Trip report
Mar 6, 2026 — The Peralta Canyon Trail is popular for good reason, easy access leads to Fremont Saddle and a fantastic view of Weavers Needle. More adventurous trail hikers often extend that outing by linking the Peralta Canyon Trail with the Terrapin Trail, looping around the iconic spire. Whiley and I had both done that loop on previous outings, but we’d neglected the various peaks scattered off the trail, hence the formulation of our plan today. This was Kevin’s first trip to the Superstitions, and he chose to join us for Fremont Peak before turning back. Each summit required substantial effort, but our plan meant we returned to the loop trail between ascents. The brush was overall not too bad, but each peak had a notable amount of vertical gain and loss. The hike was crowded only in the first few miles, but the peaks themselves are rarely visited.
The Peralta Trailhead somehow offers free parking, an anomaly for such a popular hiking area. We started by making our way up to Fremont Saddle. Just past the saddle, we picked up a social trail heading generally west. Lower on the slope, a cool cluster of large pinnacles greeted us, growing increasingly prolific as we gained elevation and eventually forming an interesting maze to navigate. A few obstacles remained after we reached the ridgeline, but soon Fremont Peak’s high point came into sight. Several other rocky bumps along the crest briefly auditioned for the role of tallest point, a debate that modern LiDAR technology has since settled.
The summit block itself had a short Class 5 crux, which was not exposed and not high off the ground, but definitely required some effort. There was a nearly dead tree that offered support, if not structural confidence. We hadn’t researched this peak and my companions weren’t thrilled about the move. Above the crux, a few exposed Class 3 moves along the crest kept things interesting, including one massive boulder that I clung to on the left.
We decided to descend a different way, dropping down a steep slope to the north to avoid retracing our steps through the pinnacle maze. There was the usual assortment of brush and boulders to zigzag around, plus a dryfall about halfway down that required some light Class 3 to negotiate.
Peak 4008 was next. We headed up a drainage off the Peralta Canyon Trail, and immediately encountered brush that we avoided on an adjacent slope. Taking a steep slope ahead leading toward the summit ridge, the ascent was mostly Class 2, with some Class 2+ boulder action higher up. The ridgeline walk toward the summit gave us a genuinely unique perspective on Weaver’s Needle.
A direct descent off Peak 4008 looked too cliffy, so we continued along the ridgeline before dropping north on a steep slope peppered with light Class 3 bits. In hindsight, it likely would have made sense to backtrack and just traverse on the east side of Weavers Needle to get over to Bluff Spring Mountain, since the full loop added a bunch more miles and vertical. But the trail was pretty and we were having a nice time, so we filed that thought away and continued on.
Back on the Peralta Trail, we passed Black Top Mesa, a peak both Whiley and I had bagged on previous trips, so we agreed we could skip it today without losing any self-respect. We hit the Dutchman Trail #104 and headed east briefly. At the Terrapin Trail #234 junction, we turned right.
I had a confident but completely wrong memory of the Terrapin Trail being mostly flat. It gained substantial elevation and threw in plenty of little dips for character. Bluff Spring Mountain eventually came into view, and while the basin on its west slope looked tempting, it also looked very brushy, so we stuck to the trail for as long as possible. We found a wide gully with a few small cairns and surprisingly pleasant bedrock underfoot, which kept the brush at bay. This brought us to the summit ridgeline, which we followed, finding only a short Class 2+ section just before the top. From the summit we had great views of Weavers Needle, Superstition Peak in the distance, and a nice northeast look at Tortilla Mountain, where we’d been just the day before.
Our descent followed the standard summit route, which used a tame slope on the southeast side leading to a key gully weakness through the cliff band on the south of Bluff Spring Mountain. On the way down, Peak 3771 came into view, our final objective of the day, looking dramatic with its two summit blocks separated by a notch.
Despite all summits being pretty enjoyable today, Peak 3771 was our favorite. The north ridge approach had a couple of pinnacles to scramble around, with nothing more than a short Class 3 move. A brushy gully led up to the notch separating two summit blocks, the western one taller. The gully up to the notch was short-lived if annoying, but the summit route that followed was excellent. A short Class 3+ move led into a weakness in the cliff face, followed by a step over a gap. An interesting Class 4 chimney with great holds and an inconveniently placed agave led up to an exposed Class 4 move. A final Class 2/3 wide chute led to the summit block itself.
Whiley wanted to run the entire Bluff Spring Trail #235 for an FKT, which required her to backtrack to reach the head of the trail. I knew I couldn’t keep up with her downhill running pace, and I also wanted to explore a different descent option. I dropped south from the saddle separating the two summit blocks on what turned out to be a loose, hot, thoroughly unremarkable descent. There was some slickrock that broke up the brush, but a trail would have been dramatically more desirable. I emerged onto the Bluff Spring Trail eventually and followed it all the way back down to the Peralta Trailhead.