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| Hiking | 2.85 Miles |
1,262 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.85 Miles | 2 Hrs 28 Mns | | 1.23 mph |
| 1,262 ft AEG | 9 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This is a short, steep hike to the top of a cinder cone, with a real crater in the top. You can't tell it has a crater in it until you get up there. Cerro Montoso means "steep hill" in Spanish, and it is! At the summit you will have a "wow!" moment when you first see the crater. The views of the White Mountains, and the vast grasslands to the east of them, are inspiring. May they never be cluttered with windmills.
There's a rough dirt road to the top, which is used to service the two FM radio towers up there. On this day there was melting snow along most of the route. We were able to mostly walk on the dirt, which is crunchy cinders, not too muddy. It is so steep that going down took almost as long as going up, what with the snow.
This hill is in the Springerville Volcanic Area. There are loads of these cinder cones around here, and I have climbed a few of them. This one has been popular with peakbaggers, and there is a findable little jar under a rock pile, with a notebook and pencil inside, to register your name and date. These peak registers are not meant for would-be poets to write odes to Mother Nature, thereby using up all the paper. I was happy to see that no poets had been scribbling on the very limited supply.
We saw no wildlife, just deer tracks and prairie dog holes. |
| _____________________
There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life. |
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Route Editor
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