Peak 3660 - White Canyon Wilderness, AZ

Take a good look at a topo map of the White Canyon Wilderness, and you may notice a sizeable heart-shaped plateau virtually surrounded by steep cliffs. While many hikers have traversed up & down the canyon to the east (see White Canyon canyoneering description) or have traversed the GET#3 (was AZT#16 at the time of this description) in the canyon to the west, very few appear to have ventured up onto the roughly 2-square-mile upper plateau. Probably the most common reason not many have done so is the intimidating cliffs. But after some research, poring over topo maps as well as boots... whoops, Teva's-on-the-ground hiking of White Canyon, we decided to give it a shot.


The only thing I knew for sure is that there was relatively easy access to the upper mesa from the far-right ventricle of the heart, and the highest peak was on the far upper-left edge of the left ventricle. So with plenty of guess-and-by-gosh thinking, I hoped to find reasonable access near the highest point, Peak 3660. So with just that much data in-hand, we set out to: 1. find another way up, 2. bag Peak 3660, 3. cover as much ground up top, and 4. finally try to locate another way down just below the right ventricle.Having already gone up and down White Canyon, we started out hiking up the GET #3 (previously Arizona Trail #16) from Battle Axe road just below the bottom point of the "heart." We followed it up to the White Canyon Wilderness/Tonto National Forest boundary, all the while scanning for a way up. With one 30-minute false start, we continue around toward the northeast until we found the most promising albeit treacherous-looking area, and I announced now-or-never, and we headed up. Through the heavy brush, sometimes low-crawling, climbing bare rock, climbing loose, steep sections, we finally reached the upper plateau. Once up top, we were greeted with flat mind-blowingly fabulous views of not only the plateau but of Battle Axe and all the peaks in the surrounding area. A quick jaunt up to Peak 3660, and we located and signed the summit log. With the one-and-only previous log back in April of 2001(!), we felt honored to be the first ones in the ten years since to visit this peak, or at least sign the easily-visible cairn and capsule.

Now it was a matter of, where do we explore first, how far do we go, and do we shoot for the known-way-down, or do we seek one other possibility down? We settled for continuing across the heart center following a descending-in-steps ridgeline, seeking (and failing) the shortest route down and ultimately heading back up north-east to the known exit. Then it was merely following... ok, so it was more like not-quite-so-simple boulder-hopping our way back to Battle Axe Road and walking west back to the car. One last photo of the base of the heart from the car, and we headed home. With just a hint of a taste of what still lies up there waiting for us to explore, we are already planning the next trip.

2011-11-30 CannondaleKid