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| Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness, AZ | | -
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| | Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness, AZ | | | |
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Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness, AZ
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| Hiking | 17.20 Miles |
3,704 AEG |
| | Hiking | 17.20 Miles | 7 Hrs 43 Mns | | 2.36 mph |
| 3,704 ft AEG | 26 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | A friend of mine has made it a goal to visit all 90 designated wilderness areas in Arizona. He decided it would be fun to check off the Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness, and a visit to the Desert Bar, in one fell swoop.
The Gibraltar Mountain Wilderness does not have any trails. We started from a spot called The Guzzler, which is some sort of water catchment near where the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct emerges from a tunnel. I'm not sure what it's for, but if you're out here and you need water...
We crossed over Osborne Wash and headed up a ridge that connects to Peak 2113, the high point in the wilderness. It was a fairly straightforward ridgeline traverse, 2.75 miles from the Guzzler, with only very minor scrambling. If you're in the Parker area, this peak provides a pretty decent view of the surrounding area, with the Whipple Mountains to the west and Lake Havasu to the north.
Headed down the west side of the mountain to a small saddle, then traversed diagonally down to a saddle overlooking a large drainage that heads straight for the Colorado. Decided we can just take this drainage all the way to the wilderness boundary, where we would find a Jeep road that would take is right to the bar. This drainage turned out to be more scenic than expected, with some interesting geological features, and numerous wind caves and arches.
We hit the Jeep road, and then ran 2.5 miles to the bar, trying to avoid being hit by OHV traffic as much as possible (it was interesting to find that a human can travel the road on foot almost as fast as someone driving a side-by-side, and faster than a Jeep). The bar was huge, packed, and a total tourist trap with crappy beer and a crowd that probably doesn't think it's crappy. Figured I could use some caffeine for the return trip, so I went with Jack and Coke.
Leaving the bar, we headed south, up to the bottom of some cliffs, and found a way through to the top of the ridge. Originally the plan was to summit Gibraltar Mountain, but it was still a few miles away, and we only had 3.5 hours or so of daylight left. So we decided to navigate back to the car. I thought the return trip would be easier, but we had to cross over at least two valleys and climb back onto a couple of ridges.
The ridge we took back to the east side of the wilderness featured Peak 1926, which I believe to be the 3rd highest peak in the wilderness (the two named peaks, Gibraltar and Giers, are both under 1900). The last major descent took us into an interesting little slot canyon that had a couple of easy 5-6 foot pouroffs, followed by a 15 foot pouroff that we were able to find a way around.
After this, it became a game of just heading east as much as possible, and we finally spotted the car, just as the sun was starting to set. Perfect timing. It was a long day; 15 miles of cross country desert hiking wears on you.
Overall, this area was a little more interesting than I expected (moreso the northern leg of our loop), but probably not a place I really feel any need to go back to. |
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