Lower Boulder Canyon - Arch Canyon loop OPCNM Photoset • rubywrangler • 2024-02-09 • HikeArizona.COM

Lower Boulder Canyon - Arch Canyon loop OPCNM, AZ

	2024-02-09
	14 by rubywrangler

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Lower Boulder Canyon - Arch Canyon loop OPCNM, AZ

Hiking	4.00 Miles

Hiking	4.00 Miles

no routes

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linked

Arch Canyon - Organ Pipe NM

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This was an afternoon recon mission for a future attempt to climb peak 4740, the second highest mountain in the Ajo range. I'd seen two previous reports from the Arch Canyon side and neither was very appealing. The first one featured extremely complicated navigation, and the second one featured "a horrible bushwhack" and "the remains of a young human female". Um, no thanks. So I decided to try approaching from Boulder canyon. The slope angle shading in Caltopo suggests that it might go. After seeing it up close, I think it probably does, but I ran out of daylight. Also, the terrain in the canyon pushes you north, right up to the saddle below "platform 3760" and above the arch...which has a trail going right to it. So one could save themself some trouble and time and skip lower boulder canyon altogether.

However, the lower canyon presents no real difficulties - just requires picking a route though huge namesake boulders at the entrance, then there is some fun scrambling on solid rock. It seems you should approach from the northwest to avoid the worst brush (I didn't). Don't skip the side trip to 3760' though. Both the north and south ends of the platform have excellent views. I descended the Arch trail but skipped the Arch since I'd been there before. The trail has a ridiculous number of cairns!

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Ghost?

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Arch Canyon Boulder Canyon Tillotson Peak

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Sunset

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