Hike Golden Dome and Northern Goldfield Mountains Tonto National Forest, AZ

Jan 5, 2026 — Golden Dome is a notable summit in the Goldfield Mountains, surrounded by folds of gorgeous, colorful canyons. While not the high point of the Goldfield Mountains, a title claimed by the more popular Dome Mountain, the route to Golden Dome offered a much more exciting route-finding adventure in a seldom-visited region of the greater Superstition Mountains. What really stuck with me was how much unexplored-looking terrain stretched out around it. The Superstitions generally have a way of pulling me in with their visual complexity, always making me wonder what I’m missing if I don’t go deeper.

I parked at a large lot labeled Salt River Water Users and crossed the sluggish, stagnant channel of the Salt River. A few tiny leeches made an appearance, my first time finding them on my leg, but none latched on. The Salt River is tightly managed by dams and reservoirs upstream, and serves as a recreational corridor farther down. Today it didn’t seem to be moving at all, my crossing point being just below the Stewart Mountain Dam that holds back Saguaro Lake.

Once across, it took me a moment to find what looked like a trail on satellite imagery, but once I locked onto it, the route was obvious. Later research confirmed it was a real trail called the Gateway Canyon Trail, though I’m unsure if it’s maintained or even built in an official capacity. The trail headed west, loosely paralleling the Salt River, before bending south away from the sandy beach terrain and into the saguaro-speckled rolling hills of the Goldfields.

Rhyodacite Canyon is the south-north draining watercourse that would begin the off-trail portion of my hike. The Gateway Canyon Trail began drifting east and away from Rhyodacite, and would be my descent route later after visiting Golden Dome. I left the trail and cut south into Rhyodacite Canyon proper. The canyon included plenty of rock-hopping and the usual Sonoran catclaw negotiations, but nothing excessive. As the canyon narrowed, the obstacles changed constantly, but no section felt meaningfully harder than the last. It was engaging without being tedious.

Above me on the right was Peak 2662, but I couldn’t tell where the high point was. Every face looked defended by steep, volcanic tuff. Above that layer of bright yellow rock was darker and more sinister-looking stuff that I’d deal with later. I messed up so horribly on my initial approach by attempting to ascend early that I had to return completely to the canyon floor again, a mishap that I left out of my stats/map. Because of this, though, I did learn that there’s no reasonable way to reach the summit from any direction except the south.

I reached the southeastern base of the peak and started working my way up the orange, lumpy tuff that defines the Superstitions and their neighbors. I aimed for a notch on the south side and was encouraged to find cairns along the way, but unfortunately the cairns delivered me only to an overlook at the notch, not the summit itself.

From there, it became clear that no standard route has been established for this summit. If I wanted Peak 2662, I’d have to earn it by poking around on various potential routes through the tuff layer. I located a couple of tougher, low Class 5 options that I wasn’t interested in, finally squeezing up a brush-choked weakness that allowed me to zig-zag up to the top of the yellow layer. On my way down later I found an adjacent slightly easier route, but it required sliding a few feet off a ledge. My friends Matt and Yossi were able to get through the tuff via a weakness a bit north of where I ascended via an entirely different approach, but they later reported that it was a little bit sketchy. I’d say the peak is Class 4 at a minimum based on the info I’ve gathered. Past the tuff, I wrapped to the right around the base of the darker-colored rock, then headed up a gully and a slope to reach a Class 3+ chimney. This took me up to the summit.

I returned to Rhyodacite Canyon and continued south and east. It was more rock-hopping and generally easy brush avoidance. I left the drainage at a premature and weird spot to ascend toward Golden Dome, mostly because I was excited to get to higher ground, but I basically ascended toward a little cliff without realizing it, and fortunately it was only Class 3. You could stay in the drainage and wrap farther south before making this ascent. The subsequent slope leading to the ridge crest was typical loose Class 2.

I headed east toward Golden Dome, but along the crest was a substantial rock outcropping. I hugged its based on its north side, following a grassy moderately-angled slope, and then navigated some initial brightly-colored rock along the crest. Some light Class 3 took me to the base of Golden Dome, where a short Class 3 move on solid rock led to a bit of light navigating up to the summit.

I backtracked from Golden Dome and headed along the crest to Peak 3097, a steep slope leading to a Class 2 cliff band weakness. From the summit, I dropped north onto a sweeping slope, navigated a few minor obstacles, and located the head of the Gateway Canyon Trail. I took the surprisingly well-traveled trail back.