Date: June 10, 2025 • Elevation: 6,806 feet ✳ • Prominence: 428 feet ✳ • Distance: 2.2 miles • Time: 2 hours • Gain: 786 feet • Conditions: Sunny, clear and cool, but warming fast

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • Lidar

This anonymous peak lies north of Turkey Creek Road in the western Chiricahua Mountains, near the Turkey Pen Trailhead. I was here last week climbing Snowshed Peak and this peak caught my attention when I looked down into the canyon from above. It has a pointed profile and looked attractive. I even considered climbing it after coming down from Snowshed, but I was too tired.

I came back a week later (today) to climb it and do a little scouting. The weather is warming up, so long hikes, even at nearly 7,000 feet elevation, aren't an option for me. If I started at dawn, I could expect at least a few hours of cool (60s, low 70s) temperatures.

I left home at 3 a.m. and took my sweet time driving to the trailhead, about a 70 mile drive. There was absolutely no one else on the roads at this early hour. I think I saw two other cars the whole time. I saw more javelina than cars.

I entered into Turkey Creek Canyon while it was still dark, and after popping a tire last week on this road, went very slowly up this canyon road. When I rolled into the pullout near the trailhead, it was 4:30 a.m. and barely starting to alight in the east. I catnapped for about fifteen minutes in my front seat.

After getting properly attired and my pack in order, I started the hike at 4:59 a.m.. By now, there was enough light to see things well, although I would be in shade for another hour. It was cool, but not cold, the day looking to be a clear, dry, warm afternoon, high in the high 90s in Willcox.

The trail is rocky and steep, but easy to follow. The signs could be better. At one junction, a sign pointed left for the Turkey Pen Trail, but that led me to a dead end. Back on the proper trail, I hiked upwards to a saddle, about 450 feet higher and a half mile in from my car. Another sign near the trailhead warned of an active beehive in a tree near the trail. I was on the lookout but never encountered any bees, no more than the usual.

The trail continues down the other side into Turkey Pen Canyon, but my peak was above me to the west. While nominally off trail, I found a path that went that way, cutting through the thick grass. I followed this and other paths as far as they would go. The terrain was rocky and moderately steep, with occasional rock outcrops, some big enough to be proper cliffs. Trees includes small pines and mountain oak, evidently at the transition between the two mini-biomes. Woody scrub dominated dow low, but I could usually suss out a path about 90% of the time.

Toward the top, I angled left of a large rocky outcrop, mainly because a weak path went that way, and there appeared to be no better options. This sidehill below the rock outcrops went slow but was not difficult, just needing to be sure each step was secure.

The top appears about this time, and I soon closed in on it, angling left again around another small cliff. I walked up a slope of loose rubble to the summit ridge, and found the top, a small hill at the west tip of the ridge. To my amusement, I arrived here at 5:59 a.m., exactly a one-hour hike.

The summit featured a couple rock outcrops and plenty of brush and low trees, but with openings to view down into the canyons and out into the desert valley to the west. The sun was up by now and warming, although conditions were still pleasant. I could not locate a register. Lists of John shows just two previous ascents, the last being in 1998. However, people have been up here. I found a couple water bottles, and the paths would suggest others have been up this way. I spent about ten minutes up top.

For the hike down, I followed openings, repeating my ascent route almost exactly. Back at the saddle, I had thoughts about the peak to the north, about a mile away. But it was warming fast, and it was about this time I started getting bopped by the occasional bee. I decided against the other peak for now, seeing that it and yet another one to its north would make a fine pair for when it cools in a few months.

The remaining hike to my car went without mishap, and other than a few more bees checking me out, I had no issues and enjoyed this short hike. But yes, this is not the best time of year to be hiking peaks at this elevation. If it's not the heat, it could be the bees that get you. I arrived at my car at 6:59 a.m.. I couldn't have timed it better had I tried.

I slowly drove out, and a few miles down the road, stopped to check out the Johnny Ringo gravesite...

Johnny Ringo was an outlaw in the Tombstone area at the same time that all the conflicts between Wyatt Earp and his brothers, along with Doc Holliday, against the "Cowboys", a loose-knit band of rustlers, thieves and murderers. Ringo himself had come to Arizona by way of Texas and generally never stayed in any one place very long. He was not involved in the OK Corral shootout, but was well known to the Earps, being the main suspect in the death of Morgan Earp.

Ringo was not a good person by any stretch. He was a murderer and a thug, and only gets some nominal fame for being in and around Tombstone during this time. He rode into this canyon in July 1882, and his body was later found here, a single shot to the head. He was buried here. The death was ruled a suicide. But there still remains some doubt if it was an actual suicide, or if he had some assistance. There were plenty of people in and around Tombstone who would have been happy to let the air out of his balloon.

The grave lies on private property about fifty yards from the road. One can walk to the grave and the historical marker. That's about it. There's not much to see, and I spent just a few moments here. After reading more on the Earp & Tombstone history since moving to Bisbee, seeing these places makes them more tangible to me.

Gravesite

Historical plaque

Bunbun

By now, it was very warm, into the 80s and creeping upward. I had no real plan, so I chose to drive some roads I normally wouldn't. Back where Turkey Creek Road meets up with highway AZ-181, I made a left, heading south on the Kuykendall Cutoff. This dirt road is decent and it has a couple inlet points into the mountains should I ever want to go this way in the future. The road meets with Rucker Road, which I followed west about ten miles to where it merged in with US-191 at the BoPo checkpoint.

I decided to drive on home. I stopped in Elfrida for a cold drink and some snacks, and was home a little after 9 a.m.. I put on about 140 miles for just one peak, but was happy to get out and explore for a few hours. June in Arizona, you take what you can get.