ridge directly west of the summit. The going here was straightforward, and very steep. It was usually about 400 feet of up, then a small flat section, then another 400 feet up, etc. The route scrambles directly up the rock; exposure is minimal lower but the higher we got, the class 2 and 3 sections started turning into some class 4 parts. The holds were solid, but I was lagging and when we got to one exposed traverse, given how far behind I was, I decided that I had had enough. I just didn't feel comfortable with the route and decided to play it safe. I had gone up over 2,000 vertical feet to where I stopped. So I turned around and started the ginger climb down. One of the hikers caught up with me and we hiked back to the cars together. The others took awhile coming out, egressing late enough to sunset that we were close to calling for rescue if we didn't see them before dark.

This peak is a real scramble. Maybe there's a better way up another ridge, who knows. I don't have any strong desire to go back in the meantime.

• I gave this peak two efforts and came back 0 for 2. The Mae West Peaks, as they are cited on the map, are a small set of two main summits as seen from the east, or one obvious large summit as seen from the west, which top the Little Dragoon Mountains in southeast Arizona, between Willcox and Benson. Presumably the name derives from the topography of Mae West the movie actress of the 1930s.

My first try was with John H. and Scott C. a day after we hiked Swisshelm Mountain in December 2007. We convoyed off of Interstate-10 together to the base of the range in Harris Canyon (directions below). Scott's foot was hurting so he opted out while John and I went for the top. The peak is surrounded my limestone cliffs (hence its other name, Lime Peak). The initial climbing is easy: we followed a ranch road a short was in then went north across a wash and up open grassy slopes to the main ridge. As we hiked toward the peak the slopes became too loose and brushy for my tastes. John went on ahead while I decided to back out and return to the cars. John was successful but mentioned some iffy cliffs he had to get past.

Scott C. and I tried together in Marsh 2008, following the same road net to the canyon, but this time walking up the main canyon headwall to the southerly ridges. I had been battling a cold the week prior and was fairly weak - even walking up lenient slopes left me winded. The cat-claw brush was everywhere and very annoying. After about 1,000 vertical feet I decided to back out again. Frankly, my heart wasn't in it. Scott was successful and mentioned a better way through a weakness in the cliffs on the south side.

To get there: take I-10 to the Sybil Road exit, go north then east along the frontage about a mile to a left turn at the ZR Hereford Ranch. Follow the ranch road in about 3 miles to the main residence buildings. A sharp left at a gate has a public-land access easement and a sign-in log. From here it's about 12 miles of zig-zagging on ranch roads in a broad west-east-west-east-north-east pattern to get to the canyon. Four-wheel drive is recommended.

• Pastora Peak tops the Carrizo Range in way far northeast Arizona on the Navajo Nation. We were in the area, but had not planned on being here necessarily and we came without maps. Nevertheless we decided to explore this peak, knowing that a road goes fairly high up to near the summit. I had gathered some basic information off of topozone.com, but still, without a good topo map in hand, we were doing this somewhat blind. We found the right road about 5 miles west of Teec Nos Pos, and headed south past some pastures and one home. The road got much more narrow and for about a mile it hugged some cliffs very tightly, with no room for passing vehicles and steep dropoffs. After that, it wasn't so bad. We drove in slowly on the road, which ranged from good to very rocky quality. We just kept driving and driving... no real idea how close or far we were from the summit. And to top it off the clouds began to build and they looked potentially wet. I wanted no part of the road if it rained, especially that cliffy section. We stopped, I took a GPS reading, saved it, and we decided to return on down, playing it safe. Afterwards I plotted ourselved on a map and found that we were within 4 air-miles of the top, with maybe 5 actual driving miles to go still. Now knowing what to expect we will be back for another attempt, but given its distance from us (360+ miles), it's not something we can do on a weekend. When we'll do it, I don't know exactly.