Date: November 24, 2025 • Elevation: 5,793 feet ✳ • Prominence: 858 feet ✳ • Distance: 2.6 miles • Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes • Gain: 860 feet • Conditions: Heavy fog at first, then sunnier and chilly

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • Lidar

Spire Peak rises immediately south of highway AZ-82, about six miles west of the town of Whetstone. There is nothing spire-like about this peak and I wonder how it got this name. It's most notable feature is a big cliff wall that faces north toward the highway. Rock climbers sometimes come here to try their luck on the routes.

I've driven by this peak too many times to count, so I finally decided to go climb it. I was curious about following the rock-climber route, which starts near milepost 47 and is accessed by a ladder-stile that goes over the fence. But to hike it, I'd need to detour a mile west and then double back to the top. This meant crossing private land.

As a back-up, I knew I could come in from a ranch track from the southwest, the same road I drove in on in August when I hiked nearby Peak 5414. It would be a chore to drive that road again, but it would allow for an all-legal route, all on State Trust land.

We had about four days of rain, mist and clouds, which cleared out late yesterday. It was also cold, in the 30s overnight. I wasn't up at dawn, but I was still on the road early, about 7:30 a.m.. I followed AZ-80 through Bisbee, up the grade through the tunnel and down the opposite side. As I descended off the mountain, I could see the entire San Pedro River Valley, essentially the whole valley between the Mule Mountains and the Huachuca Mountains, socked in by thick fog.

For now, it was crystal clear where I was. I got onto AZ-90 toward Sierra Vista and in about a mile, passed into the fog, the demarcation that sudden, like Stephen King's "The Mist", though fortunately there were no 500-foot-tall, 6-legged arachnids walking around.

Fog is very rare in Arizona. In my 30 years in Phoenix, we had fog maybe three times. Up here at the higher elevations, it's a little more common, but still not often. The fog was thick, about a quarter-mile visibility. I was in with a line of cars and we were going about 60 miles per hour, which felt about right. I could see the two cars ahead of me and that was it.

In about ten minutes, I had driven through the fog and emerged from it as I entered Sierra Vista, sunny and clear again. I stopped for snacks at a Circle-K, then drove north to Whetstone and west on AZ-82 toward Spire Peak. The fog was collecting here again.

I immediately gave up on the north approach and decided to go with the all-legal route. I drove another three or four miles to the track, which parallels power lines. It's not the best track and I feared it may be in worse shape with the recent rains. The fog was thick here for now (see my photos).

The road turned out to be fine, just a couple of short muddy or sticky segments. I passed through four gates, covering about three miles. I actually had parked early and started my hike but turned around after ten minutes after coming upon a fence with a "no trespassing" sign.

I eventually got to where I wanted to be, an earthen tank southwest of the peak, and northwest of Peak 5414. The drive in had been slow and with my earlier aborted hike, it was a little past 9 a.m. when I finally turned off the engine. The fog had lifted here by now. Spire Peak rose about a mile to the northwest, a broad mass with gentle grassy slopes with a few rock knobs and cliffs that looked avoidable.

I started walking a ranch track past the tank. I came upon some cattle standing in the road so I left the road and walked uphill through the grass and bypassing them. They watched me the entire time. I was on a bearing toward the mountain and just followed the lay of the land. I spooked a few more cattle along the way.

The summit is visible the entire time, topped by a small band of cliffs. The grade down low was very gentlre, with low grass and light brush. I gained a ridge, then started up a steeper slope, the grass a little thicker here.

This led me to a ridgepoint where I could then see the top again. The remaining climb was like this — steep but not too bad, brushy but manageable, and occasional rocks that needed to be stepped around or over. I never needed my hands.

The final fifty feet bypasses the summit cliffs up a steep ramp. Then, I was on top, with is flat and broad, grassy with dozens of boulders about two feet tall jutting upward. I found a cairn atop one boulder which seemed to be the highpoint. To be sure, I walked around and tagged about another dozen rocks.

Conditions were fantastic, the temperature in the 50s, sunny and clear, with no breeze. I took images in each direction and had a ten-minute snack break. It had taken me about an hour to get here, in 1.3 miles and 860 feet of gain. I could not locate a register.

Looking east, the San Pedro River Valley was still under the fog layer, a uniform sheet of white. The Mule Mountains rose above it like islands, as did Cerro San Jose. As rare as fog is, I tried to enjoy it and how it affects the scenery.

I hiked down the same way, mostly repeating my ascent route. The cows had all moved to an adjacent field so I was able to walk the road back to my car. The egress hike took less than an hour, and I felt like I had barely broken a sweat.

It was about 11 a.m. now and I had actual work to do, so I started the slow roll back to Bisbee. However, I decided to do some sightseeing. For starters, I wanted to avoid the fog, and I noticed that highway AZ-82 looked clear all the way to Tombstone, so I followed it.

In Tombstone, I took the Gleeson exit and followed Gleeson Road east. I rarely drive this road and wanted to scout some approaches for peaks in this area. I found a couple of unlocked gates that lead into State Land south of the highway, which got me thinking about hiking Stockton Hill, the most notable hill in the immediate region.

I also explore Gleeson itself, plus drove some of the roads. Gleeson is a living ghost town, a couple of old buildings still standing (or barely so). People live here, and as far as ghost towns go, this one isn't that interesting. My wife and I explored it more thoroughly a few years ago anyway. By "thoroughly", we spent about a half hour here.

I took the road into Elfrida, then the roads through Double Adobe back into Bisbee, arriving about 1 p.m.. It had been a good day, an easy hike and some exploration, and I was pleasantly tired afterwards. I ended up hiking Stockton Hill two days later.