Cimarron Peak – what is it, where is it? It’s a huge extinct shield volcano out in the middle of the Hickiwan District on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation in southern Arizona. It’s not the tallest peak on the res, but it certainly is the biggest if you examine the sheer volume of it. It has an elevation of 4,124 feet and rises almost 2,000 vertical feet above its surroundings, and is about 8 miles across.
Looking south to Cimarron Peak from the gas pipeline road. The summit is about 2.5 miles away.
If you want to go and climb it, you’d need to get a permit to do so, but you’re not going to get one. Way back in the day, and by that I mean the 1980s, the Hickiwan District used to issue permits to outsiders to come on to their land. The permits were free, but they only allowed you to visit Cave Mountain. I got to know the district chairman at Vaya Chin and asked nicely if it would be possible to visit other places nearby. I suggested that I would be willing to pay for a permit that would give me more liberty to explore farther afield than Cave Mountain. He said he couldn’t actually charge me for a permit, but perhaps I could make a donation to their district Youth Council, the money going towards projects for the kids living in the district. That way he would let me fill in on the permit application that I could visit all parts of the district. Wow, that sounded great, so that’s what I did. As time passed, I kept applying for permits for longer and longer periods of time, as long as 6 months at a time (the usual permit to visit Cave Mountain was just for one day), and I kept increasing the size of my donation. It got to the point where I was donating a hundred dollars at a time and in turn was getting signed permits from the district office allowing me to visit not only all of the Hickiwan District but all of the rest of the reservation too. Technically, I don’t think they had the ability to allow me to visit the entire reservation, but that’s what my permit stated, and the many times I was stopped by the Border Patrol or the Tohono O’odham Rangers, no matter where I was on the reservation, I simply showed them my permit and they were always satisfied – they never hassled me, but once in a while they asked to take a photo of the permit with their phone. So that was my secret, the reason why I was able to eventually climb all 400 peaks on the reservation without getting into trouble.
One climbing website shows 20 people who have climbed the peak, but I am sure there are several others not mentioned. I first went there on April 13 of 2001 and climbed it by myself from the north side. A couple of years later, I went back – it was March 15th of 2003 when I climbed it again, this time in the company of climber friends John Vitz and Andy Martin. This was no ordinary day, though. They cut me loose and I continued south on a traverse down miles of ridges, picking up a couple of subsidiary peaks en route, finishing up after a 13-mile day where I had left my truck back on the southwest side of the mountain.
As the years passed, I had several adventures around Cimarron Peak. Access is pretty good, so you can get in nice and close without too much effort. All along the south side of the peak runs paved Indian Highway 34. Road 13 runs along the west side, from the village of Hickiwan in the south to the hamlet of Stoa Pitk in the north. Road 13 is also known as the Stoa Pitk Road and is a dirt road which can be in rough shape after a bad rain. On the southeast side of the peak, about 4 miles out from the base, paved Indian Highway 23 runs north from its junction with Highway 34 – it goes north to the village of Ventana, then northwest a few miles more to end at the village of Kaka. Here, the pavement ends. The El Paso Natural Gas pipeline runs east-west across the reservation, passing through Kaka, then continuing west – it passes along the north side of Cimarron Peak, then drops down to meet Road 13 near Stoa Pitk. The pipeline road is also known as Road 342 to the O’odham. Just west of Kaka, the pipeline road can go all to hell after rainy weather, and I’ve seen it bad enough that you need 4WD to get through. Three named valleys surround Cimarron: the Kaka Valley sits to the north and northeast; the Hickiwan Valley can be found on the west and southwest sides; the Quijotoa Valley lies to the east and southeast.
Cimarron Peak lies entirely within the Hickiwan District. Of the 11 districts that make up the reservation, Hickiwan is of fairly average size, I’m guessing about 600 square miles. The entire district has a population of about 800 people. The village of Hickiwan has about 260 inhabitants, and although it is the largest community in the district, the administrative offices are found in Vaya Chin, a much smaller place with a population of only 45. All of the villages in the district are served by paved roads, including Charco 27, Kaka, Gunsight and Ventana, with one exception. Stoa Pitk lies 9 road miles north of Hickiwan, and census data shows that 25 or so people live there, but I’ve been there many times and have never encountered a soul or seen evidence of any habitation. Life there would be tough – there is neither electricity nor any other services, and water is pumped from wells. Not much incentive for young people to stay there, while the other communities have all services including internet.
One cold winter’s day, I was driving north of Hickiwan village on the Stoa Pitk Road. A few hundred yards off to the west, I saw several indocumentados atop a small rise. They had lit a fire, I’m sure to keep warm, and the smoke was quite visible. Pretty bold, I thought – running an obvious risk of the Border Patrol homing in on their position.
Only about a mile north of Roadrunner Mountain is the site of the former community of Tatai Toak and its cemetery, long abandoned. About 5 miles north of Hickiwan is the former settlement of Emika. All that remains nowadays to show that anyone ever lived there is an old corral, the ruins of a few homes and the remnants of what appears to have been a church.
The old church?
The village of Hickiwan has a nice recreation center, built with gaming revenue from casinos operated by the tribe. Similar revenue has built a nice facility for Early Childhood Headstart at Vaya Chin, a quick 10-minute drive east from Hickiwan.
One time I was up near Emika and I wanted to climb Peak 2991 over to the east of Road 13. I was able to follow an old track for a bit, but in maneuvering to park, I punched a hole through the sidewall of a tire when I ran into a sharp bit of brush. It took a while to change the tire, as the ones on my truck are quite heavy. That done, I headed out to climb the peak – it went well and I was back before too long. As I headed back to Road 13, believe it or not I punctured another tire. Fortunately, that was back in the day when I carried a second spare mounted on a rim. I changed that one, then beat a hasty retreat before I got myself into any more trouble.
On the northwest side of Cimarron Peak sits a small mountain known as Toapit Benchmark. It sits just to the south of the gas pipeline road and begs to be climbed as you are driving by. It only occurred to me in later years that the surveyors had given it that name because of the nearby village of Stoa Pitk.
There is a group of peaks lined up like a string of pearls on the south side of Cimarron. They are Peak 2700, Peri Benchmark, Peak 3211 and Peak 2957. Access is great and the climbing is enjoyable. They all look down on to Highway 34 to the south. Across the highway and a bit farther south sit the Crooked Mountains, their only summit being Peak 2681.
If you go to Vaya Chin, there is a dirt road heading northwest from the village. One day I went there with friend Mike. We met an O’odham rancher and clarified our directions with him, then continued. The road soon becomes 4WD, passing between Peak 2590 and Peak 2745. Beyond them, it quickly goes to hell in a handbasket. Four miles out from the village, it becomes completely undriveable. If you get lucky, you might pick it up again as it angles steeply up a hillside, but by then it is shown merely as “Foot” on the map. Climb up to the ridge at 2,800 feet and you’re in a good position to climb east to Peak 3161, which seems quite a way off by the time you’ve followed the sinuous ridge leading to it. Make your way back to the 2,800-foot point and you can make your way west to Peak 3275, out there in the distance. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you could continue north several miles more on the footpath until you emerge into flat desert country. That would place you in a good position to head a bit farther north to climb both Peak 2581 and Peak 2912.
The Sauceda Mountains are located to the north and west of Cimarron. One of my most memorable experiences was back on March 18th of 2006 when, along with my wife Dottie and a group of friends we met to climb Peak 3930. It was the last of the 400 peaks on the reservation to be climbed in order for me to finish off the entire list. We used my Hickiwan permit for this climb.
Part of the group of friends for the list finish.
Dottie by our truck.
Contemplating the peak in the distance, the pointy one in the middle.
We celebrated the event with a cake and refreshments – it was a grand day.
So there you have it, Folks, a sampling of the excitement I’ve enjoyed around Cimarron Peak. Thanks for coming along for the ride.