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| | | Peak 4180 & Peak 4220 Organ Pipe Cactus NM, AZ | | | |
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Peak 4180 & Peak 4220 Organ Pipe Cactus NM, AZ
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| Hiking | 10.00 Miles |
3,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.00 Miles | | | |
| 3,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This is a very fun and scenic mostly trailless loop out of Alamo Canyon campground with side trips to two peaks in the Ajo Range. An excellent description of the route with lots of geology info is posted on Debra Van Winegarden's blog.
Summary: follow the Alamo canyon trail to the corral. Turn left and stroll/hop up the gravel/boulders/solid rock of the north fork. After the canyon makes a hard turn to the east, hike NNW up a side drainage to a small saddle east of Peak 4180. About halfway up the side drainage the terrain becomes mostly solid rock and gets really fun. From the saddle, hike west to a broad plateau south of the summit, then north to the summit on a fun ridge. Retrace your steps to the saddle, descend to Grass Pass, and hike northeast up a steep slope to cross a yellow breccia plateau. Scramble ~20' to the summit ridge of 4220. Descend to Grass canyon by crossing a gap at ~3600' in the ridge that runs north from Grass Pass, or go back to Grass Pass and descend from there. Enjoy ~30 minutes of fun scrambling descent, then a short walk to exit the canyon to the bajada. Turn south and walk a couple miles through open desert and across many washes back to the campground.
It rained buckets a few days earlier, and I found running water at ~3300' in the NNW drainage and then more higher up on peak 4220. The only unpleasant section of the route was from the 3600' gap to Grass Canyon - loose rock and overgrown vegetation. I also made a slight routefinding error trying to make a loop down from Point 4220 and ended up having to do some Spiderman-type shenaningans across a little cliff band instead of traversing below it like I intended.
Just before leaving Grass Canyon, I passed by a big chuparosa bush about 25' long, occupied by a flock? family? charm of hummingbirds. I stopped to watch them, and then a few of them stopped to watch me, and then suddenly they swarmed and flew circles around me! So neat!!
Apparently the bajada is glorious when it blooms, but right now it's grassy and green.
There were two registers on Peak 4180 but one appeared to be burnt and crumbled to the touch. I couldn't open the other one. Both were last signed in 1998, but I found several cairns so the route seems to be used.
No register on peak 4220. Many trash piles and hiding places though. I hadn't seen any obvious signs of migration on the route until I got to the 4220 summit ridge, though I heard noises I couldn't identify after turning east in north fork Alamo canyon and nearly bailed. Sounded like rocks dropping, slowly, one at a time. Eventually I decided whatever it was was far enough away. Hiking solo down here makes me a little jumpy  |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Road traffic was horrendous but the trail traffic wasn't bad. No problem getting a parking space mid-day. The painted-on trail markers are getting a little faint and obscured by natural white markings on the Cowpies side. Hangover is my favorite trail in Sedona but I forgot how steep the rock is in places! Folks who ride it must be insane.
It was a gorgeous day with spectacular views all around! 
However, the lower canyon presents no real difficulties - just requires picking a route though huge namesake boulders at the entrance, then there is some fun scrambling on solid rock. It seems you should approach from the northwest to avoid the worst brush (I didn't). Don't skip the side trip to 3760' though. Both the north and south ends of the platform have excellent views. I descended the Arch trail but skipped the Arch since I'd been there before. The trail has a ridiculous number of cairns! 
My knock-off crocs were fine. The water was fast but not that deep (just above the knee at worst & I am only 5'4") and all crossings were doable. Poles required for me though. The first three crossings were hardest and the rest (10+) were pretty trivial. Cairns are a little scarce as the trail approaches the falls and it gets a bit hard to follow. But the side canyon that heads to Cheyava is so pretty and the falls were GUSHING. Spectacular!! We forgot to look for the ruins south of cheyava but checked out the Obi granaries on the way there and Gila pueblo on the way back to camp.
