Date: November 4, 2025 • Elevation: 5,515 feet ✳ • Prominence: 337 feet ✳ • Distance: 4 miles • Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes • Gain: 775 feet • Conditions: Sunny and clear

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • Lidar

I was on my Tuesday drive to Tempe, and with the weather being mild and lovely state-wide, looked for a simple peak to do along the way. This peak is just a hill at the south end of the Whetstone Mountains, about a mile west of Earp Benchmark, which I hiked about three years ago.

I left Bisbee while still dark, timing it so I was in the area as the sun was rising. It's about a 45-mile drive, following the highways (AZ-80, AZ-90) into Sierra Vista, then staying on AZ-90 heading north. Exactly six miles north of Whetstone is a scraggly track that allows access across State Trust land into the National Forest. The map calls it Dry Canyon Road.

The road is rough but manageable if driven slowly and with care. It's hardpack with some deep ruts. I don't recall it being this bad when I was here in 2022. I was most concerned about not dropping a tire into a rut and possibly high-centering myself.

A mile later I was at the Coronado Forest boundary. The road improved slightly, still with chunky rocks but fewer ruts. I drove in about another half mile and parked in a clearing. I was the only one here, the time a little after 7 a.m.. When I was here in 2022, there were a couple shooters out, and the ground is littered with shells and other shooter detritus.

The peak was visible about a mile and a half in the distance, partially obscured by the slopes of Earp Benchmark Hill. It was sunny and cool, but not cold, in the 50s for now. It was calm and cloudless and very mild. I got suited up and was walking within minutes.

I followed a track north briefly, then west. This second track was rougher with an arroyo crossing that would have stopped me in the Subaru. For walking, it worked well, being just a wide trail. I stayed on the track about a mile, until I was northeast of the peak.

The peak is a loaf-shaped mound with smooth sides and covered in brush. Between me and it was a deep-cut drainage (Dry Creek, says the map). I had no choice but to leave the road and enter into the scrub and rocks. Dropping into the drainage was easy but sloppy, mesquite growing heavy within it.

Up the other side, I angled around a lower hill and dropped into one more drainage, this one not as deep, until I was at the base of the east slopes of the peak. So far, the off-trail hiking had gone well, with lanes to follow most of the way.

I generally went with whatever slope the terrain would lead me to. They all looked about the same. From below it looked like a nightmare of waist-high brush, but once amid it, lanes opened up as long as I was willing to zig and zag to find them. The slope itself was lenient.

This climb took about twenty minutes. Higher up, the slope steepened, and I had to clamber up a couple three-foot "cliffs", the rock here being limestone. Footing ranged from good when on the limestone rock, to sloppy when on the rubble.

I was soon on top of the ridge, and the summit was close by. It was just a matter to follow the ridge to the top, dodging the brush, which included more ocotillo and some smaller trees. But it was easy to do and I was on top, about an hour after starting.

The views were very good, the sun still low to provide interesting shadow effects. The peak is just a little hill surrounded by higher peaks and ridges, some about 2,000 feet higher. Mescal Peak rose to the southwest. The canyon between me and that peak was where Curly Bill Brocius was killed in 1882 by Wyatt Earp and his men, avenging the assassination of Morgan Earp a year earlier.

I did not stay too long, as I had to get down and get going on my drive to Tempe. Some people had arrived to the parking/staging area. I could hear the gunshots and see the cars. As long as they were shooting toward the hills, I had no concern. It took me about a half hour to walk out, by which time one of the shooters had already left. The round trip hike took just under two hours.

I changed into more pleasant clothing and slowly exited. More people were on their way in, presumably to shoot. Me, I was on the highways and into Tempe a couple hours later.

This little bump isn't much to get excited about but for today's purposes, worked well. There are a couple more smaller peaks back in here, but I am in no hurry. The condition of the road and the shooters make this not a great place to hike. I never felt in danger of being hit by a bullet, but figure that this little spot should be left to the shooters.