Hike Little Picacho via Marcus Wash Little Picacho Wilderness BLM, CA

Little Picacho is a minor summit located deep in the Little Picacho Wilderness. Its steep-looking contours put it on our radar, but its driving remoteness and extensive wash walk required to reach it kept it low priority. The naming of peaks in the area is understandably confusing, considering Little Picacho is likely named based on its proximity to Picacho Peak, but it doesn’t help that Little Picacho Benchmark is nearby too. Further, since “picacho” means “peak” in Spanish, just imagine explaining these peaks to a Spanish-speaker.

Any car can reach the Picacho State Recreation Area, but some clearance is required once turning onto a side road heading east here (33.01863, -114.61508). We parked at the Marcus Wash Trailhead and followed this trail for a short time until it dumped us into Marcus Wash. Apparently, this trail continues for many miles to the northeast, but that wasn’t our plan. Instead, we headed south and followed the sandy wash for nearly four miles. Clear ATV tracks were visible most of the time, though I’m not sure where they could have come from. We did know that they were illegal since this is a wilderness area, but it would have been nice to skip the largely uninteresting slog.

The wash narrowed into slightly more interesting sections a couple of times, but we mostly just tried to make quick time until we finally saw the various craggy peaks surrounding Little Picacho on the horizon. From below, it looked like a significant undertaking, and we were certain there were no possible routes from this direction. Fortunately, Bob Burd had already done the route-finding work, so we followed his ascent choice. We stayed in the drainage for as long as possible to avoid the lumpy badlands surrounding the base of the peak but eventually had to leave the wash and ascend south toward the steep, loose slope.

On the northeast end of Little Picacho, we found a wide gully that would serve as our route, flanked by a sheer face on the right and a 20-foot headwall on the left. At the head of this gully was a massive chockstone, and we couldn’t find any way around it that high up. Instead, a Class 4 lower-angle portion of the headwall provided a route out of the gully. I wasn’t keen on the loose rock in my trail runners and asked Chris to drop me some webbing, and he obliged. This move wasn’t tricky, but vital holds seemed too loose to trust. While the exposure was minimal, a fall still wouldn’t be fun.

Once above the Class 4 move, we continued in a Class 3 narrow chute on mostly solid rock for a hundred feet or so until we could cross above the chockstone. The route continued on steep Class 2/3 slabs for a while, a fun endeavor that didn’t seem to last long enough. Just past a small notch, Tyler and Matt decided to scramble up sketchier Class 4 terrain, while Chris and I wrapped to the right and located a Class 3 set of blocky moves to gain the ridgeline and ultimately the summit. The views of the surrounding lumps within the wilderness area, the distant Chocolate Mountains, and the snaking Colorado River created a lovely panorama.