Date: November 13, 2025 • Elevation: 4,339 feet • Prominence: 559 feet • Distance: 4.8 miles • Time: 2 hours • Gain: 869 feet • Conditions: Warm and humid, high clouds

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • Interactive map

Peak 4339 is a big hump of a peak located west of Black Mountain in the desert southeast of Florence and south of Freeman Road. It is part of the Ninety Six Hills, although the extent of the hills is not well defined. The whole region is essentially one giant swath of State Trust land with a few small private ranch mixed in.

There are three unnamed peaks in this litle grouping of which Peak 4339 is the highest. I wanted to explore the area and it really did not matter to me which peak I climbed. I had originally intended to climb Peak 3863 which is about a mile northwest of Peak 4339, simply because it was closer to the road.

I was heading into Tempe, and was up before dawn, passing through Tucson just as the sun was rising. I hit some traffic in Tucson, but soon was north of the city. I exited at the Red Rock exit, and followed the frontage road to Park Link Road, which connects to highway AZ-79. I went north on AZ-79 about ten miles to Freeman Road, and followed that in almost exactly 10 miles.

Freeman Road is wide and well-graded, with just a few ruts and rivulets to mind. I was able to keep up at a 45 mile-per-hour rate, except to slow down when I encountered the small ruts. I passed Coyote Peak, which I climbed in January of 2023. The last time I was on this road this far in was exactly three years ago today, on November 13 of 2022, when I climbed some smaller hills in the area, including Cottonwood Hill which is just a couple miles to the northeast.

I knew to get to a cattle grate, where there was a clearing to the south and a scanter track that headed south from here. I hoped to drive some of this track. Just then, a mama cow and two calves strolled out from the brush and then just stood there in the road, looking at me. I slowly eased forward until they scooted to the side. I was able to drive in just a quarter mile, parking in a pullout near a small hill. The road thereafter was way too messy for my car.

It was now just past 8 a.m. when I rolled in. The outside temperature had been cool up until now. It was 65° at the moment, which is warm for this time of the morning in November. The sky was hazy with high clouds and it was noticeably humid. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't cool and crisp either.

I took a look at both peaks, Peak 4339 and Peak 3863, and immediately decided I'd rather climb Peak 4339 instead. It was the bigger of the two. Although farther away, there was the track I could follow which would save time. It also had cleaner lines, whereas Peak 3863 looked much rockier.

I was walking by 8:15 a.m., heading south along the track. For walking, it was fine. But it varied between having a good tread to sections that were sandy, rutted or very rocky. A standard high-clearance 4-wheel drive should be fine on it, but good tires will be necessary.

In about twenty minutes I was now abeam of Peak 3863. I continued farther south and once southeast of Peak 3863, found a side track that led toward Peak 4339. This track was gated, but dummy locked. Some guy named Tom had etched his name into the concrete footing of the fencepost in 1974. Thus, this is now and forevermore the Tom Gate.

This track went for a few hundred yards and dropped into a sandy drainage. I stayed on it until I found a good spot to ascend out of it, now on some gently-sloping desert terrain, Peak 4339's lowest slopes directly ahead.

I just walked until I was on the actual slopes. Unfortunately, I was hiking directly into the sun the entire way. I mostly looked down and trudged upward. The terrain was forgiving, with scattered brush, low grass, lenient slopes and rocks that usually stayed put. I was able to gain elevation at a steady rate.

It was like this the whole way up, just one long slope that varied between slightly level and barely steep. And the sun forced me to look down. When I would look up, I was happy to see I was gaining on the top faster than I thought. I was finally on the ridge and to the summit itself. I had covered 2.4 miles and gained 870 feet, give or take, all this in 50 minutes. But it was warm and I was sweating hard.

The top is open and rocky, with three or four rocks close to being the highest. I tagged each one and looked for a cairn or register, but found nothing. I stayed up top for ten minutes, having a drink and looking around. The sun was still too strong to see much to the east, but west I could see lots of desert and ranges.

For the descent, I followed the same ridge and slopes down, hit the sandy channel in the same spot, found the road and passed once more through Tom Gate. Back on the main track, I studied Peak 3863 and felt it looked better to climb it from this side, which is what I'll do when I return, whenever that may be. There is a third peak to the south which I could combine as a big loop hike.

I was back to my car in under an hour, the whole journey taking just shy of two hours. It was now 10 a.m. and I was soaked. I unpeeled my hiking clothes and dried off, then put on some grubby driving clothes for the drive into Tempe, with a stop in Florence for cold drinks and a look at the prisons.

The hike went well and presented no problems. I was able to get a sense of the roads and terrain. Peak 3863 certainly looks like a fast peak, now that I have a better sense on how to approach it. The peak to the south, the tracks don't get that far so I haven't really studied it yet. But for today, getting this one peak in felt good. I like this area a lot. It is never crowded at all. Even the boondockers ignore it.