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| Hiking | 5.12 Miles |
1,445 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.12 Miles | 5 Hrs 50 Mns | | 1.92 mph |
| 1,445 ft AEG | 3 Hrs 10 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I was up on Diamond Mountain four days ago, looking south (and down) at this mesa, and thought it would be a good little hike. I decided to ‘de-mystify’ the little mesa.
There are quite a few Black Mesas in Arizona. This one is south of Sunflower, Az and just west of Rte 87. It’s in the area where the north and south lanes of Rte 87 ‘cross’ each other for a few miles.
Black Mesa is just less than a mile long and about 1/2 mile wide at its widest point. I hiked the entire perimeter counter-clockwise. The mesa is covered in tall grass and black rocks, and it’s home to billions of prickly pear cactus. They cover the majority of the ‘non-rock’ areas.
I climbed up on the mesa’s east side and headed to the high point on the north end. There’s a north-south depression running through the center of the mesa that ends in a large drainage toward the south. From the north end, I continued on the west perimeter toward the lower, pointy south end.. There are good views of Pk 3570 just to the west. It’s smaller than Black Mesa, but looks exactly like it.
From the south point, I went up to the second highest point, on the east side.
This second high point is where AZDOT placed a benchmark in 1982. The AZ Dept of Transportation placed dozens of benchmarks along the sides of Rte 87 in the early 1980s, with most of them just off the highway near the highway fence line. Their purpose probably had to do with building the present highway alignment and four lanes etc. The one on Black Mesa is called ‘Blacky’ and is a bit tougher to get to than the fence line BMs.
I saw six or seven deer prancing around on the mesa, and found a few areas where they probably bed down. Once they saw me, they stared for awhile and then left the mesa on the west side. I also heard a rattle snake amongst some of the perimeter rocks, but I never saw him (her). Once off the mesa, I had a staring contest with some cattle near Big Rincon Tank. I never seem to win those contests.
It was a nice little hike, and I now have ‘de-mystified’ the mesa. |
| _____________________
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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Route Editor
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