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| Hiking | 13.18 Miles |
2,235 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.18 Miles | 9 Hrs 58 Mns | | 1.67 mph |
| 2,235 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 5 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a hike to Kino Peak, a P1K peak in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Kino Peak is on the Sierra Club Desert Peaks Section (DPS) peak list, so I knew that would not be an easy peak to summit.
The DPS peak list is composed of 95 mostly desert peaks in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and northern Mexico. Nine peaks in Arizona are included on the list. In addition to Kino, the others are Mount Tipton, Signal Peak (KOFA's), Castle Dome (KOFA's), Superstition Peak 5057, Weavers Needle, Baboquivari, Humphreys Peak, and Mount Ajo. I have been on all of them except Babo and Weavers Needle.
Kino Peak was named in 1945 in honor of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino (1645-1711), the "padre on horseback". Father Kino was the leader of the Jesuit missionary effort in this area in the late 1600's and early 1700's.
Kino Peak has a unique shape and is very recognizable in all directions in this area. We started the hike along Bates Well Road, about 1,000 feet or past Bates Well Ranch. The drive was about 17 miles from pavement, and Bates Well Road was well graded the entire way.
The first (and last) 5.25 miles of the hike were on a road, although at times the road overlapped a wash. This part of the hike was fairly easy with modest elevation gain and no route finding issues.
Things got quite a bit tougher after that though. We made a steep uphill climb, going on the right side of a large rock outcropping in the way. We kept going up past more rock outcroppings on fairly loose terrain, doing nothing worse than class 2 or class 2+.
Eventually we made it to a ridge that is east of Kino Peak, and here we got a view of the impressive east face of Kino Peak. The face looked quite daunting, to say the least.
The first problem is that there was a gap between us and Kino Peak. Fortunately there was a landbridge below us that bridged the gap. However, to get to the landbridge, I had make a class 3 downclimb into a messy, ugly, loose gully; then wrap underneath a rock outcropping, and then make a class 3 climb up to a ledge above the landbridge. Once across the landbridge I had to angle up to the north across the east face to get to the summit ridge of Kino Peak. There was some class 3 climbing along the way, but nothing worse than that. It looked worse than it was, especially if you just took it a section at the time. Basically you climb up, then go across a ledge underneath the summit ridge.
Once on the summit ridge, it was a fairly easy stroll to the summit. I located the benchmark and both reference marks, and enjoyed the views before heading back down.
On the way down I ran into @Mike_W and his friend Brian near the landbridge on the way up. I had hoped to hike with them but we got our signals crossed and I wound up starting before they did.
I returned more or less the way that I came.
There was a good bit of smugglers/migrant trash in the wash that we were in, some of which looked very recent.
Here is a video showing a short section of the climb: [ youtube video ]
Here is a video showing a short section of the descent: [ youtube video ]
here is a short video of a couple of sheep that descended on the "trail" that I ascended: [ youtube video ]
Synopsis
This was an awesome hike in an amazing area, and it turned out to be one of the craziest hikes that I have done. It was a much crazier hike than some of the other Arizona scrambles that I have done, including Brown's Peak, Flatiron, Picketpost, Capitol Butte, and Sheep Mountain near Yuma. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
There were some decent poppies in a few places along the way. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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