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| Hiking | 5.26 Miles |
1,375 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.26 Miles | 4 Hrs 23 Mns | | 1.52 mph |
| 1,375 ft AEG | 55 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I had been wanting to hike Black Mountain for a while -- it has over 1,900 feet of prominence and is a mountain range high point, in this case the Tortilla Mountains. There are lots of peaks in Arizona with "Black" in their name -- this Black Mountain is in Pinal County, near the town of Oracle.
This hike is known for being very brushy, including lots of dense catclaw. However, my timing was good because the Freeman Fire this past July torched this area, burning all of the brush in the process. One could almost hike this wearing a bathing suit and flip flops, but I resisted the urge to do that. In all seriousness, you could comfortably do this hike in shorts and a t-shirt right now.
I drove in and parked next to a water tank near Jewell Well. Most of the drive was on Willow Springs Road, which is one of the best graded dirt roads that I have ever driven. The last 0.9 miles of the drive were on American Tower Road, which was a bit rough but still ok for a crossover SUV.
I began the hike on a road that led to a windmill, and then went cross country the rest of the hike. I made my way up and over a few hills and slopes to point 5327, and then was mostly on a ridgeline that looped around and went up the NE side of Black Mountain.
With all of the vegetation being burned, there was nothing blocking my views on the ridgeline or at the summit. It was very windy at the summit, so I did not stay up there as long as I normally would.
I retraced my route to get back to the TH.
There was a bit of catclaw and other prickly stuff starting to grow back, so if you are wanting to hike to this peak now is the time to go! |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
there were a few wildflowers to be seen: buckwheat, some verbena/vervain, and globemallow |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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