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January 17-19, 2026
The Sierra Estrella is a prominent range bordering the southwestern side of Phoenix, AZ. Anyone who has driven or flown into Phoenix from the west has seen the large wall of mountains rising out of an otherwise flat expanse. Since the entire range is composed of a single linear spine-shaped crest, it of course stood out to me aesthetically as a range that should be traversed. This linear nature also made it pretty easy to design a route, and it split well into a 3-day trip. I decided it was better to traverse the range from north to south due to several factors such as elevation angle and time-of-day heat. Most of the route passed through a patchwork of BLM, state, and tribal land, all of which were undeveloped. A 1hr30m car shuttle brought us between both ends of the range.
Due to the pervasive heat of the southern Arizona desert, it was best to attempt it during the coldest part of the year which usually fell sometime in January. Even then, much of it was a sweaty affair, with most of us getting close to running out of water at some point along the route. Jack and I managed to cache several gallons of water at Quartz Peak the weekend before. Quartz Peak marked an excellent strategic location for this because it represented just over 60% of the effort through the route, and it was the easiest way to access the main Sierra Estrella Crest with a trail to its summit. In fact it is the only trail which accesses anything on the crest. Unfortunately Jack injured his ankle on the day following the cache and would not be able to partake in the traverse, bringing our original group of four down to three.
Peaks climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monument Hill | 1,161 ft | 186 ft | 33.37712, -112.30623 |
| "Trail Island Peak" | 1,086 ft | 504 ft | 33.35240, -112.32095 |
| "Corgett Peak" | 2,902 ft | 654 ft | 33.32785, -112.33978 |
| "Mohawk Peak" | 3,567 ft | 220 ft | 33.30678, -112.32162 |
| "Nohawk Pk" | 3,650 ft | 1,212 ft | 33.29411, -112.32248 |
| "Estrella Fin" | 4,232 ft | 324 ft | 33.27036, -112.28912 |
| Sierra Estrella HP | 4,512 ft | 3,218 ft | 33.27346, -112.28069 |
| "West Tedium Peak" | 3,795 ft | 265 ft | 33.25577, -112.27657 |
| "East Tedium Peak" | 3,842 ft | 357 ft | 33.25623, -112.26786 |
| "Montezuma Awake" | 4,140 ft | 741 ft | 33.24974, -112.25066 |
| Montezuma Sleeping | 3,715 ft | 60 ft | 33.24868, -112.24516 |
| "Inflection Peak" | 3,996 ft | 280 ft | 33.23545, -112.23933 |
| "Quartzview Peak" | 3,960 ft | 200 ft | 33.23260, -112.23524 |
| Quartz Peak | 4,066 ft | 271 ft | 33.23028, -112.22997 |
| Butterfly Mountain | 4,155 ft | 615 ft | 33.22946, -112.21805 |
| "First Maricopa Fin" | 3,898 ft | 210 ft | 33.21688, -112.21498 |
| "Second Maricopa Fin" | 3,815 ft | 230 ft | 33.21000, -112.21153 |
| "Third Maricopa Fin" | 3,920 ft | 306 ft | 33.20320, -112.21029 |
| Montezuma Peak | 4,342 ft | 911 ft | 33.18441, -112.19737 |
| "Sky Valley Peak" | 3,293 ft | 250 ft | 33.15793, -112.17694 |
| "Montezuma's Hump" | 3,595 ft | 979 ft | 33.14157, -112.18097 |
| Sevenmile Mountain | 2,947 ft | 1,354 ft | 33.12613, -112.22383 |
Total Stats
34 miles
16,500 ft gain/loss
class 3-4
Three of us camped at the southern end of the route on the night of the 16th. Even though we were to start from the northern end, there was no good spot to camp anywhere nearby. We awoke dutifully at 4:15am and left at 4:30am, leaving a car at southern end while I drove us to the northern end.
Optimally we would truly start the route at a spot just north of the Phoenix Raceway at a small parking lot that is sometimes used to access the Base & Meridian Wildlife Area. This lot was unlit and right next to a highway, so I deduced that it was not safe to leave a car there for 3 days. After dropping off the others and our heavy packs there, I drove 2 miles north and parked in the closest cookie cutter neighborhood I could find, then walked back south to the others. Now that the cars and logistics were put in place, we could finally begin the route.
It was just light enough to see without headlamps as we started up or first and (by far) easiest peak, Monument Hill, taking all but 5 minutes to reach its summit via a well defined trail. This would be a great spot to watch some action on the raceway close below when events would happen.
summit of Monument Hill
We turned our attention south, heading along a series of poorly defined trails for about 1.4 miles before ascending the gradual and easy northeast ridge of Trail Island Peak. There was a running event happening in the area, and we watched several groups of runners meandering around the trails on all sides below us. Cheers would periodically erupt from a large parking lot to the north as subsequent batches of runners were released.
views from Trail Island Peak
The sun rose as we crested up and over the summit of Trail Island Peak. We descended its south ridge, crossed a trail, and cut southwest across a series of washes to meet up with another trail which we followed south for just under a mile to a small saddle just south of spot elevation 1565. This point marked a clear transition from smooth sailing to more involved terrain. After grabbing a bite to eat here, we heaved on our heavy packs and lumbered southwest up a prominent rib to Corgett Peak. The terrain suddenly steepened here, requiring numerous class 3 moves on standard desert choss.
From the summit of Corgett Peak, the full rugged nature of the Sierra Estrella was visible to us more than it had before. A series of jagged peaks were connected by tall, thin ridges which zigzagged ever further south. The temperature was rapidly warming into the 70s now, making the route a sweat bath for all of us.
looking south from Corgett Peak
north
The ridge from Corgett to Mohawk to Nohawk Peak was punctuated by a series of decaying granite towers. We went over them more often than around, usually finding a class 3 way through. A cool cave was located somewhere between Mohawk and Nohawk, formed by several giant boulders stacked and leaning against eachother. A cool breeze blew through it, providing a quick and welcome respite from the heat.
summit of Mohawk
heading towards Nohawk
From Nohawk we descended 1,300 ft to a prominent notch, then bypassed a series of three towers to the north. These towers provided some good shade and we chilled out there for a bit. The last hour of daylight had us slowly trudging up the northwest ridge of Estrella Fin on terrain that was a good bit less tedious than before.
looking towards Estrella Fin from Nohawk
We caught a brilliant sunset at the summit of Estrella Fin, illuminating everything on the Sierra Estrella Crest between us and the southern terminus. It was from here that we could see just about every peak on the traverse. A cold wind blew in from the east, and for the first time since sunrise we donned light jackets.
summit of Estrella Fin
As the sun dipped, we quickly made our way east to the lowpoint between Estrella Fin and Sierra Estrella HP. Even though it was a bit drafty, the ground was flat and soft here and we decided that this was a good spot to bivy. The wind increased significantly throughout the night and my sleep was routinely interrupted by strong gusts. Surprisingly the night went by fairly quickly, and before long we were all up at 7am ready to continue. Since all of us were running low on water due to the unanticipated heat of the previous day, we didn't cook anything since that required more water, but ate dry unappetizing snacks.
Some easy terrain brought us up to Sierra Estrella HP just before sunrise. There was a large installation of telecom towers here which we ducked behind to get out of the wind while watching the mountains turn orange from sunrise.
We continued southeast on easy and efficient terrain. I felt really good today, partly due to my pack feeling so light as a result of the decreased water weight. The following three peaks were straightforward and uneventful.
A bout of involved terrain was encountered between Montezuma Awake and Montezuma Sleeping. We descended south from Montezuma Awake, then worked our way gradually east, cutting across a series of class 3-4 ribs while remaining not far below the true ridge crest.
summit of Montezuma Sleeping
looking back at the short involved section
We ran out of water one by one while watching the profile of Quartz Peak creep closer, knowing that the peak would be our salvation with the water cache. Thankfully the terrain was mostly smooth sailing.
I surprisingly wasn't super thirsty as we finally crested the summit of Quartz Peak. We reached the cache and gratefully chugged to our hearts content, then took a longer break to cook and partake in other water-consuming activities. Since the cache was originally meant for four people there was plenty of water to go around, even more than we really needed.
Quenched and satisfied, we heaved our newly re-weighted packs onto our backs and slowly trudged towards Butterfly Peak. We dropped our packs a few hundred feet west of the highpoint and scrambled some fun class 3 to its summit.
summit of Butterfly Peak
Back at the packs, we descended straight south for over 200 ft to avoid a technical rock band, then cut east to meet back up with the ridge. As the sun dipped lower, we spent the next few hours going up and over the three Maricopa Fins without any difficulty. Sunset came as we summited Third Maricopa Fin.
traversing along the Maricopa Fins
sunset from Third Maricopa Fin
Only 10 minutes south the Maricopa Fins, we located an amazing flat stretch of ground that was out of the wind with an amazing view. There was just enough room for 3 people to bivy there, and we got to work setting up and cooking dinner. It was warm and comfortable and we were able to hang around and enjoy the area more than we had the previous night. There were several scraggly black spiders moving about and we periodically picked them up and threw them away as they would come crawling towards us. There was a nonzero chance I inadvertently ate some of them in my sleep.
Wanting to take advantage of cooler temperatures out of the sun, we started relatively early the following morning at 6:30am. Some annoying bushwhacking around the east side of a tower just after leaving camp brought us to a mellow ridge that went on for a ways. Soon we spotted the large 100 ft summit block of Montezuma Peak. The easiest way up it was a class 3 gully on its north side.
sunrise from Montezuma Peak
We continued south off the summit block, heading south along the ridge on easy class 3 terrain. A few minutes later, we arrived at a small radio installation and proceeded to drop almost 2,000 ft of elevation southeast along a series of crumbly ridges and gullies. This was some decaying, crumbly, and tedious terrain, the type where I felt like I could eat shit at any given moment if the wrong rock gave out. As we hit the lowpoint, the ground flattened out and transitioned to a loamy terrain which was more pleasant to walk on. The gradual ascent to Sky Valley Peak was on more of this relatively pleasant terrain.
From Sky Valley Peak, we descended south to cross a large flat valley and ascended pleasant terrain to Montezuma's Hump. From here we descended 2,000 ft to the desert floor. I periodically glanced over at Sevenmile Mountain which continued to rise higher as we descended, knowing that we would have to re-ascend a good chunk of the elevation there later. The first 1,000 ft of descent was on relatively unpleasant terrain, but not nearly as bad as the descent from Montezuma Peak several hours earlier. The second 1,000 ft down followed a prominent wash down to the desert floor. Travel through this wash was fun and on solid rock.
The heat felt searing as we hit the desert floor and I concentrated on drinking enough water to keep my body operational. We walked west for 2 miles to the base of Sevenmile Mountain, took a short break, and (slowly) charged up a rib that led directly to the summit. The terrain here was surprisingly good, saving us a noticeable amount more energy than anticipated. After 40 minutes we arrived at the summit, gazing across at the main Sierra Estrella crest which we were now fully disconnected from.
summit of Sevenmile Mountain
We could clearly see our other car to the west, now only a mile away but 1,600 ft below. Just to add a last bit of kick, the terrain to get there would not be the most pleasant. We descended north a few hundred feet and then cut west on the next available ridge. While the east side of Sevenmile Mountain was composed of relatively solid rock, the west side was not. A series of decomposing granite cliffs had us slipping and sliding and breaking off large chunks of rock and we moved downwards at a gingerly pace. It actually took longer to get down Sevenmile Mountain than it took to get up it.
The bad terrain very abruptly changed to flat pleasant ground as we hit the desert floor, and it was a short walk to the waiting car where we doused ourselves with water and changed into clean clothes before shuttling back to the other car. Overall this was an amazing experience in a mountain range with a unique personality. All of us greatly enjoyed this route, and we hope that others do too.
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