Silver Peak

Coronado National Forest

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I'm not quite sure Chiricahua is a reasonable distance for a day hike from this area or if I'll have to move around for a different approach, so for now I'll start a little smaller. Silver Peak was the site of a lookout tower and has a trail rising 3000 feet in 4.5 miles going up it. That's a very reasonable day hike and it could put me on a much better overlook for the canyons than the short thing done yesterday. The start is easy to find by the big carved wood sign information showing an area map and Smokey and various other very Forest Service things. Although no road signs show this is a trailhead, smaller signs give quite a bit of information about the two trails that are here.

trailhead for Silver Peak — Just past the visitor center is an information turnout and trailheads.

The nature trail is most obvious, but through the fence is a little track. It is delightful not to have to fiddle with a ranch gate and instead step a bit to one side and then the other around a corner that the typical horse or relative can't do. Less delightful is that there is something, probably horses, getting kept in and there are a number of extra trails. There are signs in some key spots, but it can be difficult to decide on what is actually the route and what belongs only to whoever has left all the road apples. A sign pointing to an viewpoint seems to be following one of the extra trails. Another fence (where I can again just step around the ranch gate) puts a stop to it all leaving just one thin trail presumably climbing to the top.

Cave Creek Canyon — Looking up Cave Creek through the canyon to the mountains above.

layered rocks stick up — The rocks below Silver Peak. One set to the east (right) is marked as "The Fingers" and it seems pretty obvious which ones those are.

valley with a spattering of buildings — Looking out over the valley and the community of Portal.

The trail had been a fairly steady climb at first, but now levels off to move around the side of the mountain, leaving the canyon and giving completely different views out across the desert. On up the mountain, there seem to be just a different set of rock structures to get in the way of climbing it on a trail, but all of them look circumnavigable on dirt. Some of the dirt is less attractive than others, but there are lots of routes up.

terraces of rocks around the back of the mountain — Rounding the mountain to places where the rocks form terraces of pine trees.

mountain ears in the distance — Full of deserty hills to the north and northeast. Those ears out there could be Dos Cabezas Peaks, which got skipped for being "class 3+".

tiny white flowers in domes — A spattering of little flowers are on the hill side.

Once a little way around the mountain, the trail starts climbing again. It takes a few short switchbacks and then rounds a little further around, then some more switchbacks. In this way, I traverse past some steep canyons guarded by monoliths of rock.

tall pines in the narro upper reaches of a rock lined steep canyon — Some rather large pines occupy the upper reaches of this rocky canyon.

juniper on a rock by the trail — An old juniper stands on the edge of a rock terrace passed by the trail.

same canyon, different viewpoint — Looking over the same canyon after traversing and climbing much higher.

There is one last grand bunch of short switchbacks and I am up on a saddle with an old shed. The top, or getting rather near.

behind a monolith — Getting up behind the monoliths of rocks, or at least this one.

white painted shed — Shed for the old, burned lookout.

The shed is wrapped in fat wires that hang over its corners and drop to the ground, where a circle of more fat wire is partly embedded in the ground, but mostly staked down. Someone is a little worried about lightning. Well, on the crest of a mountain it is very sensible. The next building along is an outhouse, similarly wrapped and still mostly enclosed and ready to use, provided you don't mind that it hasn't been cleaned in a while and probably could never be properly disinfected as the seat is a bit of painted wood. Then there are some steep stairs up to the top where the fire lookout stood before it burned down. The upper steps have a handrail that looks added on a while back. I'm not sure it meets OSHA standards, but it is enough to reassure someone who doesn't really need it. There are a couple benchmarks, one by the steps and one on the far side.

benchmark from 1939 — The Forest Service benchmark includes the full date of setting along with, I guess, a couple reasons for existence and a name.

lumps of rock almost as high as here — Looking out southeast shows some bits of mountain that look like they might be higher, but they're not.

the local big mountain and accompanying peaks — Way up the main fork of Cave Creek to Chiricahua in the back with a little bit of snow on its north side.

northern peaks — The peaks to the north. Snowy Mount Graham is just visible in the far distance.

water collection — The cistern does still stand at the edge.

The view is great at the top, but I head off eventually, back down the narrow steps, past the outhouse, around the shed, and start up the other side on some use trails. There is supposed to be another benchmark on the next peak and it is so very close, I go for it. Along the way, there is a platform of dirt held in with wood from something, then a benchmark newer than the other two. There is another register, too, but this one is getting a lot less signatures. Maybe they left it because there is a sign saying that this is the peak although the horn the lookout is on is higher.

bottom of three flights of steps — The bottom level of steps appear to still be the original ones built by the CCC around the same time the Forest Service benchmark was placed.

flatened area — This is a heliport according to OpenStreetMap.

South Fork of Cave Creek — Looking along Cave Creek's South Fork.

rock outcrop where there was once a lookout — The horn on the peak that sticks up highest and once held the fire lookout.

caves in the side of the peak — The next peak along is higher than this middle one, lower than the horn, and has a bit of a dip between.

I decide not to continue on to the third peak even though there seems to be a trail or sorts to follow and everything. The afternoon light picks out different features of the rocks than the morning making it sometimes like a different hike down than up even though it is out and back.