Trip report
Jan 26, 2024 — Buzzards Roost would be more of a Superstition Mountains icon if it were closer to civilization and, therefore, more visible to hikers in the range. Being a bit remote means it gets few eyes on it and far fewer visitors. The summit register of Buzzards Roost claims it is also known as Capital Dome, but I couldn’t find any reference to that name elsewhere. And although there was very little information about reaching the summit, we did find a report online for reaching something called the “alcove saddle,” which we checked out. The awkward amount of time required to attempt finding a route on this peak finally fit nicely into a trip, really just a half-day so we could get to Phoenix for some nightlife to break up our week in the middle of nowhere.
Along N Elephant Butte Road, we passed an open gate that clearly stated we needed to obtain handwritten AZ State Land Trust permission. I had a permit from the prior year for some sort of AZ trust land elsewhere, and without clear instruction, we proceeded through, hoping my permit would pass the test if we got asked, but we were not confronted. You might want to do more research, but there were lots of ATVers out here who I doubt had received “handwritten permission.” The road was overall okay with some surprise bone-rattling dips, but my Crossover SUV was unable to proceed past a bad spot here (33.35821, -111.27059), so I crammed myself onto Karson’s lap in Matt’s more burly vehicle to reach where we parked. The morning light was pretty fantastic on the massive bulk of our peak, a feature that rises abruptly and seems to be a daunting summit from here, unlike anything else around it.
Past where we parked, the road continues, and we followed it on foot. I recommend not going farther unless you have an ATV because there are some big rocks and encroaching brush. We left the road shortly after where we parked at a wildlife water catchment system, and headed north toward the southern ridge of Buzzards Roost. The slope steepened and became rocky, but once along the ridge, it was a tame walk toward Buzzards Roost’s base. Clearly, the southern and western aspects of the peak wouldn’t be feasible, so we figured we should head around to the north side to scope our options to obtain the high point.
A small nubbin on the west slope of the peak was our first goal since the cliffs seemed like they could cause us some trouble if we tried side-hilling. We passed over a wire fence, reached the top of this nubbin, then curved east and descended toward the shadowed slopes of Buzzards Roost. The only information we had was for accessing the alcove saddle, but at the time, we thought this route could also lead to the summit. It does not. The first major inlet on the right served as the breakthrough the cliffs we needed, a Class 2 slope with some short Class 3 moves leading up to the alcoves. I left this cute little add-on to my map, stats, and photos below, but going this way isn’t necessary for the summit. It just has some nice views.
To reach the summit, we wrapped all the way around the northern reaches of Buzzards Roost, then side-hilled on the northeastern slope beneath the substantial cliffs, a clear gully weakness cutting diagonally up toward the summit visible ahead. The traverse to it was a bit brushy, and there was plenty of post-fire debris everywhere, but soon we got to the base of the gully. The gully was quite steep and only a few sections of Class 3 on solid rock that were interspersed amongst the otherwise dirty ascent. At the top of the gully, a fortuitous bench wrapped us left beneath a cliff band. We weaved around some brush and reached the easternmost reaches of Buzzards Roost. To the left was a wild drop, but a series of Class 3 moves on good rock kept us just far enough away that it didn’t feel too exposed. Some old steel cable was attached at the top of this section, not long enough to be helpful for the crux, and I’m not really sure why it’s there. It was a quick skip up to the summit after this crux section, where the views of the Superstitions were phenomenal even at a distance. The impressive forms of Weavers Needle and Superstition Peak jutted up to the north.
We still had enough time to check out unnamed Peak 3128 to the west. To reach it, we thought it would be best to take the ridgeline since the more direct slopes seemed very brushy. Shawn decided to take the slopes and beat us to the saddle, but I didn’t regret our decision since the views are always nicer from the ridge. There are a few rock outcroppings you definitely want to wrap around rather than go over, a mistake we made a couple of times and were cliffed-out. Otherwise, there’s plenty of cholla to avoid and a couple of small cliff obstacles adding light Class 3 workarounds.
Peak 3128 looked very fun from below. A short, steep slope brought us to a variety of options to gain the summit. Shawn took a more direct Class 4 route, while the rest of us curved to the left and headed up its eastern ridge. This turned out to be an unexpected bit of wonderful desert fun on a wannabe-sawtooth, a wide variety of moves on relatively solid rock, including a chasm squeeze and lots of fun lumpy ledges. This ridge led to a false summit. A near-knife-edge that is mostly avoidable leads to the true summit. The perspective from this cute add-on peak toward Buzzards Roost was neat. Below, we could see ATVers carrying on through Coffee Flat Canyon.
We backtracked to the saddle and headed south, fortunately locating mostly brush-free terrain after an initial clump of thicket caused concern. We wrapped around the western slopes of Buzzards Roost and eventually made it back to the water catchment and the road. An impressive coincidence was that my friend Adam Walker was secretly independently planning to hike Buzzards Roost the literal day after us.