Arizona's lowest-elevation county highpoint is probably one of its three toughest to achieve. Signal Peak is the highpoint of the Kofa Mountains in northern Yuma County, an impressively rugged range of volcanic origin, and featuring innumerable cliffs, canyons and rocky spires. Most of the range is within the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and as a result, very little development and infrastructure is evident within these lands. A good gravel road leads east from US-95, about 19 miles south of Quartzsite and Interstate-10. Primitive camping is allowed along the desert floor, but roads into the heart of the range are sandy, rocky and unmaintained. The hike to the top of this peak is just a 4-mile round trip with about 2,000 feet of gain, but most of it is on very steep, cactus-laden hillsides and with sections of rock scrambling. Route-finding is a necessary skill here. On my first trip here in 1999 with Kenny Akerman we sort of bumbled out way up some imposing cliff walls and even though we made the top, it took 4 hours one way and I ran low on my agua. Coming back with Beth a few years later, it still took us awhile since I had to stop in places and 'remember' the route ... and in one case we were forced to go up and over a smaller subpeak to get back on the usual route. Have I mentioned the cactus? Bring pliers - no kidding. You'll need them. We brought our multi-tool and it came in real handy.

First visit, December 1999: Ken Akerman and I decided to knock off another Arizona county summit on our march toward completing the entire state's county list. It was my turn to drive. I picked Ken up at 5 a.m. in Scottsdale and off we went westward on Interstate-10. It's about 130 miles to Quartzsite, then another 19 miles south along US-95 to the Palm Canyon Road entrance. Blinded by the rising sun, I missed the turn off from Palm Canyon Road to Kofa Queen Canyon Road and even drove off the road a bit into soft sand. Fortunately, there was no damage and we backtracked to the little side road (Kofa Queen Canyon Road) that we needed to be on. This road is a track that is pretty decent for the first 3 or 4 miles, then degenerates slightly as it enters Kofa Queen Valley Canyon, just north of the peak. I didn't need 4-wheel drive but some sandy bits could spell trouble for a passenger car. After about 7 miles along this road we spied a very large canyon - Ten Ewe Canyon - opening up to our south. This would be our access to the summit, so we parked, got our gear together and started in.

There is no developed trail but there is a cairned route and a rudimentary trail to the summit, but... we missed it. We pretty much entered the canyon and kept on bearing right, heading toward an imposing set of cliffs way off in the far right corner of the canyon. The climbing wasn't difficult, except for the loose scree. But we had to stop many times and re-assess our route and make our next choice. There were bits of class-3 scrambling, and eventually we made it over these cliffs through some chutes and were finally atop the main ridge. After scaling a small sub-peak, we could see Signal Peak's northern neighbor directly in front of us, obscuring the true summit. We descended into a gully, found the aforementioned cairned route, and hiked up to the summit. It took us about 4 hours to gain the summit, with nearly 2,000 feet of gain. The weather was spectacular and the views tremendous! We stayed on the top for about a half-hour before heading down. We decided to follow the cairns back down. The cairns signify a route that would be considerably easier relative to ours. A few short bits of gentle stepping, but mostly down, down and down! It took us about an hour and a half to get down. The cairns petered out toward the bottom, which might be why we missed them coming up. For reference, the cairned route would climb up a ridge that leads up the center of the canyon, just to the right of Ten Ewe Mountain (as you face it; it's the big blocky peak in the center of the canyon). Then it leads up some gullys to a ridge and another drainage before reaching the summit.

Afterwards we drove up to Palm Canyon, where a stand of California Palm Trees live, sheltered from the heat and sun. Ken went in for a look-see. I, up since 3:30 a.m. and pooped from the hike, took a nap in the truck. Afterwards we drove out to the Imperial Dunes area west of Yuma and camped on the sand. The next day: Imperial County.

Second visit, February 1, 2003: On my last trip here, with Akerman in 1999 (see above), we followed a bad route up and over some cliffs, then to our chagrin, found a cairned route back down that would have made our ascent about a thousand times easier. So, with my fiance Beth along, I decided to revisit this peak as a sort of catharsis, attempting to make what was a miserable slog the first time a distant memory, and hope for a much more enjoyable hike the second time. I figured it would be easy to find the cairns that I missed the first time, then simply follow them to the top. Make no mistake: this is a steep, brushy hike no matter which route one takes. But there are better routes than others!

We left Chandler about 6:45 a.m. and made the 140-mile drive to Quartzsite on Interstate-10 in just about 2 hours. We gassed up, got supplies and stretched our legs, then drove the 30 miles or so south to the trailhead. Signal Peak is visible in Quartzsite and along I-10 by looking south. It is the farthest peak to the left of the desert flats as one looks south, and is highlighted by a spire that sits just to the right of the main massif. (Specifically, it is 18.5 miles south along US-95 from Quartzsite to Palm Canyon Road (signed), then left/east 3.2 miles along decent gravel road to the Kofa Queen Canyon Road turnoff, then left/northeast 7.5 miles to a cairn along the side of the road near the opening of the entrance canyon for the hike itself. Kofa Queen Canyon Road is a single-track and passable for the first 4.5 miles by most vehicles. Afterwards, it's sandier and much rockier. I had my truck, but did not need 4wd until the last mile. The road here is actually the creek bed and braids in and out with it for some time. On the occasions I "ran out of road", I simply stayed straight and usually found it again quickly. High-clearance is mandatory, 4wd is nice to have.) We arrived at the trailhead at roughly 10 a.m. in clear, calm warm weather.

Knowing my error from before, we started in among the sandy wash bottoms for about 0.3 miles and deliberately did not beeline for the cliffs off to the right. Instead I hiked by sight on a bearing toward the right flank of massive Ten Ewe Mountain, and shortly found a use-trail that leaves the wash bottoms and starts up the ridge which would eventually lead us to the top (GPS: N 33 deg., 21.937', W 114 deg., 03.874', NAD27 CONUS, Sky clear). The trail then petered out but we were able to use common sense and hike generally up the ridge's soft spine a few hundred more feet to the first significant cairn, from which the trail does become more clearly defined (GPS: N 33 deg., 21.842', W 114 deg., 03.970', same conditions). The brush is low to moderate: some cholla needs to be avoided here and there.

The route gets steeper and the cairns bigger, and rather quickly the route comes to a small cleared flat area with a large cairn which made for an excellent place to rest, which we did for about 10 minutes. From here, the trail deteriorates a bit (it's not the greatest anyway) and starts to gain a little more steeply as it contours up the east side of a large bowl hemmed in by high spires and cliffs. The views are magnificent, but of more immediate concern is the loose footing, cacti and rocks that like to roll out from under one's feet! The trail then crosses a small drainage then starts up a series of rocky sections that sometimes require hands for balance, although the climbing never approaches anything near technical. Eventually the route leads under a massive wall, then up to a nice wide saddle from which most of the high range is visible. We made another extended break here to relax and shoot photographs. From here I could see across the way the smooth rocks of an intermittent waterfall from which Akerman and I came down in 1999, so I made a note that we should eventually worm our way that direction. After our break, we resumed our hike, and made an entirely understandable error that ultimately cost us nothing more than some extra scrambling to regain the "proper" route later on. Our error: from this saddle two trails lead off, the more trodden one heading at a slight uphill gradient, the lesser one slightly downhill. We followed what looked like the path most traveled: the higher one. All was well until we came to a junction that I did not recall at all from my 1999 hike. The waterfall toward which we were heading was on the other side of a massive rock massif, and we knew we couldn't get around to it without returning to the saddle, so we decided to go up and explore what seemed to be the continuation of the trail we were on. (In retrospect, I think we followed the trail that leads to Ten Ewe's top, although the cliffs there were very imposing. We did not explore that route at all.)

I went up ahead and scouted a bit, finding cairns and some paths, so I called for Beth and we eventually found ourselves right below the west flanks of Ten Ewe Mountain. But the slopes here were much less steep and we were able to hike up and over a ridge, then down into the "correct" drainage, from which we could see the proper route to the top. Once back down into the thick of things (literally, the brush was much thicker here), Beth spied a cairn and we were back in business. We followed well-marked cairns the rest of the way up a steepening drainage, eventually achieving the high saddle just northeast of Signal's summit, from which it was an easy stroll to the top. From truck to top took just over 3 hours, and we figured an extra 45 minutes and 300 feet of up and down was added due to our "error", which turned out not to be so bad after all. We stayed on top for a half-hour, ate lunch, snapped photos, swatted flies and relaxed. The views on this clear, calm February morning were magnificent. But sooner than later, we were starting down.

We followed the cairns down, this time going down the waterfall as before, then laboriously making our way to the big saddle mentioned earlier. It was then I realized there was another trail from this saddle; it certainly isn't well marked. I had to wonder if many others had made the same error as we had. We rested again at this saddle, then trudged down carefully, slipping more than once, back to my truck, about 2 hours after leaving the summit. The total round trip was roughly 4 miles with right about 2,000 net feet of gain, a little more due to our route maybe. We drove the 65 miles or so into Yuma and stayed at the Coronado Best Western, which we learned is the original Best Western of them all! Nice, well-kept motel from the 1940s. There, we learned of the Columbia Shuttle tragedy that had occured earlier this day. We were shocked, needless to say. It was an odd feeling to have been so cut off from the world for the past 12 hours to not know of the tragedy, but then again, that's part of the deal of being in the wilderness.

Third Visit, April 10, 2005: I learned that Bill Jacobs, Rick Hartman and Dean Molen were planning a hike up this peak and I wanted to tag along, especially when I was told by Dave Covill that he'd sighted the knob north of the traditional summit as being a shade higher ... maybe. I was hankering for a good hike and looked forward to the opportunity to get back into the wilderness. Also, now knowing the route I hoped we could go up without getting lost, like I had done on my previous two visits. I drove out Saturday afternoon and arrived at the Kofa Wildlife Refuge - Signal Peak area about sundown. I had enough time to score a good campspace. There was no moon and the night was dark, but specked by millions of wonderful stars in the sky. Amazing. I passed some of the time listening to the Dodgers-Diamondbacks on the radio. Dodgers won a messy game, 12-10. That was good, too.

I awoke as Rick and Bill were rambling up the road in the early morning. We were expecting to meet Dean, coming in from Las Vegas, but he was nowhere to be seen, so we drove up into the canyon to the trailhead and parked. Shortly Dean rolled up in his new truck and the foursome was set. A father and his son were also hiking the peak. They got an earlier start than us; we were walking into Ten Ewe Canyon about 8:30 a.m.

The hike went very well. Rains in recent months had carpeted the mountain in yellow and purple flowers. Great for the eyes, not so much for the schnozz. Rick had climbed the peak three weeks earlier with Dave. He and I together kept everyone on track, and we had no navigation problems. The father and son, ahead of us, got off track and we hoped they'd figure out their error sooner than later. The four of us made it up to the waterfall and were resting when the father/son duo showed up. Sure enough they had got cliffed out and had to retreat a bit to get back on route. The six of us climbed as a spread-out group, and we all made the top after just over 2 hours from the trailhead. Conditions were stunning - maybe just a bit windy. We took our photos but actually rested a few feet down the east slopes to get out of the wind. On the hike out we checked out the little hill to the north. My gut says Signal Peak is still higher, but the hike up the other knob took all of 10 minutes. We were out to our cars by 1 p.m. My thanks to the team!