Nestled in the northern foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains is one of the truly outstanding and challenging trails near Tucson. The trail begins in a lush riparian area and slowly climbs up and out of the canyon onto a ridge, increasing altitude until you reach the hair-raising steep hill climb leading to the summit. The serious obstacles have been removed by trail maintenance, rendering the trail less challenging. You should be able to complete this trail in under two hours. If you love Arizona scenery and don't mind a little effort to get to it, this is the trail for you!
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Start at the Mount Lemmon Control Road Trail. You will begin your Rice peak Journey at Waypoint 7, 9.7 Miles from the start of that trail. The Rice Peak trail starts immediately across the road from the Peppersauce Campground.
This trail is currently open and was not directly impacted by the Burro Fire. Map of the Fire AreaPima County Road Closure Information
Pima County Road Hotline (Recording): 520-547-7510
I did this trail a few years ago in my 80 series Land Cruiser and had no problem. I ran this trail recently in a Rubicon Wrangler on 37"s and maybe it was just the tires, but even in 4Lo and locked, it would not make it at the halfway point on the first big hill climb to the summit. Alot more loose rocks than i remember. Will have to try it again with my Land Cruiser.
I did this trail a few years ago in my 80 series Land Cruiser and had no problem. I ran this trail recently in a Rubicon Wrangler on 37"s and maybe it was just the tires, but even in 4Lo and locked, it would not make it at the halfway point on the first big hill climb to the summit. Alot more loose rocks than i remember. Will have to try it again with my Land Cruiser.
The bighorn fire has closed the roads up Mount Lemmon. The town of Summerhaven is under a SET to prepare for an evacuation order. (as of 6/15/2020) This fire has grown about 1-2 thousand acres per day and the weather is not doing anything to slow this down. (Hot and windy).
Fun trail with amazing views along the entire trail. I don't have any pictures (battery died). Please write a review and add your pictures. Although Dead Man's Drop is no longer this trail still has a good steep factor to it which i think keeps it difficulty rating. I did not go into 4low but I did not do the last hill accent, there was a group of side-by-sides up top. There are some great camp spots up here.
Ran up here in about an hour each way. The rocks in the middle at waypoint 5 are bulldozed out. There are still some rocks to climb on the left.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) Wypoint 16, "dead man's drop" is no more. There are large boulder piles on either side of the road marking where once it scared the mighty. Not even a noticeable shelf there now. I have lowered the difficulty on this trail to easy. However, he loose rocky section to the summit required my rear locker to get up.
The last 250 yards are easily climbed on foot should you choose to park at the fork, Waypoint 17, before the loose stuff.
MAJOR update to this trail. I believe due to the fires this summer on Mt Lemmon, most of the obstacles on this trail have been cleared out, I understand why, but as a 4x4er I'm disappointed. Like Dead Man's Drop Obstacle is gone, there's a huge pile off the side of the road where all those rocks were moved to. Also Rocky Outcrop Obstacle was cleared out. The whole trail almost looks like it's graded now. Any obstacle I thought was even the slightest challenge was "fixed" and now any stock vehicle (read no lift and passenger tires) can make it. However the very end to the peak the loose rock climb is still there and is now the only "challenge" on the road, which isn't really a challenge at all. Saw several stock trucks coming down before going up and was like umm..... how did they get up there?!?! Then I learned and am totally disappointed in this trail now.
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I moved to Arizona in 1984 and bought my first offroad vehicle the next year. I had lots of adventures, seeking out the Old West on paper topo maps in my Toyota FJ40 and can say, fortunately, that I never had to walk home. In 2005 I saw the prototype for the FJ Cruiser, and in the middle of my FJ40 resto project, someone came into my garage with cash and bought it out from under me. (Some regrets) In 2008, I flew out to LA to pick up my FJ Cruiser, special ordered with the Offroad Package (Locker) and MT6. My area of operations has been Southern Arizona, from the New Mexico to California borders. Unfortunately, the FJ Cruiser burned in a fire in August 2020. Now I'm building up from the ashes, literally, salvaged parts from the FJ are going on my Lexus GX470. SO, that's what's coming out next.
I have been an active member of AZFJ.org where I'm the top post contributor, and have many trail reviews posted there that I plan on enhancing, revisiting and documenting for this authoritative source. I have a login to Ih8Mud and fjcruiserforums but don't lurk there very much.
in my career, I've had the pleasure of traveling in Canada, the Caribbean, and Australia but never had the opportunity to wheel there. (bucket list). But, I hope my 30 years of Southern Arizona discovery, teaching and leading people into the backcountry will finally benefit a wider audience here on Trailsoffroad. There's nothing I enjoy more than finding a historic site, a little-used trail that had significance or the opportunity to take that one photo that defines what we do. (I stink but I'm willing to learn).
Oh..Added benefit...I'm the GIS analyst for a fire dept and as such have some skills in ArcGIS.
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