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| Pioneer and Stone Cabin Mtns Pinal Mtns, AZ | |
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| | Pioneer and Stone Cabin Mtns Pinal Mtns, AZ | | | |
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Pioneer and Stone Cabin Mtns Pinal Mtns, AZ
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| Hiking | 8.64 Miles |
2,504 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.64 Miles | 7 Hrs 43 Mns | | 1.43 mph |
| 2,504 ft AEG | 1 Hour 40 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Note: This hike involved both Pioneer Mountain and Stone Cabin Mountains in the Pinal Mountain range South of Globe, AZ.
I drove down FSR 112 in October after 2 bad storms that passed through that I wasn't aware of. Apparently, there was a hurricane that hit the Globe area in September and then a very powerful late monsoon rain hit a couple of weeks after that. Significant damage was done to the road. There was a warning sign near Pioneer pass at the top that said 'road flooded', but I decided to proceed South along FSR 112 because it was weeks after the storms and there couldn't be any more flooding, right? Well, I was RIGHT. There wasn't any flooding BUT there was significant damage to the South side of the Pinals, especially FSR 112, which I discovered fairly quickly. Having a fairly capable Chevy 4x4, I figured I could get through nearly anything especially since I was going downhill. One big problem in going down is gravity can help a bit and I found myself having gone down some fairly steep rugged sections that I knew would be nearly impossible for me to get up! At a certain point, I was basically committed and THAT was the problem. If I got to an area where the road was completely wiped out, I was stuck there and would need an expensive tow to get out. Luckily I made it out but that drive down was the absolute WORST road I've ever driven on. I remember seeing a bulldozer about 3 miles North of Dripping Springs road. Whether this bulldozer was actually used to do any grading in the last year was a mystery. Anyway, the road has a lot of ruts and rough spots and if you attempt this drive beware! You will need a high clearance, 4x4, and some serious driving skills. Several times, I slid down portions of the road. There was a section of road that was completely destroyed but I was able to find a detour in a sandy wash. There was about a 2 foot lip that I needed to drive over to get out of that sandy wash back onto the rough road. I actually need to make a ramp out of rocks to get out. I think I spent 1 hour or more trying to get out of that wash and must have done some damage to the underbody and probably burned some tread off my tires. Let me just say that the lower 5 miles of FSR112 was in much better shape than the upper 5 miles. The lower portion still did have some ruts and required some skilled driving to get down.
This time I was able to drive 4.75 miles up FSR 112. The road didn't appear to be any different than what I saw in October. Beyond 4.75 miles the road was pretty rough. I felt like I probably could have made it further but going very slow. It was already 10.45 am and I felt like we could walk almost as fast as we were driving. Our original plan was to hike Pasadera mtn, and we calculated that the round trip distance from where I parked to Pasadera and back was something like 3.25 miles. I noticed that the old cabin was about 1 mile further up the road. We decided to walk to the old cabin first, and then hike Pasadera on the way back. After making it to the old cabin we decided to take a look inside. I toured the place in October and it looked pretty much the same but there was evidence someone was there since that time.
After touring the cabin it was almost lunchtime so we decided to take our lunch in the nearby Crow canyon. In Crow canyon was saw a small waterfall and a nice area to sit down on some larger rocks. While having lunch, we looked at the map and noticed that we were not far from Stone Cabin mtn and Pioneer mtn. I thought about hiking these first and then heading down to Pasadera after that. It seemed to make more sense to hike these peaks since we were already fairly close to them. After lunch we hiked an old road/path leading out of the canyon. Our goal was to make it to the Southeast ridgeline of Pioneer mountain. We climbed a very steep chute and discovered a deep mining hole on the way up. We hiked around the mining hole and found another few mining holes. At least we were on the ridgeline at this point so we started heading UP. After about 500 feet we saw what looked like a fissure crossing the ridgeline. There was a narrow section only about 3 feet wide that we felt we could jump over but neither of us felt comfortable jumping across because of the possibility of falling into the slot below which appeared to be about 20 feet deep or more. We walked about 200 feet Southwest to go around the fissure. We discovered an old mining trail which led us across. After getting around the fissure, we walked up to the ridgeline and could proceed going up the ridgeline. From this point it took us a little less than 1 hour to get to the top. I counted 5 false summits along the way. There were some trails along the way which could have been cattle trail, miner trails or old hiker trails. It was extremely windy and we found that by staying left of the high ridgeline (SW side) we were able to shelter ourselves from SOME of the wind. We got to the summit and found a registry with about 8 pages. The earliest entry was from 1986, and the last entry before ours was Oct 2023 by a SAHC group. We signed the registry, took some photos and started heading down to the saddle between Pioneer and Stone Cabin mountains.
It was extremely windy heading down to the saddle between the two peaks. We could not see the entire way down as we could not see the entire ridgeline. It actually looked like there was a cliff in front of us at one point, but it was not. We made it down the ridgeline and started hiking up the slope heading to Stone Cabin mountain. Partway up we found a use trail that went up and through a cliff band. From the top of Pioneer, we thought we might have some difficulty getting through this cliff band but it proved to be pretty easy taking the trail we found. We eventually saw a false summit and a trail led to the left around it. After hiking up higher we could see that the true summit was to our right, so we hiked the extra few hundred feet to get there. At the top we found another registry with about 14 pages, with the last entry being the same SAHC party from Oct 2023. These peaks don't get a lot of activity, it seems.
We got our photos and decided to head out. We saw that there was an old mining road to the East and down several hundred feet in terms of elevation. We originally thought it would be best to hike down to this road and take the road down to the old cabin and hook up with the original road that we were on (FSR 112). But because of the strong winds we decided to head South down the ridgeline, then head Southeast, and then East to get back to FSR 112. We hiked close to Oak Spring Tank and startled a few cattle that didn't hear us because of the windy conditions. East of the tank we saw what looked like another fissure that we could not cross so we followed it for a while until we found a safe area to cross. After crossing the fissure, we ran into an old mining road. This road took us East and eventually seemed to dead end in a canyon. Once in the canyon, it appeared to be better to turn left and continue along the ridgeline. Up ahead we ran into a few roads and trails which allowed us to get back to a more well-defined road. We had to slide under a barbed wire fence to get to the road which we walked for a few hundred feet back to a road junction with FSR 112. Once on FSR 112, we walked roughly 1.25 miles to get back to where I parked. It was already getting dark so we decided to save Pasadera peak for another day.
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 8.64 miles
AEG: 2,504 feet
Strava moving time: 4 hrs 28 mins
Strava elapsed time: 7 hrs 43 mins
Driving Directions:
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From Tucson, take Oracle road (AZ-77) North.
You will pass through a few towns including Oro Valley, Catalina, Oracle, Mammoth, etc.
Stay on AZ-77 North
From Mammoth, you will continue for about 38 miles.
Looking for Dripping Springs Rd., a turn on the left side of the road.
It is well marked with a sign on AZ-77.
Dripping Springs is a well-maintained dirt road.
Take this road West for about 3.6 miles.
Take a right on FSR 112 which is not marked.
You will need high clearance at a minimum to get beyond this point.
4x4 is highly recommended for the rough spots and there are many.
Continue up the road for any distance on your way to get closer to Pasadera mountain.
We drove 4.75 miles up the road and marked near a road junction. |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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