Hike The Four Peaks (The Motherlode) via Oak Flat Tonto National Forest, AZ

Directions

Route Map

Download GPX

The Four Peaks (The Motherlode) via Oak Flat GPX Track

I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.

Add to Cart

View Cart

I wanted to challenge myself, and the standard route of The Motherlode (a traverse of the Four Peaks), while definitely a lot of work, didn't have the large amount of gain I was hoping for. The standard route starts from the Lone Pine Saddle Trailhead (Browns Trailhead), and I'd recommend you just do that (see map). Alternatively, I started at the Oak Flat Trailhead to add a few thousand elevation gain, as well as to avoid any potential road damage issues to the standard approach.

The Oak Flat Trail (#123) led steeply up a sandy trail to a junction with the Pigeon Trail (#134), which I followed to the next junction with the Four Peaks Trail (#130). Shortly after, the Amethyst Trail (#253), though poorly maintained during my visit, leads steeply up to the Browns Trail (#133). The Amethyst Trail continues along the western base of the Four Peaks, the same trail I ended up taking back after finishing the Motherlode. Alternatively, if you can't find the Amethyst Trail, you can continue along the Four Peaks Trail, which leads to the Lone Pine Trailhead, where you can then start the standard route most take.

Regardless, once on the Browns Peak Trail (#133), I decided to do the Motherlode via Browns Peak first, working my way south. Follow the well-defined trail to the gully up Browns Peak's northwest side. There's some Class 2, and then a Class 3 move, and the gully has definitely seen a fair amount of human erosion. An easy ridge leads to the summit, where the next three peaks loom ahead: Brother Peak, Sister Peak, and Amethyst Peak. Dropping down to the saddle of Browns and Brother requires some scrambling, but a true crux is just after the saddle on the way up to Brother, where some mostly solid rock put me at the ridgeline leading to the second summit. The route from Brother to Sister is the most tedious, in my opinion. The ridgeline is riddled with impassable cliffs (unless you've got a rope to rappel), so instead I dropped east for a few hundred feet to make my way to Brother and Sister saddle. The difficulty continues from here, though. I'm not toally sure what I did to ascend Sister Peak, but any number of routes likely would work. I pulled a couple of Class 3/4 moves to get up Sister Peak. It's possible I did more work than necessary, so this section requires some route-finding. Sister Peak doesn't yet mark the end of the route-finding, though. The route down the south side required finding a gully to avoid more impassable cliffs, but the route worke really well once I located the gully. At the saddle of Sister and Amethyst, a quick scramble through some trees lead to the summit, and then I headed back to the saddle and took the standard gully down to the Amethyst Trail. Apparently this is private property, so enter at your own risk. I certainly wasn't going back the way I came. Follow the very easy to follow Amethyst Trail (#253) back to the Browns Trail, and then continue on the Amethyst Trail back the way you came, assuming you took my route. Otherwise, it's a just a short jaunt back to the Lone Pine Trailhead. I included both routes in the attached map for reference.

PEAKS ON HIKE
Elevation (ft) / Prominence (ft)

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Browns Peak

7657 ft

3297 rise

Brother Peak

7642 ft

242 rise

Sister Peak

7572 ft

492 rise

Amethyst Peak

7524 ft

284 rise

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!

Starting out from the Oak Flat Trailhead

Looking back along the Oak Flat Trail.

Roosevelt Reservoir in the distance.

After a bit over a mile, you can see Browns Peak in the distance (a little bit of snow on there.

Approaching Browns Peak along the pretty poorly maintained Amethyst Trail.

Browns Peak just ahead. I hadn't seen a single person all day until merging with the Browns Trail, and wouldn't see anyone along the traverse either.

Looking back along the Browns Trail ridge.

The Class 2 section of Browns Peak.

Someone not having a good time who decided to turn around.

Looking down the gully after doing the short Class 3 section.

Looking back down the gully toward the Browns Trail ridge.

Almost to the summit.

Looking out at the traverse from Browns Peak.

After descending Browns Peak, this is at the saddle heading toward Brother Peak.

Looking back toward Browns Peak from slightly past the saddle.

Continuing toward Brother Peak.

The Class 3/4 scramble - if you look closely, you'll see rappel webbing above.

Looking back toward Browns from the near-summit.

Getting close now!

Summit of Brother Peak.

I descended for a little bit on the left (east) away from the ridge because the down climb along the ridge looked ridiculously scary.

At the saddle after descending Brother Peak on the way to Sister Peak. The route gets a bit difficult to follow around here.

I got into that gully, then found some sort of strange route to get to the knife edge. I have no idea what I did, but it worked after much trial and error.

Summit of Sister Peak.

Amethyst Peak in the distance. The last one.

I found the gully that led down from Sister Peak to the saddle with Amethyst (pictured right).

Looking up toward Amethyst. I didn't take pictures at the Amethyst Peak summit, but the route is pretty straightforward. To my right is the gully leading down.

On the way down the gully.

Looking back up the gully, Amethyst Mine on the right.

Continuing on Private Property (Amethyst Mine), but finally I got back to an actual trail (Amethyst Trail).

Leaving private property.

Continuing along the Amethyst Trail.

Approaching Browns Peak on the right, but the Amethyst Trail stays at its base.

Looking back along the Amethyst Trail before meeting back up with the Browns Trail and heading back the way I came.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!