Hike Eagletail Peak Eagletail Mountains Wilderness, AZ

The Eagletail Mountains are an easily-overlooked small range west of Phoenix. The range seems to be known mostly for the climbers' haven called Courthouse Rock. The high point, our goal for the day, is made up of three large pinnacles that resemble the tail of an eagle or whatever. It's a fun name and a very cool-looking mountain range. I'll certainly be returning to check out the other peaks of the area.

We parked at the coordinates connected to the button above, but a bit about the parking situation before I recommend starting from there. To reach that location, we exited the I-10 and navigated here (33.53462, -113.16193), taking Harquahala Valley Road south, then turning right here (33.4645, -113.16191) onto Centennial Road. Any car can make it to about a half mile from where we parked, where the road became rutted. We drove as far south as we could on this rutted road until it curved east and entered private property. Checking a map for private property boundaries, we intended to hike west around a small hump to avoid private land, but right as we were getting packed a man rolled up to us in what seemed the equivalent of a civilian tank. Joe was incredibly friendly and told us we were welcome to hike along his road and pass his home. As we walked after a nice conversation, we passed plastic skeltons (maybe for Halloween?) and many "No Trespassing" signs. Had we not encountered Joe, we for sure would not have walked this road. He said it's to "prevent vagrants from trespassing". A couple of years later when we hiked to some peaks in the central part of the wilderness, we located another trailhead that would be a comparable distance, while avoiding the private property altogether. That trailhead is located here (33.44765,-113.33159).

After receiving permission from Joe, we started along his road, passed his No Tresspassing signs, and ducked under his barbed-wire fence to access the wilderness area. From here we just continued through the relatively flat desert to the south, wrapping around the inconveniently-placed Granite Mountain, which is really just a large desert hump. Now past the east ridge of Granite Mountain, we continued southwest and followed a combination of flat desert, old roadbed, and major washes. The walk went quickly despite the relatively long distance. Eagletail Peak came into view, and it looked incredibly cool and intimidating from below. The peak and its western ridgeline was fortifed by serious cliffs, so our only viable option seemed to be a major gully well to the right of the peak. This gully ended up being a little loose and brushy, but nothing inconsistent with the rest of the Sonoran Desert. I'd give it Class 2, but we did pull some Class 3 just to stay away from some excessive brush.

Once at the notch above the gully, we headed southeast up a pleasant slope. It was tempting to keep to the ridgeline, but the easiest option seemed to be to stay to the south of it. Finally Eagletail Peak came into view right in front of us, but there was a significant onstacle to overcome first, a sub-peak with a potentially scary ridgeline traverse. On our ascent we took the high road, but the ridgeline was fractured and had many notches, requiring us to stick just to the right on steep slabs. To get off the ridgeline and down to the sub-peak's saddle with Eagletail Peak required a Class 4 move and a bit of route-finding. Alternatively, you could take the low road (which we did on the way back) that I also included in my attached map. This route is Class 2 on loose terrain and without the extra vertical gain, but you don't get the nice ridgeline views toward Eagletail Peak.

Either way, we made it to the saddle on the northwest side of Eagletail Peak, and we headed up the Class 2 slope to the obvious weakness below the ridgeline. On the attached map, you'll note a dot I labeled "top of gully, start ridge". This is where the map imagery seems to be pretty messed up leading to the summit, but from here it's straightforward. A Class 2/3 very fun ridgeline leads with minimal exposure along the crest. After a few hundred feet of enjoyable scrambling, Eagletail Peak's highest point (the westernmost pinnacle) came into view. I looked at it and immediately thought we'd be bailing, and we all seemed to be preparing for that inevitability. It's a dangerous-looking spire. The easiest route was directly in front of us.

We poked around on the north and east sides of the summit spire, then Chris (our intrepid lead climber for the day) explored around to its southeast side. We even attempted a horrible crack over there, but Chris thankfully backed off. After some snacks, Chris visibly seemed to get more psych and he began inspecting the climb. Ultimately he decided to give it a go and started up the first pitch, what Chris called 5.8. He seemed to have no problem finding places to put his gear, but there was a small bulge toward the top that takes some thought and commitment. There were certainly solid holds, but there were also plenty that were not.

Once at the top of pitch 1, a nice big ledge, he pretty much immediately started up pitch 2. This he called 5.6R due to the slightly more loose rock and the runout he was forced to deal with on a slabby section that had poor placements. The final move also was quite loose and had a notable bulge with a few bigger holds that none of us really trusted. Mike and I watched all of this from below. I was in awe of his stupidity burliness. Now on the false summit, the true summit was just an exposed Class 3 scramble away. He belayed Mike and me and we all hung out on the somewhat narrow and very loose summit area, taking in the lovely Arizona views.

The rappel was a surprisingly happy ending, a new bolt (as of November 2021) and an old bolt serving as plenty of reassurance we'd be able to get down. Chris reinforced the new bolt by using some webbing, and we all took turns rappelling. Safely back on the ground, we breathed deeply and were thrilled to have summitted this desert gem. It was a scary climb (mostly for Chris), and certainly no classic, but it was a nice one to check off. We got back well after dark. We used Craig Barlow's route information for much of the climb, so thank you.