Black Mountain Archives – GlassMountains Trip Reports

Black Mountain (Pima), Arizona, February 2022

February 26, 2022 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

Linda and I recently boondocked near an abandoned mine off the Darby Well Road southwest of Ajo. Over the next two days I climbed Sauceda Benchmark and Black Mountain (Pima) while Linda explored the area on bicycle and foot. It was a sheltered and pleasant campsite.

Black Mountain from the southwest; the summit is on the left

My goal the second day was to climb Black Mountain, rising just to the south of our campsite. I know of four Black Mountains with at least 1000 feet of prominence in Arizona. This Black Mountain has 1328 feet of prominence and lies in the Little Ajo Mountains of Pima County south of Ajo. The northern slopes appeared quite steep from our campsite but some friends had found a good route up its southwest ridge that I intended to try.

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USA State Highpoints, July 2018

September 3, 2018 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

This past July I took a long road trip to visit 22 USA State Highpoints, the highest natural point of each of those states. This was part of my long-term project to visit the highpoint of every USA State.

Pamola Peak from Baxter Peak, Mount Katahdin

I began visiting USA State Highpoints in 1977 with my first climb of Mount Hood, the highpoint of Oregon. In 1979 I climbed Granite Peak in Montana, and in 1980 I climbed Mount Rainier in Washington. Perhaps I accepted the challenge of visiting all the Western USA State Highpoints in 1986 when I climbed Gannett Peak in Utah, Boundary Peak in Nevada, and Mount Whitney in California. The states east of Colorado did not have any interest to me then, and the western state highpoints provided me plenty of challenge.

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Black Mountain, Arizona, February 2017

February 28, 2017 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On February 22 I hiked Black Mountain north of Oracle, Arizona. This particular “Black Mountain” is the 85th most prominent peak in Arizona with 1907 feet of clean prominence and 5587 feet of elevation. It also has nearly 20 miles of isolation (distance to any higher peak).

Black Mountain from Willow Springs Road, northwest of Oracle, Arizona

On February 17, Linda and I watched the start of the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, a 24-hour mountain bike race held just south of Black Mountain. We drove in north on the Willow Springs Road, northwest of Oracle, Arizona to reach the event. We were surprised by the size of the temporary tent and RV village and enjoyed the start of the event. Afterwards, we drove further north on Willow Springs Road and explored access to Black Mountain. I planned to return soon.

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