Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM

Around Chiricahua Peak Hike report 6/12/25

 

Taking advantage of the long daylight hours, we decided to push ourselves and circle around (circumnavigate?  circumperambulate?)  Chiricahua Peak this week.  Six of us met up Thursday morning, carpooled up to Rustler Park then crammed in one vehicle to go up the Long Park Road.

 

The Road, by the way, is quite a bit worse than when we made our way up a couple of weeks ago – lots of pits dug out by trucks spinning their wheels and large flipped rocks.  We made a few repairs as we came down.

The Crest trail is beautiful as always:  quite GREEN, partly due to the nice rain that we got a couple of weeks ago.  Much of the green is new Aspen leaves and Bracken Fern: 

 

  

 

We also saw a number of plants blooming, some busy hummingbirds, new cones on the Spruce and wild turkeys!

   

We hiked the Crest trail (#270) from Fly Saddle (five points) to Junction Saddle, then over to Aspen Saddle where we had a nice lunch in the shade and admired the view down Rucker Canyon.

  

Paint Rock with Rucker Canyon in-between

From Aspen Saddle, we took the “Chiricahua Peak Bypass, #270D” trail along the south side of Chiricahua Peak.  A couple of us had never been on this segment, but a few remembered it from long ago.  It is in need of some maintenance.  Quite a lot of work has been done here over the years (lots of cut logs, elegant switchbacks descending on the west end of the trail, etc.) so it would be great to keep it open.  It’s very beautiful:  often going through lovely old forest with nice views of the southern end of the range.

 

   

 

At. Chiricahua Saddle we warmed up our voices and sang Happy Birthday to 3 hikers (not present) and shared birthday cookies.  Finally, we made our way back up to Junction Saddle, completing the loop, then hiked back out to the car.  We hiked between 9 & 10 miles depending on which device you looked at.  Some thought it was more like 20 miles :) – by the time we got back to the trailhead, and made our way slowly down the Long Park Road, then down the beat-up 42 road, we didn’t get home until about 7:30 (AZ) causing some spouses to worry.

 

Next week, a couple of us are going backpacking on June 18, 19, 20:  We plan to hike along the Crest trail to the terminus of the South Fork Trail (#243) near Finnicum Peak, then hike all the way down 243 to the parking area.  3 days, 2 nights, a little over 18 miles.  If you would like to join us, send Elaine an email!   

Day hikers will meet at the Silver Peak trailhead at 8AM AZ, 9AM NM and those present will decide where to go.

 

Report & photos from Elaine