Moments in Dirt and Ink

Gila Bend Mountains, BLM Click for map. Cortez Peak stands out for its plainness to my eye, but I remind myself that when I'm on it, I'll be looking at all the other peaks. It's one of the higher ones of the area, besides Woolsey which is so much higher than the rest. It looks like it might have less cholla on it. With the distinctly different look, it could have different geology, different soils, and just not support so many of the things. Or it's just the fact that it's about three miles away and rather hard to tell at that distance. The route the surveyors took to place a benchmark at the top swings way back around Fourth of July Butte and then climbs up from a mining area on the northeast side of the mountain. I am sure that road and my car wouldn't mix well, so will walk the animal superhighways to the base and then up a spot that looks inviting on the map. I'll use the Yellow Medicine Wash for my approach and Loudermilk Wash on the way back ...

Gila Bend Mountains, BLM Click for map. Yellow Mesa Butte isn't much, but it catches the eye a bit in the afternoon and evening light. I decided to go up it, it's little pointed peak to the east, and then off to Saddle benchmark further to the east. There is a bit of cliff on the north end and around the sides, all of it guarded by cholla, but I figure I can wander up a big wash along the west side to the south and take what looks like a bit of a ramp on up to the top. That's the general plan anyway. Oh, and I got some higher resolution mapping for the area. Yellow Medicine Butte in the morning light isn't quite so nice. There are a couple washes along the way to starting around the mountain and there will be a couple on it. They tend not to be quite so deep on the mountain, but the ones cutting through the desert here often have nice walls on them. When they also have hard rock bottoms, they can hold small pools of water and one small one has just that...

Gila Bend Mountains, BLM Click for map. There is nothing special about Face Mountain. It is just another bump popping out of the landscape. It does, just barely, reach the status of 1000 feet of prominence, but all the bumps in the area seem to hover around that except for Woolsey off in the east which doubles it. But it does have a cool feature. Sticking out of the side of it is the Montezuma Head. Face Mountain, a little difficult to see off into the sun, has a north peak and a south peak and the Montezuma Head. Lots of little hills popping out of the plains. I found an area with a pair of roads into it that was impacted by camping right around the where I thought would be a good take off to go out and climb Face Mountain, so that makes easy parking. I did have to check the roads before driving one. One of them is less than ideal for a low vehicle. It continues past the camping area toward the mountain, so my start is along it. It doesn't get far before joi...