The Mountains of Arizona
www.surgent.net |
|
May Day Peak • Peak 6256 I returned to this corner of the Chiricahua Mountains nearly three months after my first visit back in June. There were two peaks on the agenda, May Day Peak, and its unnamed subsidiary to the southeast. The temperatures have been moderating but not by much, with highs in the mid-80s, and it has been humid and rainy, but no thunderstorms. Yesterday was cloudy with heavy spells of rain in Bisbee. Today (Sunday) was supposed to be less active in the region. I was on the road a little after 5 a.m., stopping in Douglas for snacks, then following AZ-80 north and east through the south end of the Pedregosa Mountains and into the San Bernardino Valley. I left the highway at Price Canyon Road and followed it in to just past the Coronado National Forest boundary. Price Canyon Road is a wide and well-maintained gravel/hardpack road, but it was wet and sticky, with some pools of water and mud from the recent rains. My Subaru got through it just fine but I had to pick up speed to power through some of the pools and mud. Just past the boundary, a track veers east, paralleling a fence line. This track is narrow, just a pair of wheel tracks with heavy brush in the center. I was driving right into the sun so I essentially was blinded by the glare. There were long puddles of water and the sun would reflect of those, too, so I was being blinded from both above and below. I did not have to go far, just a quarter-mile. I almost hit a cow drinking out of one of the puddles, but I was going so slow, I probably would have just given it a bruise. I parked in a clearing under a tree, the road being too rough to continue. This is about where I got to in June. The rains of the recent weeks gave the whole area a completely different look than from June. Back then, the grass was low, scant and dried out. Today, everything was green, the grass about knee high. I rolled in about 6:30 a.m., the temperature cool (high 60s) but very humid. I was hiking at 6:48 a.m.. My pack was simple: a lot of liquids, some snacks, and my snake gaiters. I only thought to pack them at the last minute. Seeing how high the grass was, I figured I should bring them. It turned out to be a wise decision.
Date: September 14, 2025
• Elevation: 6,334 feet ✳
• Prominence: 880 feet ✳
• Distance: 6.2 miles
• Time: 5 hours, 40 minutes whole hike
• Gain: 1,350 feet
• Conditions: Pleasant but humid, then much warmer
• Wilflife: Diamondback rattlesnake
Arizona
•
Main
•
PB
•
LoJ
•
Lidar
I followed the road as it veered northeast toward a stock tank called East Tank on the map. Had I been able to get past the rough patch that stopped me, I might have got the Subaru this far, but there were some stretches of mud and water. Maybe if it was drier.
I circled north of the tank and left the road, aiming for a low ridge ahead of me. This ridge gains steeply to the higher crest above me, about an 800-foot gain. The grass was low and spaced out.
I got up onto this ridge and despite the low and spread out grass, happened upon a diamondback rattlesnake curled up on the ground, sunning itself. I saw him a few feet away but it still gave me a scare. I jumped to my left than walked up a few more feet. Looking back, he stayed still ... then suddenly rattled and raised his head in a strike pose. Yeah, I got the message.
I found an open spot free of snakes and got out my snake gaiters and put them on. I don't like walking in them but I felt I should mitigate my chances of being bit. The wet weather also has a tendency to drive the snakes above ground. I expected to be seeing more of his type.
The terrain steepened and I was back in shadow. The grass remained sparse so I could see the ground, and that's pretty much all I did. No enjoying the scenery or smelling the flowers for me. I was on snake patrol, my adrenaline still coursing through my body.
The steep grade wasn't too bad and after about twenty minutes, I was on top the high crest. There is a fence that runs across the top, and it was sturdy. I stepped over it but stumbled and fell onto the rocks and brush, concerned there may be a snake. There wasn't, but I got a little rock rash.
Up ahead was a ridge point, elevation 6,048 feet. The summit was still another mile away, invisible for now. Up about a thousand feet, the temperature was slightly cooler and there was a breeze, which helped. I even found scant tracks, likely from cattle, up here.
I just walked the tracks as I found them, and over rocks and open terrain, trying to avoid the grassy parts. Past the 6,048-foot knob, I descended about 75 feet to a saddle. Up ahead was May Day Peak, much more vegetated and with a lot of rock pillars sticking up.
The hike wasn't difficult. The grades were very lenient, and I could usually keep to open (i.e. not grassy) terrain most of the time. There were abundant surface rocks that would run about thirty feet at a time, and I walked these like a sidewalk.
The grade steepened slightly as it neared the top. I was a little concerned about these pillars. Getting through and around them wasn't hard, although it was brushier and grassier. I walked past them all and onto the nominal summit, which was just a rounded hump of grass and rocks flush to the ground. It had taken me one hour and 45 minutes to get here, in slightly over three miles.
About 200 feet south of the summit is a batch of large bouldery rocks and pillars, about 15-20 feet tall. From the summit looking back to them, I could not get a clear view as brush and trees blocked me. I could only get a sort-of clear view but I had to descend off the summit a few feet.
It "seemed" that the tops of those pillars might be as high or higher than the summit, but it would be close, maybe a couple feet of difference at most. I walked to the boulders, hoping there was a ramp I could access, but no such luck. They were too tall to just reach up and tag. Climbing them would require skill and gear. I was unable to get atop the boulders.
I left feeling unsure how to count this, as a successful summit or not. I left it as a rhetorical question for the moment and would do some homework when I got home (see below).
Hiking down went well. I had not seen any more snakes, but I still kept an eye open for them. To the east is Peak 6256, the subsidiary peak to May Day Peak. But it's a substantial peak on its own merits, with almost 500 feet of prominence and a summit elevation about a hundred feet lower.
After my snake encounter from below, I had decided I would just hike May Day Peak and not expose myself to any more grass and rocks than necessary. But after my "unsure" climb of May Day Peak, I opted to climb Peak 6256 after all. It appeared not to have pillars on its summit. Also, it was unlikely I'd come back for just this one peak, and I was already close to it anyway.
Elevation: 6,256 feet ✳
• Prominence: 473 feet
• Distance: 1.5 miles
• Gain: 960 feet, + 200 feet on the hike out
• Conditions: Warm, breeze higher up
PB
•
LoJ
There is an "obvious" route to Peak 6256, going down to a high saddle, then up to its top. Getting down to the saddle looked easy, but the other side looked tough, with a couple cliff bands and some very steep slopes. Instead, I would hike this peak from the south.
I followed the ridge I was on south to where I had come up, but instead of going down that subridge, I stayed southbound, going down a much-steeper slope and angling southeasterly as I went along. The tread was loose cobbles and they did not hold together well. I had to move carefully and even so, slipped and landed on my butt once and almost a couple more times.
I dropped to the creekbed separating the two peaks and had a break. A white-tail deer busted out of some brush and bounded away from me. It was much warmer now, into the low 80s. I had dropped almost a thousand feet from May Day Peak's summit, and would have just under a thousand feet to gain for Peak 6256.
The climb was straightforward. I walked an easy slope to the ridge ahead of me, then angled left and up and started the slow trudge upward. The slopes are steep and full of rocks, heaps and small cliffs, but there always seemed to be a way through them. I never had to scramble, although I sometimes clambered over the rocks directly if it looked easy.
There were four rocky segments interspersed with grassy slopes. Each time I got up one, I could see the next one. Toward the top, there were more pillars and random rock formations, but always a way through them.
The summit was not visible until I was within a hundred yards of it. It was just an open ridge of small rocks, the summit being two boulders tucked under a tree. I found the register abutting one boulder and signed in. It was Mark Nicholls' register from 1996, and I was the first person to sign since 2020. Only a handful of people have been up here. From the creekbed, the climb had taken about 45 minutes.
Views were good in all directions. The clouds were starting to build over the main Chiricahua mountains but nothing looked threatening. In fact, I hoped a cloud would build over me and drop a little rain and block out the sun.
I was beat by now and did not stay long. I hiked down mostly the same way, not trying to follow my exact route. I was moving slowly but efficiently. When I got back down to that creekbed, I stopped for a break. By now, it was borderline hot, and I was bushed. However, my break did not last long. A bee was hassling me. In fact, it "stung" me. It stung my shorts that I wear over my leggings. It couldn't free itself. I brushed it off.
I had about a 200-foot gain to get to the saddle below May Day Peak. This went slowly. I was tired and in no mood for more uphill. I stopped for another break, this time no bees. I got to this saddle and stepped over the fence again, then started the slow descent back toward the East Tank and eventually, my car.
This last segment took about a half hour. I was back to my car at 12:30 p.m.. The cattle had collected around it, but as I approached, they jogged away. I piled in and changed into dry clothes and started the drive out. I drove into Douglas for groceries, then on home, arriving about 2:30 p.m..
The 1-meter Lidar data for May Day Peak shows the summit at 6,334 feet and the rocks at 6,327 feet. The Lidar data may go through a filter that removes anomalous readings (e.g. trees, buildings). It may have picked up the readings on these rocks as anomalous. But I have no way to know that for sure.
From the summit, the best I could see was the rocks but barely, blocked by brush, and not able to get an open sighting. I was able to view them, but only if I dropped about five or six feet downhill into a more open lane. From where I stood, they looked about as high as the summit.
At this point, it seems like a coin flip. I cannot make a determination either way. I will count this peak as climbed, since I did actually climb it. I may or may not get credit for it later on if the data is able to show the rocks as being definitively higher.
|
|