The Mountains of Arizona
• www.surgent.net
|
|
Smuggler Mountain • Peak 5652 • Peak 4820 The Black Hills Backcountry Byway is a 21-mile dirt road that winds through the Black Hills that straddle Graham and Greenlee Counties. It is also known as the Old Safford Road and was used as a connector between Safford and Clifton/Morenci in the days before the modern highway US-191 was established. It was built over a century ago, partly with prison labor. These days, the Byway is kept open and maintained for recreationalists, and to access a few ranch properties located in the area. The bulk of the range and the road are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, so access is not fettered. The Gila Box Riparian Area cuts below the range, featuring steep-walled canyons with lush trees in what is otherwise just high desert rangeland. The southern terminus of the Byway is off US-191, about 6 miles north of where it branches from US-70. The northern terminus is also US-191, in the southern part of Clifton. The road is hardpack but well maintained. Most vehicles in dry weather should be fine. Their drivers, maybe not, as some sections of the road are narrow with steep drops. Those with an aversion to heights probably should avoid this road. I was on this road once before, in 2005 with my wife, when we climbed Guthrie Peak, the main peak in these Black Hills. I was here once before, around 1999, on a search as a member of the Maricopa Sheriff's Mountain Rescue team. The Greenlee County Sheriff requested our help, so a few of us drove the 200-plus miles to Clifton. I recall we were on some roads at the north end of the Byway. We didn't find who we were looking for, but we did get to meet the Sheriff, who treated us all to a meal in Morenci. We drove back to the Phoenix area that night. That was a long day. For this trip, I was interested in a handful of peaks near the Byway, two having lesser tracks of their own to their summits, and one that did not, but it looked short. It was expected to be a hot day, with highs of about 102-104° in both Safford and Clifton. The hikes would have to be short and/or preferably along a road or track.
Date: June 28, 2025
• Elevation: 4,054 feet ✳
• Prominence: 348 feet ✳
• Distance: 5.6 miles
• Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
• Gain: 655 feet
• Conditions: Sunny and clear, cool but warming fast
Arizona
•
Main
•
PB
•
LoJ
•
Lidar
I left Bisbee at 1:50 a.m., driving to Willcox and catching Interstate-10 there. For those 75 miles, I saw not a single vehicle on the road, my way or coming the other way. I followed Interstate-10 to the US-191 up to Safford, stopping briefly for snacks.
I continued east on the US-70/191 to where they split, now following US-191. It was about 4:15 a.m. now and still dark, but with the barest hints of sunrise to the east. It was warm, in the mid 70s, but calm and dry. Traffic was actually heavy, presumably these drivers being the morning shift heading to work at the mines in Morenci.
I arrived at the turn-off to the Byway at about 4:40 a.m., still dark but now with about 10% light out. My plan was to hike Smuggler Mountain first. This little hill has a road to its top, but would likely entail a hike of a few miles, which is why I wanted to hike it first. This mundane little hill has the distinction of being the lowest-elevation ranked peak in Greenlee County.
On the Byway, I drove slowly for a couple miles, coming to the Gilliard Hot Springs Road. The sign is a vertical plastic BLM road marker signed as "Gilliard H S". At first I thought there was a high school somewhere back here.
This road was marginal. I drove in about three-quarters of a mile, dropping about 250 feet, to a corral. The road was rocky and uneven, with a couple of steep segments with embedded rocks. I moved slowly and eased into the open area near the corral. It was now 4:50 a.m..
I got myself and my pack prepared. I was doing the usual things — getting my boots on, things put into the pack, and so on — when I bent over to get my pack off the ground. Suddenly, my whole back seized! It was like having an electric shock throughout my whole lower back.
This caught me by surprise and I literally fell backwards, onto my butt. I sat there and tried to get the back to stop spasming. It was so bad it was hard to catch a deep breath. On my butt, I leaned forward, chest past my knees, as a form of traction and this seemed to help. I stayed this way for a minute.
Not surprisingly, I was not happy about this. I had driven 159 miles to get here and I was to be damned if I didn't get at least one peak out of the deal. I figured I would have to suffer the drive home regardless. I also figured that walking may help ease the back.
I got up and got my pack on. I could stand straight and could move my legs. The pain was centralized in the lower back around the sacrum. I've had this area go out on me before, so I knew what to expect. As long as I stood straight and didn't do any sudden twisty movements, I was fine. I started hiking at 4:59 a.m..
The route is the road, and it soon degenerated such that my Subaru would not have handled it easily. It was narrower with leans and ruts and a lot of rocks. The road then drops into a sandy creekbed, featuring an old vehicle long since abandoned, rusted and shot up.
The next half mile is within this sandy creekbed. The sand offered a soft landing for my feet and saved some wear on my back. Whenever there was a doubt about a turn, BLM road markers were placed to help keep me on the correct road.
The road then leaves the creekbed, angles south, then cuts west, the peak now visible less than a mile away. I just walked slowly and was relieved that my back seemed to be behaving. It was sore in general, but not spasming.
The road gains a long south-trending ridge from the peak and leads right to the top, the last hundred or so feet being steep, but not too bad. The top is open, featuring a cylindrical water tank. It was still early, not yet 6 a.m., so the sun was still low and the air temperature still mild. I could see the dust clouds above the mines in Morenci. They never rest over there.
The map cites a benchmark named "Smuggler", but I could not find it nor any of its reference marks. It was probably dug up or buried when they put in the water tank, and there is no record of it on the USGS websites. I found a register in a cairn, the first to sign in since 2020.
I never really stopped. I snapped a few images, but feared if I sat down, I might not be able to get back up. I started the walk out, which went well. I was back to my car at 6:50 a.m.. The sun was up by now, but it was still "cool" by Arizona late-June standards. My car's temperature gauge read low 80s. Later, I determined I hiked 2.8 miles each way, so I got a good work out. I was smart of me to do this one first, to use as much of the morning coolness as possible. The next two hikes, by comparison, would not be as long.
Elevation: 5,652 feet
• Prominence: 404 feet
• Distance: 2.2 miles
• Time: 55 minutes
• Gain: 404 feet
• Conditions: Sunny and pleasant with a breeze
PB
•
LoJ
I eased the car back to the main Byway, and proceeded south. Along the way, I passed over a bridge spanning the canyon within the Gila Box, and noted that I should come back here in the future. I also encountered a guy pulled to the side with a flat. I asked if he was okay and he said yes.
The road gains higher in elevation, the terrain changing from scrubby desert to grasses and light forests of piñon and juniper. I went about eight miles and gained nearly 1,500 feet, now approaching Peak 5652, which lies across from the saddle connecting to Guthrie Peak. It was noticeably cooler up here, in the mid-70s, with a breeze.
I eased off the road and onto a scraggly track near the Saddle Tanks, a water-tank and corral unit. There were a couple random cows feeding on the grass and watching me. I parked apart from the tanks, in a clearing surrounded by the dark volcanic rocks.
The peak rises to the west, a hump of rock and forest, and prettier than I was expecting. In the half-hour since I ended my last hike, my back had tightened. I got out and walked slowly around my car to loosen it. I started this hike at 7:30 a.m..
The terrain from here to the top is over the volcanic rocks. It meant each step had to be taken slowly to ensure I would not slip and tweak my back further. As such, I was moving slowly, but making decent time.
The slopes lead up to a rock nubbin with about ten feet of prominence, then a short flat segment before the final slope to the top. A cow munching grass nearby watched me then jogged away. Toward the top, the rocks became jumblier and I had to move slowly again. Then I was on top.
This summit was rocky and grassy, and the views were excellent. The sun was still low enough to provide good lighting and shade for photos. I could see the mines over by Morenci, and the Gila River Valley down by Safford, with gigantic Mount Graham rising behind. I could not locate a register.
My back was doing well. The problems seemed to occur on the downhill. If I stepped farther than usual, it would catch and seize. I just moved slowly. Even so, I was back to my car a little less than an hour after starting. Had I been moving at my normal rate, I might have shaved off 10 minutes, but I was happy with how I was doing.
This peak was a delight and one I am glad I climbed. It would make an excellent bonus peak for people coming down from Guthrie Peak. It was now 8:30, and I got back into my car.
Elevation: 4,820 feet
• Prominence: 471 feet
• Distance: 2.7 miles
• Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
• Gain: 530 feet
• Conditions: Very warm
PB
•
LoJ
The road curled around some ridges and actually got slightly higher in elevation before making its long descent back down to the Gila River Valley and highway US-191. It is here that the road is curviest with big drops. It's still a fine road, but it does demand attention.
After a half hour, I had dropped about a thousand feet, into the foothills of the Black Hills. I had left what little forest there was behind, and was back in the starker grass and high-desert biome.
Peak 4820 could be seen as I descended, a long ridge-shaped hill, essentially the last hill before the desert flats below. Power lines cut up and over this hill, and some service roads have been cut into the hillsides to access these towers, as well as a few water tanks put in by the ranchers.
I dropped until I was below the peak, and pulled into a turnout with fire rings. This was wide-open country, not a tree in sight. It was hot and shadeless. It was just short of 9 a.m. but the outside temperature was in the mid-80s.
Fortunately, this hike would be logistically easy, following a track all the way up, and looking at a little over a mile each way. My back was tight again and I was beat from the first two hikes. But I was here and really wanted a three-peak day. After walking a little to loosen my back, I started the slow trudge up the road, emphasis on slow.
The walk was dull, hot and uninteresting, but it got me to the top. The road crosses underneath the power lines then curls up to a saddle on the ridge. A lesser track continues a little more to the north.
The summit ridge has four possible highest points, and I would be obliged to tag them all. The refined 1-meter Lidar has not yet been released for this area, so narrowing it down to a single spot was not possible. The map shows two 4,800-foot contour regions, but the northern one has two distinct hills and the northern of these hills has two distinct outcrops. For reference, I number the summits #1-#4 from north to south. The road had curled to the ridge between summits #3 and #4.
I walked up through open grass and rocks, a gain of about 30 feet, to top out on Summit #3, figuring I could eyeball between the other summits and see if any were more obvious than the rest. No such luck, they all looked the same.
I then descended to the saddle to the north, passing a water tank, then up toward Summit #2 and then Summit #1. Looking back, it still looked too close to call, but I felt Summit #1 was higher than #2.
Even though the area has not yet been mapped at the 1-meter Lidar refinement, I still looked at the "Lidar", which uses the 1/3-arcsecond data. It showed a summit elevation of 4,825 feet at the northern tip, which seemed to agree with my visual observation that it was higher than Summit #2. The ArcGIS data gives 4,824 feet at this point, but I often wonder where they get their figures. This coarse data is not definitive and at best just supports what I saw while there. I use a figure of 4,820 feet for the summit here on this page.
I walked back down and sat on a rock in the shade of the water tank to have a proper break. It was warm and I was moving slowly, and could feel the dehydration. It wasn't dire, but I took about ten minutes to just sit in the shade, drink liquids and check on my device if there was any more information about this peak. The only other visitor had a track, but he skipped the northern two summits.
Back on the tracks, I circled around to the power lines again and trudged up the easy slopes to Summit #4, which had the most substantial cairn. But none of the summits had a register. Or if they did, it was well-buried and I don't want to be sticking my hands into rocky voids when it's hot.
Okay, now I was done. Whatever summit is the highest, I tagged them all. I started down, the walk going slowly. By now, I was really beat, and I was on my ninth mile of the day, all this with a wonky back. I was back to my car about 10:20 a.m., happy with the three peaks but not happy with how I felt. Oh, did I mention the biting flies? They're a thing in this region.
Back at my car, I changed and then started the drive out. My car's temperature gauge read 94° outside, and by the time I was back to US-191, it was pushing 100°. It was officially hot. I stopped at a mini-mart in Safford for some Advil and a cold drink, then proceeded south to Willcox.
In Willcox, the combination of hunger and my desire to stretch my back suggested I stop, so I did at a Mexican restaurant. I got the three taco special. It felt good to veg for an hour in air conditioning, eating tacos and listening to norteño tunes.
The remaining drive home went well, and I was back a little after 2 p.m.. I had been gone 12 hours, driven 320 miles, climbed three peaks and tweaked one back, but it was a good day. After a shower and a nap, my back felt ... about the same. It'll take a few days to get right.
I enjoyed the Black Hills very much. I remember little from my 2005 visit except for the actual climb of Guthrie Peak. The Gila Box Riparian area is now a "must see" for me and I will return when things cool down again in a couple months. I also scouted the roads for more peaks (of course) and have some viable ideas for a future visit. The three peaks today were enjoyable, and I am glad I was able to hike them given the weather and the slim options that exist this time of year.
|
|