Chiricahua Peak

Date: November 12th 2022

Location: An hour and a half outside Wilcox

Hiking Partners: Colin, Uncle J

Mileage: 17.6 miles

Chiricahua Peak. Let me just start by saying this hike is a beast! Very challenging from start to finish but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. 

The drive from Wilcox is mostly highway that ends with about 10 miles of dirt road. Google maps will point you past the trail and to the campsites just north so its best to use All Trails or a map in general to make sure your in the right place. We parked the car where the two roads meet for the camp ground.

We decided to go clockwise up to the peak. The trail starts on a dirt road to the left. It gradually begins going uphill through the forest next to a creek. Everything seems pretty good so far. The trail is beginning to climb, everyone is warm or shedding layers and feeling great. 

Then all of the sudden, the uphill REALLY begins! Almost immediately my achilles tendons on both feet lock up so tight that it was painful to bend them in a walking motion. I kept going. We stopped briefly to catch our breath. I stretched the tendons as much as I could on our stop and then we moved on. We stopped again a little ways up at a trail junction and I stretched them again. By this time we had already gone a little over 2 miles and finally, my tendons stopped hurting, stretched out and I was good for the rest of the hike.

We all read the reviews for this hike and I researched it up and down but any amount of research couldn't prepare you for the elevation gain. Looking at the trail and the topo map you can see the elevation gain but the gradualness of the trail tricks you into thinking you're not to the steep part and its probably just around the corner. The steep part never came...we were already on it!

As the train continued to ascend we were able to see awesome views all around. The trail itself was not very easy to follow but if you kept an eye out for a game trail you were on the right track. We started going up a creek near one of the game trails and quickly noticed we were off trail. It can happen that quick. Once back on the trail we were ascending through pine forests and rocky landscape. Some of the creeks we crossed near the bottom were running. Close to the top they were dry.

We did encounter some snow on the way but not enough to make a snowball. Close to the top the views were incredible.

The land was becoming more barren in some spots which made the sun come right through the trees.

There was even fields of dead trees in certain areas towards the top. Colin spotted some deer in one area.

After 5 hours we finally made it to the top.

The top is mostly covered in trees so its hard to see off the peak to the surrounding areas. Now it was time to go down, or so we thought. Hiking poles in hand, sun glasses on, we headed off the summit downhill. There was a lot more snow on this side. I was able to make one snowball with the super dry snow and nailed Uncle J in the back of the head from 3 feet away! That's as far as you could throw this snow before it denigrated in the air. 

Well...we thought we were going downhill. Then all of the sudden we were climbing back up hill, making up what we just did going downhill! We wrapped around the peak and saw it from a different angle.

Walking along the ridges of these peaks was pretty awesome. Once we got closer to the one in the background it looked very similar to Pride Rock (all my lion king fans out there!),

Again we were still climbing. We got off on the wrong trail momentarily but turned back to a trail we missed. When everyone was hoping the next turn was downhill, it finally came true!

 We were making great time going downhill, For a good reason, the sun was setting. As long as we made it to the road near the campsites before we lost our light we were golden. We hiked fast down and made it to the road with just a sliver of light left. We kicked up the pace. By this point I was leading pace and moving fast ahead of the group. Not using light to see heightens your peripheral vision which is better than your night vision so you can see things all around you. My head was on swivel watching out for bears that we heard were in the area. Then all of the sudden I saw something move about 30 feet in front of me just off the road on the right. It wasn't big enough to be a bear so I smacked my hiking poles together and made a loud noise. A fawn moved and jumped down to the creek.

About a mile later we made it back to the car. Uncle J got smacked in the face with a tree branch on the way down right in the eye! I drove back to Wilcox that night. Don't worry, by the time we got back to the hotel, Uncle Js eye was almost back to normal. 

This was a brutal hike. Not to be under estimated. Will we be back? Time will tell.

Until Next Time!