Date: January 25, 2026 • Elevation: 5,059 feet ✳ • Prominence: 317 feet • Distance: 8.5 miles • Time: 4 hours, 4 minutes • Gain: 1,400 feet (gross) • Conditions: Cold, sunny with puffy clouds • Varmints: White-tail deer, javelina

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ

This peak rises in the Coronado National Forest between Sonoita and Patagonia, a little over a mile east of highway AZ-82. It is a little southwest of Peak 5224, which I climbed earlier this month.

On that hike, I studied the ridge leading to this peak and also ways to get to it that avoided, or mostly avoided, private land. It seemed that I could follow most of the same route as I had on Peak 5224, with some variations, and stay clear of any homes.

I was on the road while still dark, but by the time I was rolling into the Casa Blanca trailhead parking lot, the sun was already up. It was a cold but pleasant morning, temperatures at the moment in the low 40s but expected to rise into the high 50s. The previous two days had been cloudy and rainy, clearing out early this morning. The sky was blue with the big puffy clouds that usually trail a storm.

I was the first in the lot, the time about 8 a.m.. I was ready to go in moments and followed the same route as I had on Peak 5224, walking part of the Arizona Trail and some ranch tracks for a little over a mile. This area is private but with an easement agreement for the Arizona Trail hikers.

I walked until I came to a junction, where I had gone left for Peak 5224, which leads to the forest boundary and morphs into FR-4600. This time I went right, heading south, but only briefly. Where the road bent soft-right, I came to a gate and fenceline. The signs were not prohibitive. One mentioned a "forest preserve" and the other about keeping the gate shut. I know from satellite images that there are some private residences to the south.

Here, I angled left (east) and started up a steep slope, paralleling the fence. After a gain of about 120 feet, the terrain levelled. I came to the fence and shimmied under, having to deal with some mud from the rains. This put me onto a track, which I followed up. When it bent south then west again, I continued up the steep slope, coming to another fence — the Forest boundary — and shimmied again. This slope was more substantial, a gain of about 250 feet.

When this segment levelled, I came upon some rocks. I was able to find a walk-through route using the hands for balance only, and pushing aside the plants. Beyond the rocks, I was back on grassy terrain. I stopped and heard a little rustling. A white-tail deer was ambling along, seemingly unaware of my presence. I got his image, then he bounded away, but not in any big hurry.

I could see the summit objective, a rounded hump still over a mile distant. This high ridge I was on had about five hills along its spine that I would be obliged to climb up and over or beside. I continued up the next slope, coming to more rocks.

This was the theme for all these subsummits. The intervening terrain was easy grassy slope with rocks of various sizes, scattered brush and lenient grades. On each of these summits, the rocks would be more abundant. It was easy to find ways through them.

The first such summit posed the only challenge of the hike: beyond it, I was looking at about an 80-foot drop, and not on easy slope. It was a jumble of cliffs. But being high, I could see down and spot routes, which I was able to follow down without any scrambling needed.

The remaining subsummits were more of the same, but without any cliffs. There was always a slope option to follow. Ranchers have placed a couple water troughs and tanks up here, but I saw no roads here. These were probably helicoptered in. The excitement was rousting a family of javelina. They suddenly grunted and bounded up out of the grass. I stopped and let them run off before resuming my trek.

I was finally past the last subsummit and on the stretch run. I found an excellent trail here. Possibly a cattle trail but much too neat. Perhaps a hunter's trail or an old hiker's route that has been ignored? In any case, it was easy to follow this almost all the way to the top. I arrived onto the grassy summit exactly two hours after starting.

I found a summit cairn and a register in it. Amy P. was here last year. The bottle was in bad shape and the previous contents were unreadable, the paper completely rotted. I supplied a scrap of paper and closed up the bottle, but don't expect it to survive for too long. This is not a popular summit.

Views were very good. The big puffy clouds scooted past in the steady breeze. It was chilly but pleasant, mid 50s for now. The bigger peaks were shrouded in clouds but when they would part, I could see snow on the highest peaks, such as the Santa Ritas to the north and Red Mountain to the west. Yesterday's storm had dropped a little snow down to about 6,000 feet elevation. On this peak, the ground was moist but fortunately not that muddy.

I followed the same route out, going from one summit to the next. When back to the first one with the cliffs, I made little effort to stick to any path. I just aimed for the rocks and hoped for the best. I battled some ocotillo, then scrambled up two sections, each about a ten-foot scamper with good holds. That was it for the day's scrambling.

From here on out, I just followed my ascent route, getting back to the roads (and shimmying twice more under the fences) then back to my car. The outbound hike took an hour and 45 minutes, and my total time gone was 4 hours, 4 minutes.

Back at the parking lot, there were more cars but no people. I was undressing out of my muddy pants when I heard some hikers coming in. Three women. I was shielded by one car so I kept my nekkidness brief and got into some cleaner shorts for the drive out. It had warmed nicely, to about 60°, just enough to be comfortable.

I drove into Sierra Vista for errands then on home. This peak probably won't attract lots of visitors, but I enjoyed the long ridge trek and the various rocks. It added to what otherwise would have been a dull trek. The scenery is always worth the trouble.