Mazatzal Mountains Archives – GlassMountains Trip Reports

Mazatzal Peak, Arizona, April 2019

April 27, 2019 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Thursday, April 18, Linda and I and our dogs parked our trailer beside the Barnhardt Trailhead road and camped below the crest of the Mazatzal Mountains south of Payson, Arizona. We were boondocking, which meant we had no hookups but did have a lot of room for ourselves, dark nights, and little vehicle noise from AZ Highway 87 about a mile away. Our nearest neighbors were about half a mile away. We spent two nights camped there. Linda spent Friday morning mountain biking from our campsite up to the Barnhardt Trailhead. I spent Friday climbing nearby Mazatzal Peak.

View of Mazatzal Peak from our campsite beside the Barnhardt Trail Road

From our campsite Mazatzal Peak rose directly to the west. Its summit was visible high on the left side of the peak. Suicide Ridge gently descended from it to the right then dropped steeply down towards the Barnhardt Trailhead further right.

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Browns Peak, Arizona, December 2017

December 9, 2017 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Saturday, December 2, I joined the Southern Arizona Hiking Club on a climb of Browns Peak. Browns Peak is located in the Four Peaks Wilderness northeast of Phoenix at the southern terminus of the Mazatzal Mountains. It is the northernmost and highest of the Four Peaks with 7657 feet of elevation. More significantly, Browns Peak is the 18th most prominent peak in Arizona with 3297 feet of topographic prominence.

Looking up at the summit of Browns Peak. The route climbs the steep gully to the right of center.

This was my first SAHC outing for the winter season. We met early in the morning in Oro Valley, carpooled north through Globe and along Roosevelt Lake, then turned west onto the gravel El Oso Road. After several miles we eventually reached the Lone Pine Trailhead north of Browns Peak.

Arizona Hikes and Bikes, March 2014

March 31, 2014 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

Linda and I spent several weeks in March of 2014 visiting Arizona for bicycling and hiking. This was our third Spring visiting Arizona and we were curious to see locations we had not previously visited. I enjoyed hiking several Arizona “prominence peaks”: Mount Ord, Pinal Peak, Mount Graham, and Chiricahua Peak. The only significant snow I encountered was on Mount Graham, and it was manageable. The weather was ideal for hiking and enjoying the scenery.

Our first camps in Arizona were near Sedona and at nearby Cottonwood State Park, where we first got on our bikes to explore around Cottonwood. After a few days we relocated March 13 to Payson which was our base for four days.

The next day we drove to a locked gate and hiked up Mount Ord just off Highway 87, a 2000 foot prominence peak in the Mazatzal Mountains. The weather on the summit was light and intermittent hail turning to drizzle with thunder in distance, but it was a pleasant hike with good views of the mountains and valleys south of Payson. We then visited Fountain Hills, near Mesa.