Date: February 19, 2026 • Elevation: 2,306 feet ✳ • Prominence: 301 feet • Distance: 4.4 miles • Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes • Gain: 395 feet • Conditions: Cloudy after a passing storm, some sun

Arizona • Main • PB • LoJ • USGS BM Datasheet

The Granite Hills are a tiny band of hills northeast of Newman Peak, set apart by about a mile from the northern Picacho Mountains. I've been in this area three times now since December, picking off peaks one by one. Treadway Benchmark, the highpoint of the Granite Hills, was the sole remaining ranked peak in this grouping I had yet to climb.

I was here a week ago, but road construction on Houser Road, the main access road out of Eloy, had closed the road entirely. So I would try again today. I was in Tucson on Wednesday (yesterday). We had a storm on Tuesday, then mostly clear skies on Wednesday. However, this morning, there was a steady rain, and the clouds were low, abutting the Catalina Mountains.

I left around 8 a.m.. Weather forecasts said this should clear out around 10 a.m., and should be clearer as one heads north. Sure enough, by the time I was about twenty miles out of Tucson near the Red Rock exit, I left the rain behind, and up ahead were clearing skies.

I followed the same route as before: Exiting at Picacho onto highway AZ-87 northbound for three miles, then east on Houser Road for about five miles, to Brady Pump Road. Once off the pavement at about the actual Brady Pump station, the roads were in solid shape, a concern of mine given the recent rain.

The road bent north a mile then east for a couple miles, this road called North Star Road, for the North Star Mine that still functions at the base of Peak 2624. I was able to go about 30 miles per hour. I encountered "private" and "no trespassing" signs here, this being the mine property, but the road itself was not fettered.

At a Y-split, the better road went left toward a gate, so I went right, now on a rougher road. The main issue was ruts and moguls, the kind of road where one tire may be completely off the ground at any given time. Fortunately, there were no big rocks.

I was able to slowly drive in another half mile, to a rise where I could see the Granite Hills poking above another low ridge. The road here dropped into an arroyo and looked a little too rough. I parked in a pullout. I was about two miles away, close enough to walk it.

The day was cool and mostly cloudy, these being the back-end of the storms. To the south and east, it was all clouds. To the north and west, blue skies. I was at the boundary for now. It was about 55°. I started walking at close to 10 a.m.

I followed the road east. Walking this segment through the arroyo, I could have driven it had I been super careful. There were a couple rocky segments with marginal drive-around options. A standard 4-wheel drive with high clearance would be more than sufficient. I crested the second rise then began a long gentle descent, dropping about sixty feet over a half mile to a gate.

Past the gate, the road bends slightly, now due east, aiming for the hills. Now closer, I got a good look at them. It's basically one main boulder-covered hill, and one or two smaller hills set apart from the main mass. The entire "range" runs about a half mile in length.

When nearer the hills, I left the road and made a beeline toward a lowpoint in the main hill. Cholla cactus grows in abundance here, some about eight feet high. I was able to weave through them without getting bit. Then I was encountering more boulders and was soon at the base of the main hill.

The slope lay back well, and I was able to follow open ground and some paths about half-way up before needing to manage the rocks. Even then, this was easy. At no time did I need to scramble. I just walked from one rock to the next, making sure my feet were placed carefully.

I was soon nearing the top, which features three or four main rocky outcrops, the highest being at the south tip. I arrived on top about an hour after starting, covering just over two miles. This had been a very simple peak to ascend.

The top features the Treadway Benchmark, plus its two reference marks. The old wood and wire height-of-light apparatus was still here, broken and in pieces. I found two registers in a cairn within a cleft of two rocks. Names went back thirty years, many of them familiar. I consolidated everything into one jar and kept the other one for future use. I signed in, the first in 6 years.

Views were pretty good. The air was misty from all the moisture but I had sunnier skies for now. There were clouds to the south and blue slies to the north. I sat for about ten minutes taking a break. This is a remote part of the desert and not easy to get to. I enjoyed my time here.

For the walk out, I followed largely the same route down the rocks and through the cholla, then back on the road to my car, the outbound hike taking a little under an hour. My total time gone was just shy of two hours.

On the hike out I wanted a distance image of the peak but my camera woudn't turn on. This concerned me. I waited until I was back to my car. What happened was it turned on but the brightness had reset to almost completely dark. In the sun, it was all black. In my car, I could barely make out the icons.

I was able to go to Settings and reset the brightness to normal levels. When I was on the summit I had logged into Peakbagger to check the map. My phone evidently kept trying to make the connection as I walked out and I guess it darkens to save the battery. I have a Galaxy model and I don't like this feature. It's done this before once or twice.

Anyway, I got moving, driving out. As I neared Brady Pump station, a guy was there opening the gate for about eight side-by-sides, all lined up heading in. He let me pass through. I got back onto Houser Road, then south on AZ-87, then I went west on Battaglia Road which would catch Sunshine Road, where I usually stop for gas where it connects to the interstate.

This was my first time through central Eloy. There is nothing sexy about Eloy. I think they deliberately go for the scraggly farm look. The one great thing about the city is its parachuting center, where my wife has jumped a couple times. I got gas, then got on the interstate into Tempe where I blabbered something about gradient vectors and optimization to my students.