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| Hiking | 1.40 Miles |
524 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.40 Miles | 53 Mns | | 1.75 mph |
| 524 ft AEG | 5 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I've driven by this one twice and always wanted to hike it. So after some Red Hill action, I drove the 45 minutes off the rim through a very welcome, but also a little harrowing rain, wind, lightning and hail with temps fluctuating between the mid 50s and the mid 90s before arriving at the goal.
In June 2021 at the same time that the Telegraph Fire was torching the Pinals, and the Backbone Fire was destroying Fossil Creek, the Bear Fire was ripping through 20,000+ acres and threatening Rose Peak. The summit and tower were saved, but the north and west aspects of the peak were obliterated, along with much adjacent terrain across the 191.
I couldn't find the route to start and took something that resembled the 456 route directly up the spine (though her route was in pre-fire wooded terrain while mine was in a completely barren burn zone). I spotted a rock-lined switchback identifying the old trail cut about 3/4 of the way up and managed to follow the overgrown tread from there to the summit. On the way down I was able to completely follow the route to the bottom, though it is completely obliterated, features plenty of burned deadfall and subsequent hillside erosion. The handful of points in FOTG's hand drawn "official route" remains mostly accurate, though there's not much left of this one.
The lazy approach follows the motor vehicle road to the tower. While affected by fire on the lower slopes, the road cut still appears easy to follow and not eroded by post-fire flooding and would be a better option for folks who prefer road walks over adventures  .
The views from this one are better than expected, and the monsoon weather made for dramatic scenes on this day. The following day while visiting the Reno tower to chat with longtime lookout Don van Camp (azbackpackr's former Eagar neighbor)-- for the first time since I met him in 2014 on a trip with FOTG -- he made it clear that no tower had a better view than Escudilla did before it was destroyed in the Wallow Fire, but the second best in the region is Rose Peak. A group of Clifton district firefighters I met along the 191 told me that the longtime lookout at Rose Peak had retired and the district had not found a replacement, leaving the tower unmanned this year.
I'd like to see the FS rehab this trail. It's not long and it's actually a nice stop for those making the long drive on the Coronado Trail. The former "picnic area" at the trailhead is a hot, sunny, dusty, burn zone, so it might not be a spot where anybody really chooses to stop anymore. |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
