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| Forest Hill - Little Rincon Mtns HP, AZ | |
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| | Forest Hill - Little Rincon Mtns HP, AZ | | | |
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Forest Hill - Little Rincon Mtns HP, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.06 Miles |
2,323 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.06 Miles | 7 Hrs 8 Mns | | 1.24 mph |
| 2,323 ft AEG | 1 Hour 27 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | This hike was to the summit of Forest Hill (elevation of 6,114 feet and prominence of 1,554 feet), the highpoint of the Little Rincon Mountain range. The Little Rincons are just to the east of the more well known Rincon Mountains. In fact, Forest Hill is 5.3 miles east of Rincon Peak.
I took the Mescal Road exit off of I-10 and took Happy Valley Road (FR 35) past the turnoffs for the Miller Creek TH and the Turkey Creek TH. I came to a gate and passed through it. By this time I was on FR 4110. The road got a bit rougher but I never engaged 4WD. I found a place to park on the left side of the road and began hiking from there.
It is hard to say exactly what I did on the hike, other than to head toward the peak and avoid thorn bushes on the way. Actually, the vegetation wasn't too bad -- it was fairly easy to walk around the worst of it, and after about 3/4 of a mile the hike became more of a walk through open country than a bushwhack.
After about 2 miles the peak came into view and I could finally see what route that I needed to take. I aimed for a saddle that was northeast of the peak, and from there went up a ridgeline to the summit. The ridgeline was a bit steep but it wasn't bad; I stayed just to the left of the spine of the ridgeline and had some minor class 2 scrambling. There would have been more scrambling had I stayed right on the ridgeline.
There were 3 large (about 7-8 feet tall) boulders at the summit that were candidates for the highpoint. They were easy to get on top of so I did so. I think that the middle boulder was the highest, but the one to the north was very close in height.
There were great views at the summit so I enjoyed being up there. I returned more of less the way that I came.
It was a very nice day to be out there. The temperature was 23 when I started and 61 when I returned. Skies were sunny with very little wind. I had a couple of outer layers on when I started, but in the sun I shed them before hiking too far and was in shirt sleeves for the remainder of the day.
I have now been to the highpoint of 100 of Arizona's 193 mountain ranges.
Synopsis
This was an enjoyable hike -- bushwhacking was easy and the tread was nice. This hike did not have the rubbly, ankle-busting rock that is prevalent on a lot of off-trail hikes to southern Arizona peaks. There were great views of the Rincons along the entire hike (Rincon Peak, the Happy Valley LO, and Mica Mountain) and I enjoyed seeing snow-capped Mount Graham. For much of the hike there was not an intuitive way to go, so route finding was not the easiest. This is a hike that I might do again sometime. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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