Eagle Peak has been on my wish list for over five years, ever since I got myself involved in this silly and non-constructive hobby known as county highpointing. I first 'discovered' its existence in late 1999, while planning a new-years trip to the West Texas Panhandle. I lined up a whole bunch of county highpoints and planned to visit as many as I could on that trip, but quickly discovered that most of them were not readily accessible as they sat behind miles and miles of fencing on private property. Over the ensuing years I was able to gain access onto these private highpoint areas and pick off the West Texas county highpoints one by one, leaving me with just two remaining: Eagle Peak in Hudspeth County, and Chinati Peak down in Presidio County. Both of these proved to be two tough nuts to crack (and as of this writing, I still haven't gained any permission to get Chinati Peak).

At first, I was content to let others explore the legal options in getting onto the Eagle Mountains, seeing that they had already made some contacts and were following them up. Maybe I could piggy-back with them if they ever got the okay, so went my thinking. Basically, the route in from the north via Interstate-10 is split among many different landowners, including one who summarily denies access. The FAA also maintains a radar dome atop the peak, adding to its 'sensitivity' regarding public access, although I should point out that I've visited three other highpoints with FAA radar domes and access is never denied to the peaks, just to the actual site itself. It seemed that route was not an option, despite its temptingly convenient access from Interstate-10. On occasion when I was passing through, I would exit Interstate-10 at the Hot Wells - Allamoore exit (#122, I think) and travel south along a decent dirt road about 5 miles to a set of train tracks. Shortly past the tracks the road comes to a gate with lots of locks and the usual quasi-threatening signs posted by the government about trespassing near the FAA sites. The irony is that past the gate, the road becomes paved (!) and actually snakes all the way to the summit. If access could be granted, this peak would be a literal drive-up! I was hoping that maybe we'd meet some FAA workers going up who would let us tag along, but I knew logically this probably was not ever going to happen.

In 2002 I had a lead from a guy in the area who offered "Ranch Tours", including access up Eagle Peak from the southwest side - completely on the other side of the range from the Hot Wells approach. We set up a date but as we got close he kept shooing me off and acting very circumspect; I eventually gave up on him. In 2003, while passing through again, I stopped in at the Tax Assessor's office in Sierra Blanca and got some land ownership information for the sections surrounding the peak, including contact names and addresses. Unfortunately, there were lots of names and no real sense as to which one I should try first. So basically, I gave up. In early 2005 some other guys did manage to gain access from the southwest side, and they forwarded me the contact name and number so that I might try again. In June I wrote the landowner a letter detailing my request, and he responded with an affirmative - much to my surprise, I had gained access to Eagle Peak! I was quite thrilled.

So where are the Eagles, you say? Follow Interstate-10 about 100+ miles east past El Paso, entering into Hudspeth County along the way. The highway winds through some low hills before passing through the town of Sierra Blanca, the county seat of Hudspeth County. The scenery then opens up into a huge broad desert valley hemmed in on the horizons by various ranges. The Eagles are the high range off to the southeast, about 30 air-miles from Sierra Blanca. They are best viewed (and most conveniently) from the Hot Wells exit, which sits directly north of the range. However, as noted above, access from this side is impossible. Even from below, the FAA radar dome is easily visible, high on the summit ridge. The actual summit sits just to its left, relative from the lower vantage point. Hudpseth County is one of Texas' larger counties at over 4,000 square miles, but only about 2,500 people live in the county, which is basically expansive desert and a handful of ranges. The county seat is Sierra Blanca, with about 700 people. It's an unincorporated community along Interstate-10 and Highway RM-1111 (The RM means "Ranch to Market", identical to the more common FM designation found throughout the state). The county is divvied up into a few enormous ranches, some covering hundreds of square miles, and some farming centers near the Rio Grande. In the north, the terrain is dominated by a natural salt-pan depression, similar to those found in the Great Basin deserts of Nevada and Utah. A large aquifer sits underneath and allows for farming to take hold; the city of Dell City numbers about 500 people and is the county's main northern outpost. Other towns of note are Fort Hancock (mentioned in the movie "Shawshank Redemption") near the Rio Grande and the odd little burg called Cornudas in the north county, notable for its colorful buildings and cafe whose walls are covered in thousands of photographs, business cards, patches, bumper stickers and foreign currencies. Beth and I ate there last New Years Eve!

I won't go into much detail as to who exactly owns the southwest access. You'll probably be able to glean from this report the route we took, and by deduction the roads we followed and perhaps some leads on who to contact. But I will say this: if you do decide to climb Eagle Peak, please do so with the landowner's permission. He is very kind and I don't want in any way to ruin his sense of goodwill toward the hiking community. He says he gets 'a few' people up there every year, probably in small quantities because most people don't know who to contact or even which way to go toward the peak. But I got his okay, and I set us up for an October visit, when I knew it would be warm still and more than likely dry. I included Bob Martin for this trip, knowing how much he'd wanted this peak over the years, and my wife Beth. As the date grew near, Beth was forced to opt out for various reasons, so it was just Bob and me for this trip. I taught my friday classes at ASU which ended at 9:40 a.m., canceled my office hours and got on the road by 10:30 a.m. after gassing up and getting some drinks. Then, 8 hours and 510 miles later, I rolled into Sierra Blanca in the dark and got a hotel. I stopped into the grocery nearby, entertained by two kittens that belonged to the proprietress, and got more goodies for tomorrow's hike, and had a nice steak dinner at the Branding Iron Cafe across the street from my hotel. Everyone was very friendly and after talking with them and telling them my plans, learned that everyone knows everyone and 'he's real nice' and all that. I crashed by 10 p.m., planning on getting up early for the next day's hike.

I met Bob the next morning at the gas station south of Interstate-10 at RM-1111, and we rode in my truck for the 30 miles into the range, stopping in at the ranch house to have a chat with the landowner. He showed us around his huge ranch home and recounted tales of his times in the range, which has been literally all his life. Finally he shooed us out with 'you boys go climb your mountain now' and off we went. We drove up another 3 miles along a gravelly but reasonably smooth road, partly within the creek bed and for the last bit as it switchbacked steeply onto higher ground. I parked at a stock tank at elevation 6,041 feet, arriving right about 9:15 a.m. local time; Eagle Peak was occasionally visible as a softly rounded hump next to the FAA radar dome. It looked lower and closer than it really was. Getting to the top couldn't be simpler: a dirt road cut winds all the way to the FAA facility, with just a short and easy climb to gain the actual summit at the end. In fact, I suppose I could have driven it some more. The only reason I parked at the stock tank was because it was wide and allowed me space to turn around. The road was in pretty good shape for another quarter-mile to a large turnaround. Afterwards, it got quite steep with lots of loose rock and mature brush. We wondered how often a vehicle actually drives this stretch - we figured not often at all. We simply hiked up the steep road as it switchbacked to the main summit ridge just below Peak 7,282 and about a mile west of Eagle Peak summit. We were just below 7,000 feet here, having taken about 45 minutes at a leisurely pace. The land was mostly open, with stands of pinon pine and a thick mat of grasses and shrubs.

The summit ridge is sort of serrated, with a handful of distinct rounded false summits emanating off of Eagle Peak. From our vantage point on the ridge at the saddle just east of Peak 7,282, we could see the road ride high and steep along the ridge toward the east. A summit that pokes just barely above 7,400 feet was in our immediate view, with the road cutting on its north side no more than 50 feet below its top. The road here is intimidatingly steep, very exposed, narrow, full of big rocks and exposed bedrock, and probably undrivable except for the hardiest Jeep or quadrunner. Walking it was easy enough, though, and in time we surmounted the highpoint of the road just below Peak 7,400. Immediately we saw another peak, this one also just above 7,400 feet, which I thought at first might be the summit but the lack of the FAA radar tower pretty much nixed that hope. Rounding this ridge bump, we could finally see our objective, a non-descript hump of land beside the impressively large radar tower. The road descended about 180 feet, but we made good time and rounded the last bend, arriving at the tower buildings about noonish. No one was home, but the tower stood a good 150 feet high and made lots of humming noises. The grounds were surrounded by lots of razor wire. We both climbed the last 100 feet to the top and took a short break to celebrate. Looking east we could see the paved road coming up to the top, but we decided to descend off the summit and back down a mile or so just in case any one showed up and got angry at us. We lunched at the saddle between Eagle Peak and its nearest 7,400-foot subsummit. It was getting quite warm and buggy, and I was afflicted with a heavy case of the sniffles and sneezes. Still, the views were tremendous and I was enjoying myself on the peaks thoroughly.

On the way back down, Bob suggested we climb Peak 7,282 since it meets the 300-foot criteria for a summit relative to its saddle. So we did, adding maybe another hour of time, but allowing us some unique vantage points. Bob was thinking this may be the second highest distinct summit in the range (The other 7,400-foot peaks not having the required differential between their tops and the surrounding saddles). This portion was steep and bushy, but easy enough. Back onto the road, we descended back to my truck, arriving at just about 3:00 p.m. in pleasant but warm weather. I was low on water but had some in my cooler in the truck. From here we drove back out and on back to Sierra Blanca, where Bob and I parted ways, congratulating one another for a successful day. I headed back into the main part of town and stopped in again at the grocery to take some kitty photos. From here I drove north along RM-1111 to its junction with US-62/180, then west into El Paso and on into Lordsburg, where I took a hotel. The next day was just a 4-hour drive back home. In all I had put on 1,100 miles on my truck in basically 48 hours, but it was worth it. I thank the landowner for his kindness and garciousness in allowing us to hike the peak from his land, and to Bob for being a good companion on the trails, as always.

The stats for our hike include the ascent up Peak 7,282. From where we parked there was a 1,400-foot net differential between the summit and my truck, but figure in another 300 feet for Peak 7,282, and two separate drops of 180 feet and 100 feet along the ridge, which gets counted twice (once in, once out). It took us 6 hours but we went slow and made some side jaunts; this peak could easily be hiked in 3 hours otherwise.