Graham County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: November 4, 2005
Author: Roy Wallen
hiked with Dave Covill
From the intersection of Routes 191 and 366, south of Safford, head west on 366
across the valley floor and ascend to the Graham massif as the road winds its
way upward. At 21.6 miles from 191, pass the entrance to Shannon Park
Campground on the right. Shortly after this turn-off, there is a gravel forest
road (unmarked) on the right. We started up this forest road and were soon met
with a locked gate. We turned around and parked.
We hiked up the dirt road, following the topo the whole way. After over 90
minutes of hiking, we came to a fork in the road where the road ascending the
summit is cut with berms dug by a bulldozer, so as to make it totally unusable.
Take this right fork and circle around the north side of Mount Graham, as shown
on the topo. At some point, you’ll likely want to cut cross-country to make a
shorter way to the summit. Our ascent took 2 hours 5 minutes.
There is a nested-can register with entries by the usual suspects as well as
several other groups. After a 25-minute lunch break, we returned the way we came,
making it back to the gate in 90 minutes. This route saved a bit of
distance and gain versus coming up an old jeep road which is reached a bit
further along the paved road. We saw no one and there was evidence of only one
person's boot prints on the road. There were no signs of any vehicles on this
dirt road at all, possibly none for years. We believe that the observatory a
mile west of Mount Graham is reached from a road on the southwest shoulder of
the massif. There was one small negative sign halfway up, referring to squirrels,
which we noticed on the way back down.