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| Hiking | 10.34 Miles |
2,083 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.34 Miles | | | |
| 2,083 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I decided to hike up to the Sunflower Benchmark, and on the way back I hiked up to Morgan Butte.
Sunflower Benchmark
The Sunflower BM (elevation of 4,704 feet and prominence of 1,254 feet) is out in the middle of nowhere north of Wickenburg, off of Date Creek Rd. Date Creek Rd is well graded and most any vehicle can drive it.
I parked a short distance off of Date Creek Rd. an began hiking from there. The first 2.75 miles of the hike is on a farm road. I wasn't sure how rough the road would be, so I decided to just walk it. There are 3-4 rough sections requiring high clearanve 4WD, but other sections are as good as any dirt road that I have seen. In retrospect, I should have driven to near the base of the mountain.
The hike was off-trail once the road ended, but I would describe it as fairly easy off-trail. There was some vegetation to deal with, but it was easy to walk around almost all of it. It was more like going through open country than bushwhacking. I could see the summit up ahead the whole way, so it was easy to know which direction to go. I gained about 750 feet in elevation in the last half mile to the summit, but it did not seem that steep. The ground was generally firm, so I wasn't slipping and sliding.
There were a few boulders on the summit, but I would call getting up there easy class 2. I enjoyed the views at the summit, and I was able to locate the benchmark and both reference marks.
I returned the same way that I came up.
In the morning I saw a coyote when doing the road walk, and on the road walk back I saw 3 white tailed deer.
Morgan Butte
I wanted to hike Morgan Butte and the "official" Wickenburg Mountains HP, but I only had time today to do Morgan Butte. Now I'll have to go back out there and hike Peak 4480, which the US Board on Geographic Names (yes there really is such an entity) has apparently deemed the Wickenburg Mountains HP, even though it is 100 feet or so lower than Morgan Butte. This board must have determined that Morgan Butte is not in the Wickenburg Mountains, but it sure looks like it is.
This wasn't much of a hike -- a short road walk and an even shorter off-trail ascent of the summit.
Synopsis
I really enjoyed the Sunflower BM hike, even with the easy, somewhat lengthy road walking. Morgan Butte is not worth doing unless you are wanting to make sure that you do the Wickenburg Mountains HP.
Distance and elevation gain for the two hikes is below. Stats above are the sum of the two.
Sunflower BM: 9.17 miles with 1,527 feet of elevation gain
Morgan Butte: 1.17 miles with 556 feet of elevation gain |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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While the wickenberg forecast still showed too hot, you will drop the temp a bit further by driving back here.
