I've been wanting to get back to this little piece of Eden since Ira and I last hiked it in 2018, as training for our Grand Canyon hike later that same month. Prior to that, I first hiked it in December of 2015, and again in February of 2016, not just once, but twice.
We chose a hike starting at higher elevation and earlier in the morning as we now have April weather in February, and the temps were expected to top 90 degrees in Tucson today. So we rose early and started the three-hour drive at 5:00 am and hit the trail by 8:15. Temps were a little chilly at the start despite the sun, but would quickly rise. Fortunately, after the first two miles, the trail enters a canyon and would remain mostly shaded to the summit. We finished before 1:00 and were glad we did, as the temp was nearly 80º, even at 4,800 feet.
The trail is longer now than when I last hiked it in 2018, by about a mile-and-a-half (and also GPS is arguably more accurate now). The Park Service developed the lower first mile into a horse trail and apparently has their own horses available to use. They also put a little money and effort into fixing up those trails which were previously rather sketchy. But other than that, the trails in pretty decent shape, eroded in parts further up the mountain, and also a little slippery with the scree, especially on the descent. The Park Service has been putting money into the area, primarily for the horsey set from what I can tell. Unfortunately, this effort is increasing the number of visitors to this sleepy stretch of park real estate once devoted to bird watchers and the occasional hiker. Today, we actually ran into two disparate hikers summiting the peak—something that never happened on previous hikes.
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Ira and I hiked this in a blistering 3 hours in 2018, but that was a shorter hike, and we were on a schedule. I think I practically ran down then, but there is so much scree on the trail now, I wasn't about to risk a fall, and Misty needed to reduce the pounding of running because she still recovering from recent eye surgery. Still our time was pretty blazing for a hike that's supposed to take 6-7 hours. |
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I stopped to take similar approach photos previously, but wasn't sure what I was looking at. Enter the Peak Finder app, which I discovered about five years ago. Wonderful tool. |
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| Some of the Park Service's new rental units. |
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I have never previously hiked to the actual Silver Peak summit, content to treat the fire tower remains as a summit, and never really knowing there was a separate trail to the nondescript tippy-top. There is a little trail forking off from the trail to the tower, near the storage shed below, that roughly adds two-tenths of a mile through overgrown brush. Not really recommended, but we had to do it. |
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| View from the actual Silver Peak summit. |
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| First surveyed in 1957, when I was one. |
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| Looking back at the fire tower. |
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| Steps up to the tower. |
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| Cistern, now defunct. (Photo by Misty Atkins) |
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Both of my hiking partners have way more guts than I do. Ira, top, in 2015; Misty, below, today in 2026. |
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| Sleeping accommodations were rather primitive. |
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| Looking west toward the rest of the Chiricahuas. |
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| Imagine building these steps at 8,000 feet. |
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| Genderless john. |
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| Scree-strewn but easy-on-the-feet trail bed. |
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| The man in the mountain pic I take every time. |
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| I think I'm invisible. (Photo by Misty Atkins) |
