Date: October 19, 2025 • Elevation: 5,271 feet ✳ • Prominence: 392 feet ✳ • Distance: 2.7 miles • Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes • Gain: 690 feet • Conditions: Cold then warming, clear and sunny

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • Lidar

This peak lies within the Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge, about twenty miles north of Douglas in the Pedregosa Mountains. I've been here twice before and have hiked three other ranked peaks in this refuge. This peak rises south of Peak 5529, which I climbed almost two years ago. I intended to climb this one that day as well, but the first peak took a lot out of me and I saved this for a later date.

I intended to hike this peak (and another nearby) last week... I got up early, got my gear in the car, turned the key in the ignition and nothing. Just a little catch and then dead. It was still early, so I just went back in and slept another hour. I'd have to take it in to the local Firestone in Bisbee, and they wouldn't be open until 8 a.m.

I assumed it was my battery, so I got my charger ready. At 8 a.m., I tried the ignition and it caught. It sputtered weakly but it caught. I was able to drive the car to the Firestone just as they opened. They quickly diagnosed it as a bad battery lead. It had corroded and was loose. Then they said it has to be replaced at the dealership. Closest one is in Tucson. Crap.

So I got on the phone and called them. They had a slot open at 10:45 a.m. and they had the part. So I suddenly had a 100-mile drive to the dealership to get a new battery lead. It turned out to be for the best. I took advantage of the opportunity and got some new filters and an oil change, plus have a visit with this lady I met on the internet, who now lives in Oro Valley. I didn't get back to Bisbee until 9 p.m..

Anyway, I still had the map in the car, and here it is, four days later. The weather was looking good, and I decided to go hike this peak and the other one I had planned. I'm glad my battery sputtered on me at my house and not on some road in the middle of nowhere.

I was on the road at 5:20 a.m., following roads into McNeal, and catching the connector road (the continuation of Davis Road) to where it meets the Leslie Canyon Road. I drove up and over the first ridge, down into Leslie Canyon, and parked at a small gravel lot. The one-way drive was about 45 miles and took about an hour.

It was quite cold at the moment, 41° going by my car's space age thermo-tron. The sun was up but still low, leaving the canyon in shadow. I started walking at 6:30 a.m..

I followed the road down to a wooden bridge, then up a little more to an opening in the guard rail, where an old track veers off the main road, now repurposed as a hiking trail. I followed it a few dozen yards toward the creek bottom, which was choked in trees and brush.

Before I got to the heaviest of the trees, I veered right (south) and wandered through high grass, mesquite and thornbrush to eventually place myself within the sandy creekbed, the main one that runs along the bottom of the canyon. Peak 5271 rose to my left (east), still in shadow, and still very chilly. I aimed for a rocky hilltop, marked 4912 on the map. It looked like the ridges behind it would get me to the highest ridges and to the summit.

I left the creekbed and started up the slopes, which were loose and moderately brushy. I hiked upward toward Hill 4912 and naturally trended left of it, following some game paths in places. This put me on the saddle connecting this hill to a side ridge coming down off the main one.

Next, I angled left and started upward again. The next knob was about a hundred feet higher and looked steep and loose — and it was. The rock, mostly limestone, formed slopes of loose boulders, and in spots, I had to actually use my hands to clamber up some rocky faces. Naturally, wherever seemed to be the best spot to place my hand or boot already had a cactus in it.

I got up and over this knob, and was pleased to see I had mellow ridges from here on out. I walked the ridge I was on to the main ridge ahead, then turned left and walked the final ridge to the top. The terrain was rocky and heavily brushy. It wasn't difficult, but I couldn't move fast. It also warmed about 10° now in the sun, and I had to remove a layer. A fenceline runs along this ridge, but it was easy to cross. I was on top after an hour from my car.

Views were good, especially looking south at the pointed peaks in that direction. Bigger peaks, the southern extent of the Swisshelm Mountains, rose to the north. I could see my car below, still in shadow. I could not find a register or any hint of past visitors. The peak has been climbed but not by very many. Lists of John shows the last visitor here in 2012, and before him in 1998.

I didn't stay for very long. I snapped a few images, but essentially never really stopped. I turned and started the hike out. I followed the same route down, except that I dropped down a slope one to the north of the one I had coming up. It was a long ramp all the way down, not difficult but choked with ocotillo in places. I was back to my car in about 40 minutes. It was now only 8:15 a.m..

This peak was a worthy hike and could be combined with others in the area. There remains a couple more ranked summits farther south, but I have no immediate plans to go tag them. I got moving, exiting the refuge on its east side and following the road north toward my second peak, Peak 5209, about fifteen miles to the north. On the drive, I passed a couple people in camo and orange vests, glassing the hillsides. It's huntin' season, for sure.