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| Mescal and Needles Eye, AZ | |
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| | Mescal and Needles Eye, AZ | | | |
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Mescal and Needles Eye, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.52 Miles |
2,112 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.52 Miles | 4 Hrs 34 Mns | | 1.75 mph |
| 2,112 ft AEG | 50 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
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none
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| no partners | | My goal on this hike was to go to the highpoint of the Needle's Eye Wilderness (elevation of 4,480 feet). Along the way we passed by the Mescal Benchmark (elevation of 5,089 feet), so we went there as well.
This was off of Highway 177, about 9 miles north of Winkleman. I pulled off of 177 on a dirt road, and opened and shut a closed gate with a state land trust sign on it. I of course had my state land permit, so I was good to go. Not too long afterward we crossed into BLM land, which we were on for the remainder of the drive and the hike.
I drove about 3 miles and parked just before getting to a wildlife guzzler. A high clearance 4WD vehicle was needed for the drive. The road got rougher past the guzzler, and my stock vehicle did not have enough clearance to drive further.
We hiked on the road for 1.6 miles and then went off-trail to the Mescal Benchmark. Both the road and the off-trail were rocky, so the hiking was slower than I expected. The Mescal Benchmark had great views, and I located the benchmark, 2 reference marks, and the summit register. There is a 3rd reference mark that also serves as an azimuth mark about 200 yards away, but I forgot to look for it.
From the benchmark, we went offtrail on a ridgeline to the southeast until we got to the wilderness boundary, which was the highest point of the Needle's Eye Wilderness. We stopped for a snack break and enjoyed the views of the Wilderness, which has some very rugged country.
From the benchmark to the wilderness boundary was about a mile, and we dropped about 600 feet in elevation. Unfortunately that meant that we had to regain almost all of that elevation on the way back, which, pardon my french, basically sucked.
We finally made it back to the road, and with storm clouds building we did not tarry on the road walk back.
The drive out was slow -- it took close to an hour to drive the 3 miles. All hail broke loose on the drive back to the highway; in other words it started hailing like crazy. It looked like snow on the ground and on the hood of my truck. That made for a bit of an adventure.
The adventure continued when crossing a wash a short distance before the highway. While driving across the wash I looked to my right and noticed a wall of water making its way down the wash. So I did not waste any time crossing the wash. After crossing a safe distance past the wash, we got out and went back to the wash. In a matter of a couple of minutes the wash, which was dry when I crossed it, had a raging river flowing through it. If I had tried to cross the wash 2-3 minutes later I do not think that I would have been able to drive across.
Here is a link to a video of the flash flood coming through the wash just a minute or two after driving across the wash: [ youtube video ]
I guess that it is never a dull moment in the Mescal Mountains and in the Needle's Eye Wilderness. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
there was a decent wildflower show out there |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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