Hike Southern Saddle Mountains Saddle Mountain BLM, AZ

Mar 7, 2026 — On topo maps, this group of peaks doesn’t appear to have its own named range and is simply labeled as Saddle Mountain. I had hiked to the high point years ago and always wanted to return to check out its sister summit, the unnamed Peak 2796 adjacent to Saddle Mountain that forms the saddle giving the mountain its name. Several smaller nearby points also made for an appealing loop. My friend Matt had discovered an interesting scramble up Peak 2080, an innocuous-looking nubbin that had also caught our interest. Kevin, Whiley, and I drove a series of rough roads to reach our starting point, though we found a much better approach on the way out that wasn’t obvious at all from the start. The area is best known for the hike to Saddle Mountain itself, a prominent summit with a fairly obvious trail to the top. It’s also popular with RV boondockers and ATV riders, but somehow we still managed to feel pretty isolated throughout the hike.

We parked just outside a gate and hiked alongside it on a dirt road, though I suppose you could drive another half mile or so to its end. Leaving the road, we entered a drainage and ascended to a low saddle on an animal trail that wrapped around and brought us toward the base of Peak 2796. We wanted to tackle this one first since it was the largest objective of the day. We climbed a broad slope littered with boulders and loose terrain, making our way to a weakness in the cliffs above. A Class 2+ move near the top deposited us on a steep, cactus-covered slope that led to the ridgeline. The ridge offered gorgeous views toward Saddle Mountain, along with a short Class 3 move near the summit.

After backtracking, we worked our way toward Peak 2080 and its fun scramble, but along the way we became distracted by the imposing and very attractive Peak 2324. We couldn’t find any information on reaching its summit, and there was clearly no route from our current side. We knew we’d have to wrap around to another aspect of the mountain to have any chance of finding a feasible line. After some waffling, we decided to give it a try despite the significant amount of extra effort it would require.

We headed up a rocky slope to gain its west ridge. Following the crest proved to be a mistake, as we were eventually stopped by a sheer face (I removed this detour from the attached map and track). Instead, we picked up an animal trail that wrapped around the peak lower down through loose side-hilling nonsense. Spotting a potential weakness, we decided it was worth investigating since every other aspect of the peak looked improbable on the topo map. Somehow, the route broke through a serious cliff band and brought us onto Class 2+ terrain above the point where we’d been turned back earlier. Continuing along the crest, we were surprised to find that most of the difficulties were already behind us, despite the dramatic drop-off on our left and the maze of ledge systems on our right. Along the way, we passed through an arch right on the ridge crest, a unique and serendipitous formation that may have created the only practical route to the summit.

After returning from Peak 2324, we resumed our original objective: the featured scramble up Peak 2080. A gully led us to the southern crest of the peak. From here we headed up to a Class 3 move, where we were stopped at the base of a headwall. We wrapped left around this headwall, curving upward through a series of Class 2 and Class 3 moves before reaching the summit ridge. Staying just right of the crest, we made our way to the top, where we startled a couple of bighorn sheep. They quickly found their own route down, and we watched their improbable descent with more than a little envy.

The final peak was a small barely-ranked summit on the way back to the car, Peak 1936. We had to wrap around to its north side because the south face was guarded by a cliff. We ascended a talus field on its west side, then located a broad slope on the northern side, and made a quick ascent to the top. From there, we descended and rejoined the road for the hike back to the cars.