Pinal Peak

Hiking to & Camping near Pinal Peak | Globe, AZ | December 2023

After a quiet night camping on the Arizona Trail, we packed up and drove back to Dudleyville, then continued our drive North to Globe. Even though we’ve done this drive several times before, I didn’t remember how scenic it was, and we were constantly being reminded of how much we love Arizona. Besides enjoying the desert plants, rocks, and mountains, we also saw pockets of trees along water or in valleys that were still bearing their leaves in bright fall colors.

When we made it to Globe, we found our way onto roads leading us into the national forest, on the road to Pinal Peak. This was a peak that Curtis had been hoping to summit, and I so very bravely agreed to face the gravel road and a potentially cold night camping near the peak in order for him to reach his goal. We drove the road cautiously, hoping it wouldn’t be too much for the van. It took about an hour to drive the ~10 miles to Pinal Campground. The road was steep and narrow, sometimes with steep drop offs to the side, and as we neared our destination there were some patches of snow and ice on shaded, North-facing sections of road. But when we arrived, we were pleased to find an empty campground with clean outhouses and some views to the South.

We chose a spot and started to set up the van, but Charlotte seemed very excited to be out of the car and eager to go for a walk. From where we were camping, we were one mile away from the summit, and the entirety of the walk could be on the road, so we decided to go for it. Curtis started walking Charlotte while I rummaged through the van to find water and snacks for the hike, and some cold weather gear since we lost about 20 degrees, then hurried to catch up with them. This was the highest elevation that Charlotte and I had hiked for several years, but thanks to our van doing most of the work getting here, the walk to the summit really wasn’t that bad. We enjoyed the sunshine and cool air, and the sweeping views to the South.

We followed the road right up to the summit, and found it to be nothing like what we were expecting. We knew there were some radio towers, but it appeared that they had been abandoned and were falling apart. Giant parts of antenna were laying around all over. This was some next level “hiker trash” and it was a bizarre sight. Besides that, we had great visibility and enjoyed the views of other mountain ranges from the Southwest to the Southeast. We had some snacks, then began our walk back down to the campground.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, working, and trying to keep warm. Curtis walked down the road a short distance to a nearby firetower on Signal Peak, but it was still in use by the forest service and closed to the public. Clouds had been hovering above us throughout the day, and we hoped that with our South-facing view we would see a good sunset, and that evening we were not disappointed. The sunset was one of the best we’ve seen, enough to make us want to stand outside in the cold to enjoy it!

And after mentally preparing ourselves all day for a frigid night, it really wasn’t that bad — we didn’t run the van heater, and woke up to the van temp being in the 50’s — much warmer than any night on our way down to Arizona!