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| Hiking | 4.96 Miles |
1,884 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.96 Miles | 4 Hrs 54 Mns | | 1.21 mph |
| 1,884 ft AEG | 49 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | A couple of little birdies suggested that I do this hike, which is near the US-Mexican border, deep in the heart of @RedRoxx44 country. Actually it was 2 hikes, with both trailheads being about a mile apart on the Summit Motorway. Each hike went to a peak:
1) Pajarita Wilderness Highpoint (elevation of 5,040 feet)
2) Highpoint of the Arizona portion of the Pajarito Mountains (elevation of 5,440 feet)
Neither one of these is a ranked peak, meaning that they have less than 300 feet of clean prominence.
Prominence is the difference between these 2 elevation values:
1) the elevation of the summit of a peak
2) the elevation of the lowest contour that encircles the peak, but does not encircle any higher peak
Pajarita Wilderness Highpoint
(1.12 miles with 288 feet of AEG)
I parked alongside the Summit Motorway and took the Sycamore Canyon Trail toward the highpoint, which wasn't far away. The trail sidehilled down below a ridgeline, and I decided that it would be better to walk on the ridgeline so I left the trail and ascended to the ridgeline. It was crazy windy at the highpoint so I did not stay too long.
I then continued on the ridgeline to the Mexican border and crawled underneath the barbed wire border fence in order to check out Border Monument #130, which was just across the fence. There are 276 obelisks stretching across the US-Mexican border, from the Rio Grande River tot the Pacific Ocean.
After eating a snack at the base of the monument, I followed the ridgeline back to my truck.
Pajarito Mountains AZ Highpoint
(3.84 miles with 1,596 feet of AEG)
I drove to the end of the Summit Motorway and parked to begin hiking to my Pajarito Mountains destination, which is less than 500 feet from the Mexican border. I dropped into a drainage, and followed the drainage for about a mile. There was lots of water in the creek, including several waterfalls and some fairly deep pools of water. This was a pleasant surprise, as there was no water in the creek in my prior visit back in 2022.
After leaving the drainage I had to make a steep ascent up to Mojohave Ridge, and then go up and over a couple of bumps on the ridgeline before making the final ascent to the highpoint. There was LOTS of migrant trash as I go closer to the highpoint. It was really windy at the highpoint, so I did not stay long. I could look down and see the border below, so naturally I descended down to the border. There was a gap in the border fence between 2 trees so I did have to crawl under the fence; instead, I simply walked across the border. This seems to be a popular border crossing area for indocumentados -- there is a well definced pathway crossing the border which fans out to the north.
Border monument #129 is at this location. It is the old style stone masonry obelisk, which was cool to see. The more modern obelisks are made of some sort of metallic alloy. I am sure that this one was well over 100 years old.
The Pajarito Mountains extend into Mexico, and the range highpoint -- Cerro El Ruido -- is about 3 miles away and is about 500 feet higher than the highest part of the range in Arizona. I would like to hike to Cerro El Ruido sometime, but in one trip report that I saw someone hiked to it and on their way back to the US they were accosted by masked gunmen; so maybe I won't bag that one afterall!
After hanging around for a bit at the monument, I headed on back the way that I came.
Synopsis
This was an enjoyable day visiting Pajarita and Pajarito! |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
There were a few flowers in the Pajarita Wilderness, but there weren't many at all in the Pajarito Mountains. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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