The Mountains of Arizona
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Peak 5282 • Peak 5208 A little over two weeks ago, I hiked Stockton Hill, a big peak located about eight miles east of Tombstone. On that hike, I ignored two of its satellite peaks, located on its south and southwestern flanks. This was mainly because it looked like a hassle to go out of my way to include them. One peak, Peak 5282, is a conical mound rising south of Stockton Hill. The other, Peak 5208, has a rounder profile, and until recently, was a borderline ranked peak. New Lidar data shows the peak actually exceeds the 300-foot threshold. I did not know this until after I had hiked Stockton Hill. Suddenly, I had motivation to make a long walk to hike these two peaks, getting more bang for the buck rather than hiking just one. This area is mostly State Trust land, but with a convoluted intermixing of private land to where it is impossible not to cross some private land along the way. I'd stick to the State Trust sections and make the judgement call as I went along. I decided to come in from the southwest, via Davis Road. I know of just a single publicly-accessible road that leads into these hills. The road is Cowan Ranch Road and is located a little over 2 miles east along David Road. I was here two years ago when I hiked the Tombstone Hills Highpoint, exploring the road and tagging Peak 5145 which rises nearby. This would mean a 4-mile one-way walk to the peaks, but it would be mostly on road and mostly on State Trust land.
Date: December 12, 2025
• Elevation: 5,282 feet ✳
• Prominence: 390 feet ✳
• Distance: 9.4 miles
• Time: 4 hours, 30 minutes (whole hike)
• Gain: 730 feet
• Conditions: Sunny and cloudless, cool but warming
Arizona
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Main
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PB
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LoJ
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Lidar
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Interactive map
I drove to the gate at Cowan Ranch Road, opened it, propped it open with a stick, and passed through. I drove in about a mile to where a gas-line road crosses it, going sharply to the southeast. Unfortunately, the road was gated and locked. But there were no "no trespassing" signs on the gate.
I parked nearby in a small clearing, got my stuff together and started walking at 8 a.m. sharp. I eased through an opening beside the gate and started walking, going southeast. This road passes below Hill 5021, a subsidiary of Peak 5145. The road was rocky but had I been able to get my car on it, it was Subaru-able. It is rocky but otherwise a well-behaved road.
Then I got impatient — and this turned out to be a good thing. I could see the peaks way off in the distance, so I left the road, squeezing between strands of a barbed-wire fence, and walked eastbound through a grassy meadow. My intention was to pick up the road again, now going north, and possibly saving a half mile along the way.
The meadow walking was easy and efficient, but then I got into the thorny and scratchy plants and that slowed me down, as well as scratched me. I spooked a cow resting nearby. I didn't see it until it got up to run away. In time, I passed through this pokey segment and was back on grass. Up head was an equipment trailer and some pipes laying on the ground. More importantly, there was the road again. It was fenced here but just heavy-gauge wire, no barbs.
Now back on the road, I just had to follow it toward the peaks. It heads north, then makes a turn and goes east for a couple of miles. The road was level, neither gaining nor losing any significant elevation. I passed a couple gates but never saw anyone, saw no vehicles, and saw no negative signage.
The road does drop about a hundred feet, then bends a little left then right, coming to Mesquite Windmill, which sits roughly centered between the peaks. I passed an abandoned SUV near the windmill. Anything not metal was already removed. It looked like a 1990s-era model.
Past the windmill I found a lesser track going gently uphill toward Stockton Hill. I followed this track as far as it went, to a gate in a fenceline. This fence runs east-west, and looking east, it crossed over Peak 5282 and offered a clearing that I could follow. I guess I'm hiking Peak 5282 now.
This track was in bad shape, a vehicle would only get so far. Cows had beaten in paths, and for hiking, it worked well. I followed it as far uphill as it would go. I was on the peak's northwest flank.
I left the track and busted straight uphill. The brush was spaced out at first, but grew denser the higher I got. The grade steepened too, and the last 100 feet was slow, wading through thigh-high brush and walking on rolling rocks.
I was soon on a ridge, and making a soft right, went up a gentler slope to the top. It was rocky but mostly bare of brush, with a few straggler trees nearby. I found a register and saw that Amy P. was here just last week. But going back many years, just a handful of people have been here.
It had taken me one hour and 45 minutes to get here, in what I later determined to be about 4.7 miles. Conditions were pleasant, even a tad warm, and I sat for a brief break on the summit. Stockton Hill rose nearby, the biggest most obvious peak in the area. I had fine views in all directions, with dry conditions and very few clouds.
For the downhill, I largely followed what I did coming up, going slowly on the rolling rocks. Back on that track, I followed it back to the gate in the fence.
Elevation: 5,208 feet ✳
• Prominence: 307 feet
• Distance: 1.3 miles
• Gain: 370 feet
• Conditions: Warm and lovely
PB
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LoJ
I passed through the gate and walked up a track toward a water tank, then angled right, going more uphill through low woody brush and ocotillo. This peak has some cliffs facing south that would need to be avoided.
I angled right and walked steeply uphill past the lowest of the cliffs, then angled left and continued uphill, the grade here being steep and rubbly. But it soon started to moderate.
The rest of this short hike was just going up the easy slopes until I was at the grassy top, a one-way hike (from the gate) of about 0.7 mile in about twenty minutes. I searched for a cairn and register but with no luck. Amy P. was here last week and said there was one, but I must have missed it.
I sat on some rocks slightly below the top and had another break. It felt good to climb this humble hill, now that it has graduated into the world of ranked peaks. It was easy and went fast.
Going down, I followed my same general route until I was back to the tank, then back to the gate. This side-journey had eaten up just 45 minutes.
Now I had a little under 4 miles of walking from the gate back to my car. So I got busy walking. It went fine, but was not exciting. When I was back to the cleared area with the equipment hauler, I walked to it and sat on its bed for a break. It looks new and functional.
I walked south along the track toward a fenced area of some sort. It had that net-type fence and it looked like a vineyard. I saw no plants, but it had that vineyard look. It's not far-fetched for there to be vineyards here. There's an active winery on Davis Road about fifteen miles to the east.
I did not want to walk amid this vineyard, so I followed an opening beside the fence, which led to a track that slowly became more distinct. I had not followed this track this morning, when I did my little shortcut. It led right back to the gas line road.
About ten minutes later I was back to my car, the time about 12:30 p.m.. I had put in almost eleven miles on my feets and tagged two more peaks. A couple days ago, I thought I had climbed my 1,100th Arizona ranked peak before discovering my count was lower due to newer Lidar readings demoting a few peaks. So these bring me back to 1,099.
I drove back to Davis Road and decided to just head on home, arriving in Bisbee about a half hour later.
This is it for me in this area as I have now tagged all the ranked peaks in this immediate clump. I never saw any no-trespassing signs or any people or anything that in any way suggested I keep out. I know I was on private land in segments but never saw any signs about this. I was a good citizen by leaving behind only footprints.
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