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| Military Hill (Tombstone Hills), AZ | |
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| | Military Hill (Tombstone Hills), AZ | | | |
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Military Hill (Tombstone Hills), AZ
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| Hiking | 1.77 Miles |
656 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.77 Miles | 1 Hour 12 Mns | | 1.48 mph |
| 656 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Note: High clearance vehicle needed to get to the trailhead. I have 4 wheel drive but didn't need to use it for the entire drive.
Driving directions: From the center of Tombstone, AZ, take AZ-80 East just outside of town and make a right onto S Landin Park Way. Continue for 0.3 miles to an unmarked intersection. I believe the road turns to dirt somewhere in here but the road is graded well. This cross road is Old Bisbee Highway. Turn left here and continue for 0.1 miles. Then turn right on Emerald Canyon Road. After you have traveled 1.4 miles, you will see a turn to the left. The road gets a bit worse here. You can park anywhere in this area off the road. If your vehicle is not so capable, stay on Emerald Canyon road and continue for another 0.45 miles. There will be a clearing on your right and this is a good place to park. I parked at this location: 31.683554, -110.074961
Note: The hike is slightly longer/harder from this starting point. After having explored the area a bit, I realized it would have been better to start from the junction of the unmarked road and Emerald Canyon road, roughly 1.4 from where you turned onto Emerald Canyon road. From that point, you would simply walk South. Where the road splits, take a left. Then about 0.1 miles past that, stay left, and you'll see a thinner mining road going higher up. Shortly after here the road ends and there's a mine shaft. See the end of the next paragraph for more info on this area.
My hike: I started this hike around 3:50 pm. It was probably 83-85 degrees at this elevation, and thankfully there was some cloud cover. From where I parked, I walked about 0.1 miles back down the road before starting my bushwhack. I bushwhacked East up to a high point, not knowing what I would see. From here there was a steep brushy hill leading down to a canyon. I walked down to the canyon, which was pretty deep and I had to search for a good place to cross. After crossing, I needed to bushwhack up again. I found some mine tailing and walked up that and ran into a road. This turned out to be the same road that I mentioned earlier. I followed the road going up and then eventually the road dead ended right near an old mine shaft. Near the road end you will see a wooden frame structure with a pulley at the top. You'll also see an open mine shaft that tunnels straight into the mountain. I walked into the mine shaft and went about 30 feet. There was a left turn and I could see up a hole leading up to the wooden structure from above. Often times it's not safe to enter mining holes but this wasn't dangerous at all, and I could see pretty clearly inside.
After exploring the mine shaft and finding basically nothing, I climbed up to the wooded structure. There was an old ladder leading down into the same mine shaft that I explored. This ladder probably wasn't stable and there was no point in taking it down because it led to the same place where I explored below. Some of the wood was on the ground and broken. From here I continued my open country/bushwhack to the top, zig-zagging in some areas. There were sections of dense brush and ocotillo that I needed to hike around. Eventually I made it to the top. Near the top, I saw a 7 foot deep mining hole that was not blocked off. There was a marker next to it and it would have been difficult to fall into it without seeing it first. At the peak there was a solar panel with an antenna, great views of the Dragoons, and I could see the entire Tombstone area with the Dragoons as a back-drop. A found a registry in a metal ammo box and signed it.
Right near the peak I saw something interesting. I saw several of the red flying ants on a rock and there were hundreds of black ants attacking. The red ants could not seem to fly away. It appeared that they were trying to fight off the black ants. The red flying ants were 3 to 4 times the size of the black ants, but the black ants were much larger in number, and it looked like the blank ants would win the battle in the end.
On the way down, I basically took the same route to the wooden mining structure and mine shaft. Then when I got back to the road, I decided to go North, which was the opposite direction that I came from originally. The road went down and then I saw a split going left. I turned here and the road stayed level for a while. Then, the road started going uphill so I knew I had to do some more bushwhacking to get back to where I parked. I found a small dry creek bed which I followed West for a while until it got too thick. Then, I got out of the creek bed and bushwhack downhill to a larger wash. This wash was pretty deep and I had to look for a good place to cross. I crossed and then climbed up to the top of the ridgeline. Now, I knew that the road wasn't too far away. I bushwhacked down the slope to the road, then turned left and followed the road back to where I parked.
Stats:
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Total roundtrip distance = 1.77 miles
AEG = 656 feet
Strava moving time = 1 hr 12 mins
Strava elapsed time = 2 hrs 7 mins |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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