Marble Peak - Catalinas, AZ

Overview
Marble Peak is one of the high points on Oracle ridge. The easiest way to hike this is to start at the Oracle Ridge trailhead which is at roughly 7,800 feet elevation. Then, you will take the Oracle Ridge trail down and then up to Marble Peak. The top of Marble Peak is lower in elevation than the trailhead. The hike is mostly trail with a relatively short bushwhack to get to the peak.


Hike
Start at the Oracle Ridge trailhead hiking North. The trail goes around the West side of Mt. Hitchcock, the peak you can see from the firehouse. The trail is in pretty good shape overall and will follow the ridgeline. After hiking about 1.8 miles, you should come to a road junction. Take a right and continue for about 0.3 more miles. Next, take a sharp right and continue for about 200 feet. At this point, if you look due East this is the ridgeline that you will want to follow to the summit.From here you only have about 120 vertical feet and about 500 feet in distance to the summit. There's no trail but you can basically follow the ridgeline to the top. There are a few places where you may need to hike 20 or 30 feet away from the ridgeline to avoid brush. There are also a few areas with loose rock so you'll want to be sure to have sound footing.

2023-05-29 Mike_W