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| | | Camelback Peak (Mazatzal), AZ | | | |
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Camelback Peak (Mazatzal), AZ
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| Hiking | 5.50 Miles |
2,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.50 Miles | 5 Hrs | | 1.10 mph |
| 2,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | The Camelback Peak in the Mazatzals is about half way between Roosevelt Lake and Four Peaks. Mills Ridge Trailhead is accessed from the Roosevelt Lake area. It's 5 miles up Forest Road 429 which comes off Rte 188, 1.4m North of its intersection with the Apache Trail (Rte 88). From the trailhead take trail #130 (apparently this is the southern end of the Four Peaks Trail) which is also part of the Arizona Trail.
This was a return trip for me, having hiked to Buckhorn Mtn about a month ago....I wanted to look closer at some of the Salado Indian ruins and hike up Camelback Peak.
About 1.1 miles in, 900'gain, on the prominent hilltop before trail #130 drops to Buckhorn Creek, some low stone walls are visible from the trail. Its only about a 50yd detour off the trail...I explored this area and saw a lot of pottery pieces and one larger stone wall obscured by brush.
Back to the trail, descend another ~0.3mi, passing through some more ruins, and leave the trail to follow the obvious ridge toward Camelback Peak. The bushwacking is not bad...a lot of game trails...this area probably sees more hunters than hikers. I noticed two more small habitation sites along this ridge.
The last push to the top is fairly steep. Their was a small recent cairn (with Kirkland tuna can...any register had blown away) and an old overgrown summit cairn. Nice views of course. It took me 2hrs and 45min to reach the top though much of that was spent looking around the Salado ruins - 2000' gain, 2.86mi on my GPS.
On the descent I noticed the ridge split and for fun I went left (not the one I came up)...this meant I had to cross a drainage and climb a small ridge to get back to the trail. The pictures show the route more clearly. The brush was a little thicker but not too bad. A little under 5hrs and 5.5miles total round trip. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
. Moving on the off-trail to Camelback was brutal. The route off was good for about .25 miles and then was brutal. It was.... in the drainage out of the drainage snow traverses hellish manzanita and mean Holly. Finally, Buckhorn creek made for a nice way down. Next I went to the ruins and then did a little double time on the ridge. And pretty much stayed on trail until I was startled by a bright light down canyon. Next thing I know a aircraft is hovering with yellow/goldish lights. I got freaked out and realized I was off-trail but quickly fixed it. Very freaky night. Maybe it was some spaceship like drone that is being tested. 
or maybe it was aliens.
