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| East Peak - Whetstones Mtns, AZ | |
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| | East Peak - Whetstones Mtns, AZ | | | |
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East Peak - Whetstones Mtns, AZ
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| Hiking | 12.50 Miles |
2,916 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.50 Miles | 6 Hrs | | 2.08 mph |
| 2,916 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Brian and I took the Guindani trail to the Cottonwood Saddle trail to Cottonwood Saddle. We were talking a lot while hiking but we still did the 4.1 miles in 1 hr 50 minutes. I felt that it was a great time. We took a break at the saddle, then continued East on the use trail going toward the Whetstone Benchmark.
The use trail started straight up the ridgeline along the barbed wire fence. After a few hundred feet, the trail turned to the right to go around some catclaw bush, agave, oak tree, etc... We followed the trail around and then up. At a certain point, there wasn't one distinct trail but many trail crossing in all directions. These all must have been animal trails. We continued up in the direction of the Whetstone BM and found 2 false summits. We stayed near the middle of the ridgeline for the most part but have to weave left or right to go around brush. Near the top there was a barbed wire fence blocking access but we walked South and found either a low spot in the fence to step over or a break in the fence. This allowed us easy access to the summit. At the summit we found the main US survey marker with 2 secondary survey markers nearby that had arrows pointing to the main marker. There wasn't much else up here. There was not a registry. The Whetstone benchmark didn't have much prominence so I didn't feel it was worth leaving a registry here.
From here we headed Southeast toward East peak which was our next stop. The same barbed wire fence that we crossed continue going up the ridgeline of East peak. I stayed on the left side of the fence, and Brian stayed on the right side. We thought that either route would get us there. Both routes were fine and neither was better than the other. After a few minutes, we were already on top of East peak. The summit had a relatively flat grassy area, a large juniper, and a rock pile at the high point which is where we found the glass jar registry. Some of the pages inside the jar were sun damaged and in very bad condition. The oldest entry we saw was from around 1986. There was a small plastic ziplock bag with a few pencils. I decided the pencils didn't need to be in this bag, but the bag was a good solution to keep all of the sun damaged paper in one clump. We took photos of all of the pages and then put them inside the ziplock bag. Then, we found the modern registry that was placed by Paul Carpentier in 2020. There was only 1 other name on the registry since then and that was Charlie Winger in March 2022. It was hard for us to believe that nobody else signed the registry in 3 years!
After signing our names and adding a message, we took a lunch break and enjoyed the perfect weather up there. We had good views from the top of the nearby Peak 6779, which we planned on hiking after lunch, Cottonwood peak, which I already hiked before but Brian decided to hike as peak #4 of the day, and a few other peaks in the Whetstones. We may have been able to see Apache peak, the range high point, and French Joe, just to the left of the high ridgeline but we believed they were behind the high ridgeline to our Southwest. This high ridgeline was where Peak 7388 was, in the center.
After lunch and getting our photos, we looked over at Peak 6779 which was only 100 feet higher than we were and it looked easy enough to follow the curved ridgeline all around. We followed a few different animal trails in that direction. When we were on the ridgeline heading toward Peak 6779 we found a very well defined trail going in that direction. We didn't know whether it was an old human trail or animal trail. Either way, it got us very close to the summit, and we only needed to do a short open Country hike to get to the high point. The high point had some large white colored rocks. We looked around for a registry but didn't find one here. Since I happened to have a jar with me, we started a new registry and left it here, surrounded by some rocks to keep the sun from ruining the registry. We got our photos and headed back down to Cottonwood saddle.
At Cottonwood saddle, Brian decided he would summit Cottonwood peak. I had already done this summit, so I just decided to take my time heading down. I took a few breaks, make a small Trump sign out of rocks, and decided to take the Southern branch of the Guindani trail back, which is longer than the Northern branch. I just kept a relaxing pace going down thinking that Brian would catch up to me eventually. The sun was getting lower and we only had a few minutes left of daylight. I made it back to the parking lot just after it started getting dark. I didn't need to put my headlamp on. After arriving, I didn't see Brian, but he appeared 5 minutes after me and said he took the North branch of the Guindani trail back. He was able to summit Cottonwood peak, which is a steep hike without a trail. The timing worked out great on this hike.
Trails taken:
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Guindani trail #398
Cottonwood Saddle trail #386
open country/bushwhack to summit
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 12.5 miles
AEG: 2,916 feet
Strava moving time: 5 hrs 57 mins
Strava elapsed time: 9 hrs 50 mins (took a lot of breaks)
Driving Directions:
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Take I-10 East from Tucson or Phoenix toward Benson, AZ.
Follow I-10 E to AZ-90 S in Benson.
Take exit 302 from I-10 E.
Use the right 2 lanes to take exit 302 for AZ-90 E toward Ft Huachuca/Sierra Vista.
Follow AZ-90 S to your destination, continue for 9 miles.
Turn right when you see the entrance for Kartchner Caverns State Park.
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Note:
Before Feb 2025, the day use fee WAS $7 ($3.50 with military discount) which does not include access to the cave.
Sometime in Feb 2025, the price was jacked up to $20 ($10 with military discount).
That's almost TRIPLED!!!
We were a bit annoyed by this!!!
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Continue to trailhead parking for Guindani trail |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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