Date: August 30, 2025 • Elevation: 5,486 feet ✳ • Prominence: 302 feet ✳ • Distance: 6.8 miles • Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes • Gain: 1,216 feet (gross) • Conditions: Sunny and pleasant

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • Lidar

Peak 5486 is barely a peak, located along a ridge on the southeast flanks of Mount Wrightson. Its summit is a waypoint of the Mount Wrightson Wilderness. I was interested in it because it had a road all the way to its top, an important factor while the snakes are still out. I saw a massive rattler last week nearby that still gives me the creeps.

I was on the road a little before 5 a.m.. The drive to the start of the hike covered about 70 miles, and I arrived just as the sun was coming up. From highway AZ-62 about 5 miles southwest of Sonoita, I drove in on Casa Blanca Road (Coronado National Forest Road 152). This is where I parked last week for my hike with the snake.

I drove in about 3.2 miles, the road being a good road. I turned right onto a lesser track, FR-4105, and drove in about two hundred feet, parking in a small clearing near where the road drops into a creekbed.

I dressed light, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. It was cool outside, in the mid 60s, but humid. The previous few days have been consistently stormy. Storms were expected later today, but for now, it was clear and mild.

I started walking about 6:30 a.m., the sun up but since I was in a canyon, I was in shadow. I followed the road as it trended north up this canyon through grassy meadows and oaks. I encountered a group of cattle about a mile in. They stared at me in bewilderment before jogging to one side.

The road goes in about a mile and a half, and gains steeply up to a T-junction, with FR-4107 going right. The gradient had been very slight. I gained about 300 feet over the mile and a half. The road was in decent shape and I probably could have driven the Subaru in another mile. The last steep portion up to the T-junction would have been trouble for my car.

At the junction, there is a log bench, an old forest-service informational plaque (now painted over), and a couple of memorial plaques set in concrete at the base of a tree. I also had fine views of the big peaks in the Santa Ritas. The sun was up and I was in light now. While cool, it was not chilly at all. I took off my shirt and stuffed it in my pack.

I angled right, passed through a gate, and marched up this second road which gains steeply up to a ridge. The road here would require a robust 4-wheel drive vehicle, nothing less. I was on the long ridge that leads to Peak 5486's top, but it was invisible for the moment, about a mile distant.

I just kept to the track, enjoying the scenery. For a mundane track on a ridge, it was very lovely, with oaks, various smaller trees, a lot of grass and brush, and the track itself. The sun was still low enough to cast interesting shadows on the ridges and the route. I stayed left at a second junction, both gated closed but easily bypassed as the fence was down.

The track gains and loses elevation with the lay of the land. It dropped twenty or thirty feet, then regained it a couple times. Then one more big drop and a "big" gain up a hill, passing the Arizona Trail along the way. On top this hill, I could see the real summit not far away. I dropped about fifty feet then up about sixty to gain the summit of this simple peak.

The top was flat, but grassy with some good sitting rocks and excellent views of the bigger peaks. I found a cadastral survey marker from 2001 in a cairn near a fence, and the highpoint cairn on the opposite side of the fence about twenty feet away. I signed into the log, just the fourth person to sign in since Mark Nicholls placed the log here in 1998. The one-way hike took a little over three miles with a thousand feet of net gain, taking me an hour and fifteen minutes.

The day was very mild and calm and I was enjoying the scenery and conditions. There were no clouds anywhere and there was a breeze. Even the humid air felt a little drier than normal. I sat for a spell on a rock underneath a tree and had a snack and a drink, in no hurry. I spent nearly twenty minutes up top. This was a very pretty summit and I was happy to be here.

For the downhill hike, I followed the roads out, then took another short break back at the log bench because it's hard to pass up a bench when hiking. I also took more images, the sun higher now to permit better photos.

Now in the lower canyon, I encountered those cows again. They moved left or right before all agreeing to move left, as I passed by. The rest of the hike was an easy slight-downhill walk on the road back to my car. I had been gone two hours and 45 minutes.

I changed into less-sweaty clothing and drove out, stopping at the gas station and mini-mart in Sonoita for a sandwich. From there, I drove home, arriving an hour later. I was surprisingly tired afterwards!

I had low expectations for this hike but it turned out to be a real treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The scenery was fantastic the whole way. It was an easy peak and one perfect for these conditions when it is still warm and potentially snakey