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| | | Childs Mountain and Peak 2976, AZ | | | |
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Childs Mountain and Peak 2976, AZ
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| Hiking | 10.78 Miles |
2,577 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.78 Miles | 6 Hrs 23 Mns | | 1.85 mph |
| 2,577 ft AEG | 34 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was actually two different hikes, both of which were to summits near the town of Ajo:
1) Childs Mountain: elevation of 2,880 feet and prominence of 1,240 feet
2) Peak 2976: elevation of 2,976 feet(duh!) and prominence of 1,116 feet
Childs Mountain
(7.8 miles with an AEG of 1,268 feet)
This hike was a road walk. I drove in on Childs Mountain Road for about 3.25 miles off of Highway 85 on a very well graded unpaved road. I parked at a locked gate that had a sign saying that vehicular access was prohibited but that pedestrians and bicyclists were OK.
After walking on the gravel road for almost 2 miles I came to the boundary for the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Childs Mountain is in the refuge, and a Barry Goldwater range access permit is needed to go there. I had a permit and had checked in online to the Cabeza Prieta NWR so I was good to go. The road became paved once entering the Cabeza Prieta NWR. The road led all the way to the summit, which is easy to spot since there is a large radome on top that is visible for miles around. The radome was built back when the Ajo Air Force Station (AFS) was established during the cold war days. The highpoint is just outside the west side of a chain link fence that surrounds the radome.
I checked out the views and took a break before heading back.
Peak 2976
(3.0 miles with an AEG of 1,309 feet)
Peak 2976 is in the Little Ajo Mountains, and it is a mile or so west of the town of Ajo. I had no beta and no GPS tracks for this hike, so I wasn't sure if it would go or not.
The peak and my route are on BLM land, although there was a small parcel of private propery west of my route that I made sure to circumvent. I had used route cloud to identify and ridgelet and a ridgeline to take, but I wasn't real sure how to get there and what I might encounter once I did get there. It actually worked out as good or better than what I was hoping for.
I parked along FR8112G, about 200 feet before getting to a locked gate that is on private property. I am usually apprehensive about driving on a forest road with 4 numbers and a letter appended to the numbers, but this one was a good road. I don't think that I would drive a sedan on it, but it is suitable for about any crossover SUV when dry.
From my parking spot I went south on an old roadbed which morphed into a use trail. Before going into a wash, I made a right turn and made a short climb to a saddle. From there I went over to a second saddle, losing and regaining a bit of elevation in the process. From the second saddle I could see the ridgeline that I wanted, and the ridgelet that would get me up to the ridgeline. It was a steep, but fairly short, climb to the ridgeline. There were some rocks and boulders to deal with, but nothing more than class 2.
Once on the ridgeline, I was about 1/2 mile from the summit. I went southeast on the for 1/4 mile, and then the ridgeline curved south for the last 1/4 mile. There was some fun rock scrambling for the first 1/4 mile. Sometimes I was on the ridgeline, and at other times I was either on the left or right side of the ridgeline, often going back and forth. There were a few sketchy places, but they were easy to get around and I did not do anything worse than class 2. Once I started going south in the last 1/4 miles, I was on a good use trail that went to the summit.
There was a summit register log at the summit, and most of the entries were from local people, so this hike seems to be popular with Ajo residents. I enjoyed the nice, expansive views at the summit and went back the way that I came. On the way back I could see that the use trail went off to the east; if you could figure out how to access the use trail that might be the best way to do this hike.
Synopsis
There were nice expansive on Childs Mountain and along the way up and down the mountain; however, it is still a road walk which wasn't all that exciting.
I really enjoyed the hike up to Peak 2976. There is some route-finding involved which kept things interesting, and the scramble along the ridgeline was fun. Nice views at the top didn't hurt either! |
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