O’Leary Peak

O’Leary Peak 8938′ and O’Leary Lookout 8916′
Arizona Alpine
Total Time: 5:30
Roundtrip Distance: 10.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 2200′
Crux: Class 2
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: O’Leary Peak TH, toilets in CG nearby

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O’Leary Peak is a prominent lava dome in the San Francisco Peaks, standing tall over Sunset Crater National Monument. It had been on my to-do list for a long time, but my accident delayed an attempt even further. I had done a number of hikes around Flagstaff rehabbing my broken ankle, most around 4 miles or less. O’Leary is closer to 10 miles roundtrip, and 4.5 months out from my accident and 2 months of weight bearing, I felt I was finally ready to start pushing double digit mileage once more. Holly and I left Phoenix early, but with the usual I-17 traffic and a stop for breakfast and gas, we didn’t get started until after 10 AM. The small trailhead lot was nearly full starting out, and we hiked on the initially flat fire road as it skirted the National Monument Boundary.

Not far through the trees was Bonito Lava Field, one of the more recent lava flows in the area, with a swath of jagged black forming the distinctive boundary between the monument and forest. Rounding a corner, the summit came into view high above the road, the steepest sections of the hike just below the summit proper.

We slowly started to gain elevation from what had otherwise been a flat hike, and took our first break just beyond the first switchback, about 1.8 miles in. The grade continued to increase as we climbed higher, but gave us great views across Sunset Crater National Monument and glimpses of the other San Francisco Peaks and Humphreys massif to the west. We reached an open gate across the fire road at the saddle between O’Leary Peak and Darton Dome, and stopped in the shade before the road became more exposed, the pine trees thinning in the higher elevation.

The road passed beneath the western summit which is actually the natural high point, about 20′ taller than the eastern summit. But since the lookout tower is much taller than 20′, the highest point is the tower itself, albeit a man made one. So we continued past, the last 100′ of the road being the steepest by far with a metal grate across the road for traction.

The lookout tower at the summit was occupied and we headed up for better views. The wildfire lookout volunteer was eating lunch while reading a book, and didn’t even look up as we walked around the outside to take in the views. Given the bad fire year Arizona has been having, the views were quite hazy, although you could still make out the north rim of the Grand Canyon as well as the impact meteor crater far to the southeast.

We dropped off the lookout tower and had a snack near an outcropping of rocks while a Stellar Jay squawked from a nearby pine begging for some of our Cheetos. I was pretty set on tagging the actually natural highpoint of O’Leary to the west, but Holly admitted she had no interest in the sandy slog that it looked to be from below. It took us about 10 minutes to backtrack to the saddle between the two summits, and Holly took a short break in the shade while I started up the loose use trail. The lower reaches were basically pure ash and sand, and I would sink half a step back for each step taken.

But the loose terrain was short lived and I still topped out at the high point in about 6 minutes. The views west to Humphreys were completely unobstructed, with the lookout summit dominating the view to the east. I found the summit register tucked near a new bronze benchmark and signed myself in, finding the higher summit only sees 1-2 parties per month during the summer.

The loose sand made the descent quick and easy, and I was back with Holly in just over 4 minutes. With the temperature cooling and gravity on our side, we hiked quickly back down the trail, enjoying the views across the lava fields until we were back in forest.

We reached the car before 4 PM, the entire hike taking under 6 hours… not bad for a bum ankle. Back at the trailhead, we changed into cleaner clothes before heading into Flag for dinner and drinks at Dark Sky.