Picacho Peak Hike

Approaching Picacho Peak State Park, the peak appears unimaginably impossible to ascend without equipment. Yet, there is a fun route that gives a full body workout.

Standing at the base of the Hunter Trail, the route heads towards that yellow, concave area, hangs a left to the base of that wall, makes a right and goes to the saddle on the right side. The 0.8 miles to the saddle has an average grade of 30%.

Being that steep, there are places where railing has been installed to aid the uphill effort.

Upon reaching the yellow, concave area, I make my left and am about to now do a 180 and ascend to the saddle.  Today is a very windy day so I got an early start to avoid the worst of it.  Recently, we've had several systems emerge from southern CA and spin through to our north, bringing wind if not precipitation.

I took a break at the saddle and chatted with a couple of women, vacationing from Idaho.  Next, is a short descent to acquire the back side of the peak. The grade through here is over 40% so there is a lot of cabling.  The descent could be done without use of the cables but the pace would be much slower.

A final, half mile ascent is a lot of fun!  Walls to climb and sections that have fencing to keep me on the side of the mountain rather than plunging to my death.

This section even us a short bridge.  Rounding the above corner and then a series of switchbacks brings me.....

...to the peak.  Across I10 is Newman Peak which is about 1000' higher than Picacho.  The climb to that peak is a rough one! Finished with 3 miles and 1800' of elevation gain.  I was kind of encouraged that my times were not too far from my personal bests, this being my 7th time doing the hike.  Hmmmm, maybe I should try something more ambitious given more windy days are approaching. And so I did. More to come!