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| Peak 5135 - Harcuvar Mountains Wilderness HP, AZ | | -
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| | Peak 5135 - Harcuvar Mountains Wilderness HP, AZ | | | |
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Peak 5135 - Harcuvar Mountains Wilderness HP, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.75 Miles |
2,695 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.75 Miles | 5 Hrs 8 Mns | | 1.40 mph |
| 2,695 ft AEG | 1 Hour 2 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This peak has been on my radar screen for a while -- it's a P1K peak AND a wilderness highpoint -- so I decided to hike it today.
Peak 5135 is in La Paz County and it is in the Harcuvar Mountains. Smith Peak is the highpoint of the Harcuvars, but Smith Peak is not in the wilderness, so Peak 5135 gets to claim the wilderness highpoint.
To get there I took US 60 out of Wickenburg to the town of Wendon. From Wendon I went north on Alamo Road and then turned right on an unnamed dirt toad for about 3.3 miles to the wilderness boundary, where I parked. It was an easy drive on the dirt road for about 2.6 miles and 4WD was not needed. However, the road then dropped into and out of a wash, and the road got rockier; so I used 4WD the rest of the way. After crossing the wash there were some palo verde trees encroaching over the road, so I got my loppers out and did a bit of gardening to avoid pinstriping my vehicle. Thanks to my green thumb, anyone going out there can now avoid destroying your paint job.
The hike was straightforward although there was some decent elevation gain relative to the mileage. For the first mile I followed an old roadbed until I got to a wash. I crossed the wash and then hiked on a ridgeline for 1.5 miles to a saddle. The ridgeline was steep, gaining about 1,900 feet in the 1.5 miles. Once at the saddle, it was an easy ascent to the summit.
The summit was nice so I hung out there for a bit, ate lunch, and enjoyed the views.
I returned the way that I ascended.
Synopsis
This was not a hall of fame hike, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. It was a nice day and there were some wildflowers blooming along the way. Howeve, there wasn't any very interesting geology, and the desert out there is a bit drab. It was a good way to spend the day, and you are almost guaranteed to have solitude on this hike. I was the second person this year to sign the summit register, which is twice as many entries as the logbook generally gets in a year. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
There was a decent show of lupine and poppies, along with fiddlenecks, Indian paintbrush, goodings verbena, among others |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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