Travel: From I-10, take Exit 94 in Tonopah and measure from the bottom of the eastbound ramp. Gas and supplies are available in the hamlet. Drive south on 411th Ave. When the road swings left, stay straight to the stop sign at 2.6 miles. Turn right on the Salome Highway. At 7.6 miles, turn left on paved Courthouse Road. At 8.3 miles, go south on unsigned BLM 8211. There is a kiosk at the turn. Stop and pick up a Friends of Saddle Mountain brochure.You will need decent clearance and good tires to get up the rocky road. Cross BLM 8212 at 9.3 miles and keep going another 0.1 mile to the end of the road and trailhead. Dispersed, primitive camping is limited to 14 days. No facilities.
Distance and Elevation Gain: 3.0 miles; 1,650 feet of climbing
Total Time: 3:00 to 4:00
Difficulty: Trail, cairned route; navigation moderate; mild exposure above 2,550-foot saddle; cliff rim can be avoided. Dogs ok to the saddle but not advisable from there. Bring all the water you will need and hike on a cool day.
Friends of Saddle Mountain: Saddle Mountain is well-loved and cared for by its enthusiastic fan club. Volunteers meet regularly to maintain the trail and conduct natural and cultural inventories. Before you hike review their website for information on archaeology, flora and fauna, and to learn how you can participate.
Map: Saddle Mountain, Arizona 7.5' USGS Quad
Date Hiked: February 24, 2020
Quote: Now to any oasis I prefer the desert—land of mortal glory and intolerable splendor! André Gide
Saddle Mountain is a raw and rugged remnant of a volcanic upthrust that lives on to enthrall visitors today. Rockhounds search on the bajada, hikers ascend to the saddle, image-center, and a few climbers venture to the summit. The whole story is laid out from the parking lot where the mountain presides over the spring green Sonoran Desert.
(Thomas Holt Ward, photo)
Route: Walk south on a well-maintained trail to the saddle. From there, the scant trail is cairned. Climb southwest to the "West Rim" and then northwest to the summit. Note: this map has 20 foot intervals.
The Saddle Mountain Trailhead is located at the south end of the parking lot, elevation 1,440 feet. The red dirt path descends a few feet, goes up a dry streamway for about 20 feet, and exits on the other side.
At 0.15 mile, the trail branches. Take the right fork, passing through a cairned gateway. The path is thin at first. Watch for it in the grass as it makes for the ramp in the near distance.
We bumped into rockhounds on the bajada looking for fire agates, chalcedony, and desert roses. The scarcity of the once plentiful semi-precious gemstones didn't dampen their enthusiasm.
While you will see some crystalline rocks (granite, gneiss and schist), the mountain is comprised primarily of volcanic stone (basalt, andesite, hornblende, biotite, and rhyolite). The structure of the front wall is ash-flow tuff and breccia. Beside the trail is a breccia boulder made from sizable stones scavenged from a pyroclastic flow, either lava or ash. Volcanism has a way of creating anomalous and whimsical beauty that captures and holds us in rapt attention.
The east face of the mountain is a vertical sheer wall that demonstrates the power of this place. (THW, photo)
I am grateful for the trail that winds and guides us through this complicated landscape. The saddle is image-right.
(THW, photo)
A stone apron streams from the perpendicular escarpment. Cascading laughter of the canyon wren plays into the magic.
Rainpockets texture the ash-flow tuff. (THW, photo)
Friends of Saddle Mountain is working in consort with the Desert Botanical Garden, the Arizona Native Plant Society, and other organizations to identify the plants at this intersect of the Lower Colorado River Valley and Arizona Upland subdivisions of the 100,000 square mile Sonoran Desert. The casual observer will readily identify signature cactus: saguaro, buckhorn and teddybear cholla, hedgehog, and pricklypear. Among the ubiquitous creosote bush are ocotillo, ironwood, and palo verde. We were a little early for blooming plants. We found Arizona lupine, Mexican gold poppy, scorpionweed, owl's clover, brittlebush, rock daisy, pink globe mallow, desert tobacco, and this luminous fiddleneck. (THW, photo)
The trail pitches up in earnest for the final 350 feet to the saddle. Switchback across a couple of scree fields, shown, and mount some short, steep and loose segments.
Arrive at the skyline saddle in one mile after 1,100 feet of climbing. It is wedged between a slice of stone and a chaotic wall of the mountain. Like all good saddles this one opens spaciously to the south where isolated and flat-topped Woolsey Peak commands respect in the Gila Bend Mountains. Beyond the saddle the hike becomes a climb and the trail is obscure in places. Most visitors turn around here and I recommend doing so if you have a dog, children, are afraid of exposure, or have trouble navigating off-trail. (THW, photo)
The route turns southwest. The most challenging part of the hike is the next 100 vertical feet. Climb out of the saddle via a small gully, shown below to the right of the saguaro and my partner.
Where you leave the gully is up to you. We exited left about 15 feet up at a cairn that led us onto a white stone chute. It is steep with some loose material and mild exposure. This image looks down the chute on our return. The SummitPost entry implies you can stay in the initial gully longer and avoid part of the chute. Check it out and pick the safest route for you.
Climb about 80 feet to the upper end of the chute. Cairns will guide you out.
The trail reappears and wraps around the south side of an irregular wall.
Pass by a saguaro growing in a crack. The trail is steep, loose, and braided; stay within 20 feet of the wall.
(THW, photo)
Past the wall, the path emerges on a soft ridge. Take note of the two large directional cairns here for your return. Cairns are spotty and the trail disappears. Aim for the low saddle between the outcrop (image-center-left) and the southeast ridge.
Arrive at the "West Rim" at 1.3 miles, 2,800 feet. The cliff is overhung in this location so be careful. There is a spectacular view of the south summit, Peak 2,796'.
From here the peak is 0.2 mile to the northwest. (THW, photo)
On our ascent we stayed quite close to the rim. Returning, we took the trail which maintains a safe distance. Don't trust the rim rock. While the breccia looks cemented, it is crumbly in places.
We found desert bighorn sheep scat on the two false summits. In this image I am standing on the peak. (THW, photo)
The small crest makes a vertical drop on the west and slopes off to the east. The Saddle Mountain benchmark was placed in 1947. Only a few parties sign the peak register each month and a surprising number of them are international visitors. (THW, photo)
The view on this day was tarnished by air pollution in the Phoenix Basin. We could make out the Eagletail Mountains in the west, Big Horn Peak and Burnt Mountain north of I-10, shown, and Sierra Estrella to the east. (THW, photo)
From the Salome Highway, Saddle Mountain lies in afternoon shadow and you'd never guess that on the bajada, under the cover of soil, are iridescent gemstones generated by the parent peak. Spend the day under the spell of Saddle Mountain splendor and such wonder seems downright normal.
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