Arizona Highways, Jan 98: "Sierra Estrellas"/Challenging the Estrellas -The Toughest Mountain HIKE by Bob Thomas. I just printed the map at jaba.com ( Properties Section) and noticed that the map in this months Arizona Highways and Jabas map correspond to the areas in Jabas' Triangle under PHX with Vekol, Lakeshore and Santa Cruz. This is near them and I was by there last year ( within 25 miles. Those mountains and valleys are rugged all caused during the time of the birth of the Rockies! That is 65 million years ago, Sharpness and dullness intermixed in this two fold area of geology. Intermixed in the area are the 15 million year old volcanics also. Lots of desert and lots of dirt and hard rock. Paragraph #8, " But once you begin your hike, you quickly learn the real secret of the Estrellas : incredibly rough and difficult terrain. Like most desert ramges, this one is low with tallest peak, Montezuma, only 4,337 feet high. But the mountains make up for that in steepness. Butterfly Peak rises 2,600 feet from floor of the hajada in the space of just two miles. The slopes are a hiker's nightmare with loos baseball -size rocks everywgere. Where there are no cliffs or slopes of loose rock, a cholla cactuses, especially the "teddy bear" kind (so called because it looks "furry" at a distant), bar your path. ....
This is a BLM 14,400 acre wildernes area (so named S.E.) Acess is limited to Quartz Peak Trailhead ( sounds like quartz bearing GOLD and maybe I am getty "fuzzy" at this distance!) Call an AZ BLM office, see the phone Book US Dept of Interior.
What I want to add is that the proper name is changed in the article, I believe. The locals and maps call it Montezuma's Face or Head and at a certain shadow of the day, yacansehimwink! The Indian Reservation is here ( Gila River I. R. ) and they require permitted acess for half of the spance of 25 miles. Maybe Jaba has some of this, I suspect so. A picture is worth a thousand words ( two page spread is outstanding!) I think Jab found some good Laramide stuff. Time will tell.
Chuc |
