Eagle Eye Peak

Arizona Outback

Pam in the massive arch. Eagle Eye Mountain in back (left), with Pioneer Peak beyond that.
Pam in the massive arch. Eagle Eye Mountain in back (left), with Pioneer Peak beyond that.

Second week in a row out in Aguila with Pam, this time to scale Eagle Eye Peak and it’s house-sized arch.

Turns out there is a foot path up. The path is steep and slippery. The path also passes through a tiny arch. There’s more arches here than a McDonald’s convention.

There is some scrambling, and I was at the limit of my comfort zone. There’s a short, but tricky, chute up the outside edge of the arch, but you would need to be braver than us to try to get to the outside top that way. Lots of exposure.

Saw a couple, looked about our age, descending the wash between Eagle Eye Mountain and Cemetery Hill. We waved. I think they saw us.

While in the arch, I noticed a goat path that travelled south, from the tiny arch, across Eagle Eye Peak’s western slope. We took that, in the hope we would find an easy way to the massive cave a few hundred feet south of the Peak’s summit. Definitely doable, but we decided to leave it for another day. We were eating lunch next to the central jeep trail, when I noticed the couple up in Eagle Eye Arch. Never saw them after that. Hope they did not fall off the backside. (The east slope is 400 feet straight down.)

Ranch northeast of the arch. The only good approach to Eagle Eye Arch is from the west: If being shot by a angry cowboy does not dissuade you, the sheer 400 foot drop will.
Ranch northeast of the arch. The only good approach to Eagle Eye Arch is from the west: If being shot by a angry cowboy does not dissuade you, the sheer 400 foot drop will.

After lunch we went up the wash, an easy climb to the top of Cemetery Hill, which has quite a few flat shelves that would make awesome camp sites. Then we descended the north side of Cemetery Hill — not bad except for attempted murder by a cat’s claw — back to Pam’s SUV.

GPS File: Eagle_Eye_Peak

Distance: 2.78 mi.

AEG: 1,131 ft.

Time: 1h 44m