While out in Arizona for a few days I scouted some new places to hike and settled on the easy access of 5,631-ft Harquahala Peak, the highpoint of La Paz County. It is somewhat on the way home and since it's BLM it also offers free camping which is definitely in my price range. Leaving Phoenix on Wednesday, I got to drive through the seemingly endless sprawl of Sun City, El Mirage, Surprise and finally Wickenburg. From there it's the lightly-traveled Highway 60 toward Wendel, looking for mile marker 71. The guides all said to look for a single palm tree on the north side of the road, and across from that is a gate that leads to the trailhead. I found the palm, and was greeted by a relatively new sign noting the proper dirt road. A very bumpy 2.2 miles later I was at the end of the road and setting up camp in the Ranger for the night. It was cold in the desert and a light breeze didn't do enough to keep the annoying bugs from buzzing around my head, so I hunkered down inside my quilt and managed to sleep a few hours before waking to a great sunrise.
I hit the trail just before 8am local time, and since I was heading up the northwest part of the mountain I was in shade for the first couple hours of this hike. The trail follows a wash for a while, finally crossing over to switchback up the steeper side of Harquahala. The guide said I would reach a saddle and then traverse across to the summit, so I kept my eye on the low point dead ahead, which turned out to be the wrong one. I took a break near an old unsuccessful mining camp and then headed up toward the correct saddle. From here I got a glimpse of the equipment on the top, along with a 4WD road that ascends from the south side. Once I got a little closer I could hear voices, and there were a couple trucks parked at the top - the buildings there are used for something to do with the Central Arizona canal. A scant 2:40 after hitting the trail, I reached the end of the 5.4 mile route and commenced to wandering around the summit area. There is an old barn-looking shed built by the Smithsonian in 1920, which was used to measure the sun activity. It got too windy up there for them, so they moved that operation to Table Mountain in California in 1925. Now the building is fenced off to keep the vandals away. On a (rare now) clear day the views are great, even on this hazy morning I could see Saddle Mountain about 35 miles away and Castle Dome Peak about 70 miles to the south. I hiked both of those in the past couple of years so it was nice to see old friends.
While sitting up there in the cool breeze eating lunch a few 4-wheelers drove up the road, I had been hearing the buzz of their engines for the previous 15 minutes. I chatted a bit with them, the road is a little over 10 miles and is so rough it takes nearly an hour to drive. Since I was also driving home this day I couldn't hang out too long so I hit the trail and took the same path down. Since it was sunny out I was treated to plenty of flowers blooming, in fact the entire desert area was rather green. Some of the washes were still damp from recent rains and a little riparian stretch even had mud at the bottom.
Total for the day nearly 11 miles (AllTrails reported at 10.4), elevation gain 3,389 feet.
Took 2:40 to go up and 1:45 to walk down, I somehow spent a long time at the summit.
