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| | | Wood Canyon Tower Arch and Peaks 4054 & 3820, AZ | | | |
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Wood Canyon Tower Arch and Peaks 4054 & 3820, AZ
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| Hiking | 13.55 Miles |
2,795 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.55 Miles | 10 Hrs 5 Mns | | 1.85 mph |
| 2,795 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 45 Mns Break | | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | I'm trying to fit in some lower-elevation hikes before it gets too hot, and Wood Canyon was an area I hadn't visited before, so I pulled together some routes that gave us a few options for the day. We drove a short distance off Arnett Road and parked at a small pullout near a cattle guard, just before a wide wash. In hindsight, we the road was good enough that we could've driven farther with no issues, but that was close enough to where we planned to start.
We hiked along the road and passed some stacked-rock walls early on, and as the road curves to the south, the impressive geology of the area starts to show. The yellowish rock is reminiscent of the Goldfields (unfortunately, there's also some graffiti reminiscent of the Goldfields), and there were plenty of caves, arches, and unique formations throughout the day. We passed a fairly large cave about a mile in that had an active beehive above the entrance that kept me out.
We eventually left the creek bed to go up to Tower Arch, our first destination. It's best viewed from the south side, with a flat area between two rock outcroppings [ youtube video ] . I circled around the other side of the big formation and returned to the creek bed, then it was off toward Peak 4054.
Getting to the top looked much tougher from the east side, but I circled around to a chute on the west side of the peak. Getting up to the base of the cliffs wasn't particularly steep, but the tall grass got annoying quickly, and I picked up hundreds of foxtails. The chute was a little steeper but only required some minor scrambling, and the views from the top were fantastic, especially overlooking the rugged terrain to the south toward White Canyon Wilderness.
The summit register was 45 years old and the peak doesn't get much traffic. Two days after it was placed in Feb. 1979, a second group signed it, then no one until 1986. There were a handful of entries from each decade since, and I saw a few HAZ names: Grasshopper and @ssk44 from 2011 and @hikerdw from 2018, which was the last entry before mine.
[ youtube video ]
I headed back down, and we still had plenty of time, so we backtracked and hiked part of the White Canyon to Wood Canyon route. There are more caves and arches along that route, though I didn't explore the largest cave because of bees (again)...this time there was a huge, buzzing colony of bees on the cliff wall near the cave. I was surprised to find any semblance of a trail on the route, but in some areas it was very easy to follow, though in many places it was completely hidden in tall grass. Someone had tied bright ribbons/rope to branches to mark the route. We hiked a little more than a mile in that direction before turning around.
On the hike out, I took a detour up to Peak 3820. There's a long ridge northeast of the peak with a fairly gentle grade that I planned to follow, but I ended up going for a more direct route that was very brushy and slowed things down, but the views from the top were worth the effort.
I did a better job sticking to the ridge on the way down, and we explored another cave near the road. No bees around this one, so we went inside and looked around a little. After wading through thick, tall grass all day, my socks and boots were almost entirely covered with foxtails when we got back on the road...I looked like I was wearing fur socks.
Overall, it was a good intro to the area--a nice mix of peaks, caves, arches, and cool geology, and the clouds and shadows today enhanced the scenery. We saw two snakes, had to dodge an angry cow that didn't want to share the road, and saw no other hikers all day, just two OHVs, and the weather was very comfortable. I'll be pulling foxtails out of my socks for months, but I plan to return to do more hiking around Wood Canyon. As a wise man once said...
Wood is good
-Cosmo Kramer |
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