Greenback Peak • Hike • Arizona • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

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Apr 15 2022

PrestonSands

Guides 170
Routes 148
Photos 5,914
Triplogs 2,097

48 male

Joined Apr 12 2004
Tucson, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Hiking		Apr 15 2022
		PrestonSands • Triplogs 2,097

Hiking	11.75 Miles	3,000 AEG

Hiking	11.75 Miles
	3,000 ft AEG

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	Chapman	Gary Williams
	jtaylor

We all left our camp in John’s 4Runner to drive up Forest Road 236, but Jason and I soon jumped out to scout some big rocks in the road. I stayed out and just walked the road ahead of the 4Runner to continue scouting. This was my first time on 236 since 2009, and it seemed in worse condition than I remembered. We wisely decided to park on the switchback tail at 5150 feet and begin our hike up the steep road of loose rock. FR 236 had one hideous spot that would be pretty much impassable for anyone not in a lifted 4x4 Jeep or ATV we noted. The switchback at 5400 feet brought back memories of the night my truck’s brakes failed while going down it on my 2009 trip, where I pulled the emergency brake in terror.

After a good climb in the hot sun on FR 236, we crowded under a pinyon for a shade break. Dupont Cabin rather than Greenback Creek was the destination consensus. We rolled across brushy hillsides and ridges, entered ponderosa pine country, and reached Dupont Cabin tucked beneath tall pines. A much more interesting destination than I would’ve guessed. We explored the cabin and took a lunch break in the shade. I planned to hit Greenback Peak on the return hike, while the rest continued straight back to camp, so I pilfered a surplus Gatorade and a bottled water from the cabin, cleaned the rat turds off of them, and drank up.

I parted ways with the group at the FR 2731/Greenback Peak turnoff, and continued toward the peak. Aside from some fire damage at the start of FR 2731, everything looked the same as it did a dozen years ago. Greenback Peak loomed in the distance like an old friend. I followed the same route as I did in 2009, going up the north slope among the pines. A final, mildly bloody manzanita surfing experience landed me on the summit. I explored for a bit, checking out the ancient rock walls, and enjoying the view. Looking at the site again, I became pretty convinced it was an astronomical site like Circlestone, rather than a hilltop fortress as I’d thought on my 2009 visit. My summit register survived, with a handful of names since added, the most recent one being from 2017.

The return hike was uneventful. I thought of Randal Schulhauser’s fitting “baby heads” term for the endless loose, rounded rocks underfoot on the road. I went off trail for a bit to reach our campsite, discovering a marshy meadow complete with a Great Blue (?) Heron along the way. Enjoyed some campfire time with the boys and some good sleep that night.

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"…you never know when a hike might break out" -Jim Gaffigan

Mar 22 2021

Oregon_Hiker

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Hiking		Mar 22 2021
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	5.20 Miles	1,357 AEG

Hiking	5.20 Miles	5 Hrs 42 Mns	0.91 mph
	1,357 ft AEG

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Grasshopper

This was the most spectacular hike of our 7 night camping trip to Redmond Mesa due to the amazing views and the ancient fortress on top of this peak. We chose to start the hike at the Dupont Cabin rather than the starting point on the official trail and drive in from the NE side of the peak on FR236 from FR609 rather than up FR236 from the west side. F236 between FR609 and Dupont Cabin has some rough stretches requiring 4WD and high clearance plus some minor AZ striping as you maneuver around some clearance issues. GH insisted on me not driving up the last very steep section of FR236 from the Dupont Cabin to the official hike starting point. Something about a bad experience with a broken shock mount on @sk44 's vehicle during a previous journey up that section of road. This added 1 mile and 540 ft additional AEG but it's better than being stranded with a stuck or busted vehicle out in the boonies.

The hike follows an old abandoned road (not shown on HAZ maps) from the Dupont cabin up and across the hillside on the NE side of Greenback Peak. Then it's a "short" off-trail hike (almost a scramble) straight up the hillside to connect with the official track which we then followed up the slope to the east end of the top of Greenback. This 11+ year old track by @PrestonSands did a good job of leading us around the many obstacles including thickets of manzanita and massive rock outcroppings. Once on top of the east end of the peak we worked our way along the top towards the west end through and around lots of manzanita. A small set of ruin walls was encountered not far from the east end, then we came to a much larger fortress type ruin near the west end. This ruin has a massive 3.5 ft thick outer defensive wall on the NE side with a row of rooms along the inside face of the wall. The cliff on the SW side provides protection from intruders on that side. The inhabitants had amazing long distance views in all directions. The defensive wall was built with many large rocks that would have required 2 or more people to carry to the wall location and lift into place.

For the route back we had decided to make a lollipop loop by following a track that was visible on Google Earth along the top of a ridge and then dropping down the end of the ridge to connect with the old road we had followed on the way in. Following the old track was easy using the planning track plotted on Google Earth but the descent down the end of the ridge required some route finding through thickets of brush. I didn't think this route was any more difficult than the incoming route we had taken and I always prefer doing loop hikes to out-and-back when ever possible. However GH thought the return route was more difficult and maybe took a little longer due to the route finding but he was just anxious to get back to camp while it was still warm enough for his daily afternoon bath.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Conway Ranch Dupont Cabin Dupont Canyon Greenback Peak Park Canyon Creek Peak 5612 - Copper Mtn 7.5 Topo Peak/Knob 5433ft Salome Wilderness Sierra Ancha Wilderness Thompson Mesa Thoroughbred Canyon Creek Workman Canyon Creek

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Mar 22 2021

Grasshopper

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Greenback Peak 6535 from Dupont Cabin, AZ

Hiking		Mar 22 2021
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	5.20 Miles	1,357 AEG

Hiking	5.20 Miles	5 Hrs 42 Mns	1.05 mph
	1,357 ft AEG	45 Mns Break

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Greenback Peak

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Oregon_Hiker

This day five of an eight day Vehicle Camping / Hike Exploration trip camping at Camp GH- Redman Mesa was our chosen day to summit off-trail Greenback Peak at 6535ft. Since our arrival on Thurs-4/18, the 4WD roads from our campsite area to historic Dupont Cabin had now dried-out enough from rains and snow earlier in the week.

This remote, interesting, historic, and very scenic 6535 feet peak summit that borders our Tonto National Forest- Salome Wilderness, first peeked my interest in April-2011 [ photo ] when HAZ-ssk44 (Eric) and I hiked the Dupont Rim deathmarch loop from Dupont Cabin.

With some minor exception to HAZ- @PrestonSands Official Gps Route, our todays hike in to summit was from the Dupont Cabin and on our return from the summit, we hiked a no longer used two track off of FR2731 (with some bushwhacking required), to safely complete (I was questioning [ photo ] ? ) a lollypop loop back to Dupont Cabin.

Happy to finally mark this remote summit off the "to do" list and to find out what all was up there which also included some outstanding near and distant Salome Wilderness and Sierra Ancha Wilderness views

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Dupont Cabin Dupont Canyon Greenback Peak

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(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

Oct 04 2014

CannondaleKid

Guides 44
Routes 162
Photos 24,766
Triplogs 2,411

75 male

Joined May 04 2004
Mesa, AZ

Greenback Peak Circumference, AZ

Hiking		Oct 04 2014
		CannondaleKid • Triplogs 2,411

Hiking	6.10 Miles	1,135 AEG

Hiking	6.10 Miles	3 Hrs 49 Mns		1.71 mph
	1,135 ft AEG	15 Mns Break	15 LBS Pack

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Greenback Peak

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Another two-day weekend for Tracey so it's off to cooler climes as well as solitude... we hoped...
Where to go? somewhere in the Sierra Ancha for sure, but where? Hmmm, It's been over 3 years now, about Greenback Peak again? Tracey asked, to which I replied, do you remember all the Manzanita we crashed through? Ok, so we won't be climbing Greenback, let's try following Forest Road 2731 as far as it will go to the southeast of Greenback and see what captures our interest.

So that's what we started out to do. The first 1/3 of the hike was completely uneventful, just following the forest road. Upon reaching the very end we were greeted by an awesome view in almost every direction. Gazing down into Salome Creek, across to Boyer Ridge, Chubb Mountain, Three Sisters Mountain, Red Blanket Peak, Boneyback Peak and of course the other side of Greenback Peak.
:y:

Oh man! This is the life!

Ok, so now what, traipse back along the same seldom-used forest road? Ha! No way! That's much too easy, how about we traverse the southern (and yes, steepest) slope of Greenback until we connect with Forest Road 2733 on the west side of Greenback? Of course, not ever having been on FR 2733, who knows exactly where it is so we'll take it on faith.
:pray:

While she didn't say it out loud, I could hear Tracey saying Ha! Famous last words!
:whistle:

At that point all I knew was on the other side of Greenback FR 2733 went somewhere along the western side of Greenback, but that was enough to make it worth a try. The first and last part of the southern traverse went pretty well by following reasonably well-traveled game trails.

But the center part of the traverse was a different thing. We were greeted by cat's-claw and the proverbial thickets of Manzanita.
](*,)

While the game trails were still there, they weren't much for trails and we weren't able to squeeze through all the places that deer may have passed through. Without a pack and crawling on all on all fours, maybe... so it just took a bit longer for the dead-ends we had to back-track and detour.

Once out of the thick brush we were greeted by fields and fields of yellow flowers.... and billions of bees. Ok, maybe millions, but there were a lot! As long as they were busy bees minding their own business and we did the same, they let us pass peacefully through.

Yes! We found Forest Road 2733! :y:

Although a bit rocky, it was nice to have the clear path of a road again, along with some awesome views to the west along the way. We reconnected back with FR 2731 and followed it back to the Jeep, which we had parked at the FR 236/FR 2731 junction. Even though there was a few sections of 3-4' deep ruts on one incline, the Cherokee could have handled it with ease and could have gone all the way to the end. But if we did that we wouldn't be hiking now, would we?

Plenty of time left for another hike but we figured it was time to find a campsite first. While I really expect to find solitude at Dupont Cabin with all he hunters about, it was worth a try. Nope!
](*,)

Oh well, if we continue north a half-mile on FR 236 and took a left on old FR 639, a seldom-used dead-end road, we should have no problem being alone. Which is exactly what we did and we were totally alone!

A quick setup of camp with our little back-packing tent, a short siesta and we were off on our hike to Buck Peak... but that's a story for another trip-log.

No video this trip. :sorrry:

I made up for that with TONS of Greenback Peak photos! Be forewarned, 40% of the photoset is all Greenback. But they will provide viewpoints most folks don't get to see, so take a look.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Armer Mountain Bear Head Mountain Boneyback Peak Boyer Ridge Buck Peak Chubb Mountain Copper Mountain Greenback Peak Red Blanket Peak Three Sisters Mountain

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CannondaleKid

Jun 21 2011

CannondaleKid

Guides 44
Routes 162
Photos 24,766
Triplogs 2,411

75 male

Joined May 04 2004
Mesa, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Hiking		Jun 21 2011
		CannondaleKid • Triplogs 2,411

Hiking	4.51 Miles	948 AEG

Hiking	4.51 Miles	3 Hrs 39 Mns	1.84 mph
	948 ft AEG	1 Hour 12 Mns Break

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trixiec

Hoping for somewhat cooler temps than the valley we set out for a few days in the Tonto Basin side of the Sierra Ancha. We found Preston to be right on with his description of the 'roads' and how they deteriorate down to the point barely ATV passable. But with the Samurai being almost as nimble as a mountain goat, my Sammy soldiered along up the mountain through the some of the toughest terrain I've encountered. More than a few times Tracey thought it was time to leave the vehicle and set out on foot, but as long as we could keep moving we continued on. When we came to an area just over 2 miles from the peak that would take significant time to carefully traverse, we found a place to turn around and began our hike from there.

We found once we got past that rough patch the road was almost a breeze for another mile and more than once we thought we should have driven farther, but then we thought how nice it was to be on foot after a 3 hour drive. We were following Preston's track along the road paying more attention to the surroundings than to the GPS and found we'd gone past where Preston had headed for the peak. So we took a hard right and proceeded to bushwhack our way up to the summit. Some spots in the pines were quite open, others were thick with Manzanita so our skills at finding the best way through were put to the test. Along the way we encountered a great deal of bear scat, and by the looks of some, there is one huge bear up here. :scared:

Eventually we broke free within 50' of a balanced rock we'd seen poking up above the trees 30 minutes earlier. We climbed up the large boulders on the north approach, took photos and videos of the surrounding area, then continued on to the summit itself.

Marking the summit was a large rock cairn but with no summit log found we saw no point in leaving one. Visible just past the cairn is an old Salado ruins in a pretty poor state. By the somewhat haphazard way the rocks are stacked, I doubt it was a long-term settlement as much as a fortified lookout. There was only one spot that appeared to be laid out as a separate room. While the ruins weren't in good shape, the views in every direction were awesome.

After spending plenty of time wandering around the summit and grabbing a quick bite we set off back to the car for the second hike planned for the day just a few miles away at Malicious Gap where we would camp overnight. (Bears beware, we're loud sleepers)

An arbitrary 'top 20' photos are posted on HAZ with the set of 100+ available here:
http://www.changephoenix.com/11/2011-06-21GreenbackPeak.html

I'll be posting video links once they are edited and posted on YouTube.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Parry's Agave

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CannondaleKid

Nov 23 2009

PrestonSands

Guides 170
Routes 148
Photos 5,914
Triplogs 2,097

48 male

Joined Apr 12 2004
Tucson, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Hiking		Nov 23 2009
		PrestonSands • Triplogs 2,097

Hiking	4.50 Miles	1,064 AEG

Hiking	4.50 Miles
	1,064 ft AEG

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After throwing a bunch of camping gear in my truck at home, I set off down the highway, knowing I might not have enough time to hike Greenback Peak like I had been hoping. Greenback had been on my wish list for several years, and I was really looking forward to hiking it. I put my truck to the test driving up Forest Road 236, and began my hike at 3:50 pm. I moved fast, and was on the south end of Greenback Peak in just under an hour.

While trying to free myself from a thick patch of manzanita near the south cliff edge, I noticed a few stacked rocks peeking out of the tangled mess. A ruin? A quick scan around my feet revealed a few pottery sherds, and collapsed wall lines. Indeed. Cool, a little ruin. A short time later I found more connecting walls. Correction: a good sized ruin.

Pushing on through the manzanita, I stumbled, fell, and fought my way farther to the summit. Upon reaching the top, I broke free from the brush, and discovered another wall. A quick survey revealed a very large ruin, with multiple rooms, and a massive outer wall. Wow! I glad I came up here! :y:

With the sun setting, my time on the summit was limited, so I went to work photographing the area. I climbed atop the summit boulder, and placed a summit register among the rocks. Fittingly, the notebook was green, and so was the jar lid.

With the evening breeze growing chilly, I pulled out my fleece, and out popped my video camera, bouncing off the boulder, and sliding toward a deep crevice. I caught it, and thankfully, it still worked. I shot some video, then began my return bushwhack at dusk.

I finished my hike by moonlight, dropped the tailgate on my truck, and contemplated where to camp out for the night. As cold and breezy as it was, I chose to head back toward Tonto Basin. Now came the fun part: driving back down FR 236's nasty switchbacks in the dark. A short ways down the steep, bumpy road, my brakes locked up or something, and I nearly lost control. :scared:

What that was all about, I didn't know, but I dropped the truck into 4wd low and 1st gear, and crawled down the nasty stretch at 4 mph, without having to touch the brakes. I didn't have any more problems after that.

Eventually I settled on a nice side road a few miles above Tonto Basin, where I set up my tent in the bed of my truck (not wanting to take a chance with my Thermarest and cactus spines). I cooked up a package of delicious creamy chicken Ramen, and sat in the wind free confines of my truck, where I watched an episode of the Dukes Of Hazzard on dvd. The next morning I was up at dawn, and it was off to meet John at the Butcher Hook for our backroad adventure on the Malicious Gap Road (Forest Road 609).

Greenback Peak was a fun and very memorable trip, and one that I highly recommend!

Geology

Geology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Troy Quartzite

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Dupont Canyon Greenback Peak

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"…you never know when a hike might break out" -Jim Gaffigan

Dec 21 2008

ssk44

Guides 20
Routes 12
Photos 2,343
Triplogs 298

51 male

Joined Mar 31 2008
Gilbert, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

Greenback Peak

Globe, AZ

4x4 Trip		Dec 21 2008
		ssk44 • Triplogs 298

4x4 Trip

4x4 Trip

no routes

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Preston and I truly love the Sierra Ancha Mountains. If you have a similar interest for the area, this destination needs to be on your list. This is a great location. I have yet to personally hike the summit of Greenback Peak, however I have done extensive exploration of the area surrounding the base. The points heading towards Salome Creek are beautifully rugged and remote with classic Sierra Ancha red rock bluffs and cliffs. You could spend days exploring this location. It's that good... I look forward to visiting the ruin site on a return visit. Someday...

Eric (ssk44)

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Greenback Peak

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MATTHEW 11:28-30 / PSALM 84:1-2

2 archives

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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