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| Hiking | 6.83 Miles |
1,708 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.83 Miles | 6 Hrs 13 Mns | | 1.29 mph |
| 1,708 ft AEG | 55 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a hike to Face Mountain, which is in far western Maricopa County. The unnamed high point is at an elevation of 2,066 feet and has prominence of 1,086 feet. While I was there I also climbed to the summit of nearby Montezuma Head, which is also on Face Mountain.
I drove in on Agua Caliente Road, and pulled off the road, drove a short distance on a lesser road, and parked.
I hiked across the desert floor for a ways, and saw 3 deer in a valley between the north and south peaks of Face Mountain, with the north summit being 24 feet higher.
I left the desert floor and aimed for a saddle just to the east of some cliff bands on the south side of Montezuma Head. It was a somewhat steep ascent, made a bit tougher by all of the teddy bear cholla that I encountered as I got closer to the saddle. It was a bit of a scramble but I got to the top of Montezuma Head. The scramble was fun, although I had to dodge lots of cholla on the way.
Cholla would be the theme of this hike -- I have never encountered so much of it as on this hike. At times I could barely squeeze through it, with there barely being an inch between me and cholla on either side of me.
After leaving Montezuma Head, I traversed southeast along a ridgeline to get to the highpoint. The ridgeline was rocky and was slow going, especially with having to dodge cholla most of the way. It was a nice summit, and I signed the Lilley-MacLeod summit register log that was there. Based on the register entries, not many people come out here.
On the descent, I went a ways back along the ridgeline, and decided to descend down to a saddle between the north and south peaks. The descent went well, and once I got to the saddle, I headed west across a valley between the two summits. There was lots and lots of basalt rocks in the valley, so the going was much slower than I envisioned.
Before the hike, I thought that I might also go up to the south summit to check out the benchmark and a couple of old-school reference flivers that were there, but with the cholla slowing me down, I decided against that plan.
This was a nice area and the hike would have been nicer without all the cholla.
Synopsis
Class 2 hike; class 5 cholla |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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