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| Big Horn Peak and Saddle Mountain, AZ | |
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| | Big Horn Peak and Saddle Mountain, AZ | | | |
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Big Horn Peak and Saddle Mountain, AZ
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| Hiking | 11.00 Miles |
3,809 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.00 Miles | | | |
| 3,809 ft AEG | | | | |
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| Partners |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Saddle Mountain-Tonopah has been on my radar screen for a while but I didn't want to drive all the way out there just to hike 3 miles. I managed to convince Tracie the Intrepid, my favorite hiking partner, to go along. Tracie had never done Big Horn Peak, and I have only done it once so we decided to also do it while we were out there. Our friend Elizabeth was off work so we got her to come along as well.
We did Big Horn Peak first, which was a good idea I think. We got there just as it was getting light enough to see. I did this hike earlier this month with @trekkin_gecko and @johnlp, and the route was still somewhat fresh on my mind. Even so, I looked at my GPS a number of times to make sure that we were on track. It was a fun scramble up to the summit, notwithstanding all of the cholla that we had to navigate around and through.
After getting back to our vehicle, we drove about 30 minutes to get to the TH for Saddle Mountain. Even though the Saddle Mountain hike is only 3 miles, it is not your grandma's garden variety 3 mile hike -- it is very steep and slippery, especially the section leading up to the saddle. Route finding was much easier than I thought it would be -- there is an easy-to-follow trail up to the saddle, and even past the saddle the route is mostly easy to follow. I downloaded the track that @LindaAnn posted about 10 days ago, and I looked at it a couple of times to make sure that I was not off track. I did manage to avoid the scenic detour that @LindaAnn and @trekkin_gecko took!...lol...I also used the track for the drive-in ato the TH that @chumley posted; the turn off of Courthouse Rd isn't completely obvious, so this track was helpful.
The views on both peaks are great, although we liked the view on Saddle Mountain better.
After the hike we had some post-hike grub at Hodori Korean Restaurant in Mesa -- the pork belly that I had was excellent!
Stats for the 2 summits are:
Big Horn Peak: 7.9 miles and an AEG of 2,205'
Saddle Mountain: 3.1 miles and an AEG of 1,604'
The distance and elevation gain above are the sum of the two.
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
On the hike to Big Horn, we saw one poppy blooming and a few brittlebush blooming; on the hike to Saddle Mountain, there were a few lupine and brittlebush blooming. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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