Hike Garden Benchmark and Southern Castle Dome Mountains Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, AZ

Feb 26, 2023 — Kofa National Wildlife Refuge's southern border is nestled right up against the US Yuma Proving Grounds, which means accessing some of the peaks way down there is difficult or impossible. I had dozens of summits on my to do list at the very southern reaches of the Refuge, but without any info about the road quality or even if those roads are open anymore, those peaks have simmered on the backburner until fellow peakbaggers with a bright sense of adventure were willing to check out the area with me. Fortunately, my scramble-hungry friends saw the dark contour gradation on a topo map and all interest was piqued, despite the pretty long drive out to the middle of nowhere. This loop visits the legal higher peaks in the southern reaches of the Castle Dome Mountains: Garden Benchmark and four unnamed summits. Originally the numerous nearby bumps were high-priority items for me, but after seeing them in person and deciding they were a lot less interesting up-close, we settled on this loop. It was a bittersweet undertaking, since this outing cleared a lot of the mystery surrounding these absurdly remote desert peaks, and while the scrambling wasn't as good as anticipated, it was a really nice day out in a seldom-visited region of southern Arizona.

Reaching the trailhead turned out to be far less rough than we thought, just long. Starting east on King Road here (33.26706352, -114.23900), we continued to this junction (33.1793182, -114.021716) with Wellton-Kofa Road. We took this south to another junction here (33.0636244, -113.958594) with Chain Tank Road. Why come all the way from the north, you may ask, when on maps it appears that Wellton-Kofa Road Road leads more directly from the south? Not only does Wellton-Kofa Road go straight through Yuma Proving Ground, the junction with Chain Tank Road also has a wilderness restoration sign, blocking access. So really this wasn't a junction at all despite how maps may display it, since Wellton-Kofa Road's northern end stops there. Overall the roads were fine: King Road good for any vehicle, Wellton-Kofa Road needing some clearance and slower-moving due to a bunch of ins-and-outs of tiny drainages, and Chain Tank Road surpisingly no worse than Wellton-Kofa Road. The whole drive from pavement took about an hour.

We set out from the wilderness boundary using a major wash leading south. Our first peak of the day was Garden Benchmark. Knowing it was just a big hump along the way, we were mostly interested in reaching it since surprisingly it would provide the most direct route to the more interesting unnamed peaks to the south. Leaving the major wash, we took a side-drainage continuing south, then started up the slope on the north side of Garden Benchmark toward what appeared from below like a weakness in its cliff band. After a few hundred Class 2 boulder-hopping feet up the slope, we reached a single Class 3 move to overcome this cliff band. Light Class 2 and mostly just easy walking led southwest along the rim to Garden Benchmark. The views were pretty excellent, a unique angle for viewing Castle Dome Peak and Thumb Peak to the north. Petey pulled out an entire box of fresh, heavy dates from our date farm visit the day before. "A date for each of us on every summit we get!" He certainly had brought enough, what a guy.

Only able to see the tips of our peaks to come, we didn't linger on Garden Benchmark and just headed southeast through hilly and pretty reasonable terrain. We thought the best course of action would be to avoid the humpy ridge since it looked steep at times on a topo map, instead utilizing a drainage to its east. Overall the landscape around here isn't notably interesting so we were more focused on finding the least brushy option to make progress. Without too much effort, but enough to make us all hope these remote peaks were worth it, we meandered up to the ridgeline. A steep cliff stretched south, marking the top of a cliffy rim we'd follow until we could locate an easy way down through it. Here we were greeted with our first unobstructed view of the unnamed summits to come. I could visibly see the group's excitement drop a bit. Still too far away to really make out fully, the peaks appeared to be simply steep and loose, not fun scrambles. I guess coming out here was the only way to find out for sure. Fortunately the charm we'd find on the summits was still to come.

We dropped south from the ridgeline via a Class 2/3 weakness, losing a few hundred vertical feet and entering the little valley separating the peaks. Hiking progress through this was trivial and soon we reached the base of our second peak of the day, Peak 2184, located on the right side of the little valley. A Class 2 slope led to the ridge crest. My friends decided to scramble along the crest (fun Class 3 with two short Class 4 sections), while I prudently kept below and used a Class 2 brushy slope to reach the final short Class 3 stuff required to gain the summit. I felt we were too remote to be scrambling unnecessarily, but I didn't poo-poo their fun, especially since my way was clearly far less cool. The easiest access to the summit block of Peak 2184 is to wrap around to its south side. Petey lovingly pulled out his vat of dates again.

Our initial plan was to just head for the three surrounding the little valley and head back up and over Garden Benchmark, an out-and-back. Looking to the southwest, I quite seriously suggested we add distant Peak 2438 to our itinerary. Tyler immediately agreed. The others seemed hesitant about adding another peak and many more miles, but the idea of being able to form a loop using a wash system instead of making a return trip sounded much better. Plus, Peak 2438 did look quite good from here. This felt like a huge win, since I have no idea how else I would get out to that summit on a future visit being that the roads to its south looked like they were on the Yuma Proving Ground. If my friends weren't on board, I was prepared to beg and offer services to my friends, sexual if necessary. Fortunately that wasn't the case. The only question that remained was if Petey had enough dates since we'd be adding another summit. Don't worry, of course he did.

After backtracking from Peak 2184 into the little valley, we started up the Class 2 slope to reach Peak 2210. Along its northern ridgeline we got some cool views of the unique canyon to the east. We made it to the summit via a single Class 3 move. There was an impressive arch below the summit block, and then we located a Class 3 slab to retreat from the summit, where we followed a narrow, slickrock ridge to approach the base of Peak 2443. After entering a gully, Class 2 brought us to nearly the summit using a lightly brushy slope. A Class 2+ dihedral took us to the bare rock summit area.

Peak 2438 was a distance away, and we weren't totally sure how to get over to it. After backtracking to the slickrock ridge below, we decided to drop down a Class 2 gully, head over a hump and then down Class 2+ into a deeper drainage (the one that drains between Peak 2184 and Peak 2210), before ascending to some lumpy terrain above and then eventually into a southwest draining wash. Behind us were some gorgeous lightly-colored pinnacles on the western base of Peak 2184. We stumbled onto an old mining road on the north side of Peak 2438, so we followed it until we reached a wide gully that seemed like it would provide the most likely route to the summit.

Ample Class 2 boulder-hopping up this oddly-angled slope brought us the majority of the way up, where we then emerged on a ridge on Peak 2438's east side. You can keep this summit Class 2/2+ if you want to, but can easily throw some Class 3 moves in there for fun. From this summit we all seemed to bask in the knowledge that we were in a particularly remote desert landscape. Looking around, it was clear this was the highlight peak of the area, so I felt relieved we came out for it and that I didn't feel the need to expend significant effort coming out here again for the lesser lumps surrounding us. The peakbagging sickness truly is a sickness.

We returned to the northern base of Peak 2438, continued west in order to wrap around a minor peak, and then headed north in a wide, easy and low-angle wash for miles. This was an uneventful section of the day, but we were thrilled to be able to walk and chat without worrying about rugged terrain. Time flew pretty quickly and soon we reached a low saddle on the west side of Garden Benchmark. The main wash we'd approched on earlier was visible ahead, but to reach it we needed to descend a rocky Class 2 slope. Fortunately, there was a little animal trail to assist part of the way. Finally within the major starting wash we made our way back to the trailhead.