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| Hiking | 7.14 Miles |
1,775 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.14 Miles | 5 Hrs 31 Mns | | 1.52 mph |
| 1,775 ft AEG | 49 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a hike to Jump Mountain 4878, the highpoint of the Salt River Canyon Wilderness area.
I drove in on FR303, FR645, and a lesser road off of FR645. I parked at a water tank about 0.3 miles from the end of the lesser road. I could have driven to the end but the road was quite eroded past where I parked and it didn't seem worth it to drive further.
I had gone out there back in the spring to do this hike, but the roads were damp and I got stuck in some mud on the way to the TH. Fortunately I was able to get back out by airing my tires down. I do recommend driving the roads only if they are dry!
I had intended to do the hike as a loop, but wound up doing it as an out-and-back.
At the end of the road, I headed west down an eroded roadbed instead of going north through a gate. The roadbed ended at a wash, and the route was to go through the wash and continue north. However, the vegetation was jungle-like and I decided to head north through the was instead to link back up with the road that I would be on had I gone through the gate.
I followed the road for a half mile or so until it ended at a spring box. Then I basically went cross country to the base of Jump Mountain, and then went up the steep slope to the summit.
The cross country was slow going. There was a good bit of catclaw to navigate around. The catclaw wasn't too dense, but I still would get snagged by it occasionally. There were generally gaps and lanes through the brush, and I would basically hike in 50-100 segments. After each segment, I'd stop, look around to find another gap/lane to go through, and proceed for another 50-100 feet. Lather, rinse, and repeat. I eventually got to the base of the peak and headed up.
At the summit I located the benchmark and both reference marks. All were in good condition. There was another bump to the southwest of the benchmark that appeared to be about as high as the benchmark, so I went over there to tag it. I really can't say which is higher.
Views are great at the Jump summit, and once back to the benchmark area I took a long break and enjoyed the views.
The route back went fine, but it was just as slow going as the ascent.
Judging from the entries in the summit register log, this peak is seldom hiked. Three HAZers signed the log in 2013, but there were only 2 other entries in the log since then: one in 2021 and now mine. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
The weather was perfect with lots of sun and blue Arizona sky's and almost no wind. We had to stop occasionally on the way in to take some photos of the amAZing scenery that lay ahead of us.
There was Catclaw, Cholla, Occotillo, Palo Verde and just about any other blood sucking plant along the trail that we cut back to make a reasonable path leading from the camp to the river.
There were some great views of the Sierra Anchas and Cherry Creek Canyon to the northwest across the Salt River Canyon. FR346 ended at a corral but a jeep trail/ATV track continued across a draw and over the next hill to the north east to Yankee Joe tank. This is an active cattle ranching area. Many of the corrals show evidence of still being in use and there is a curious system of piping water to distant water troughs through miles of above ground black plastic tubing from hilltop water tanks. We sighted many "slow elk" along the roads.
