Hike North Mount Nutt and Trough Peak Mount Nutt Wilderness BLM, AZ

Nov 20, 2021 — After hiking in the Mount Nutt Wilderness Area earlier this year and finding some pretty incredible peaks in our silly-named Breakfast Loop, I've been itching to check out more nearby. I teamed up with Adam to get one of the higher-prominence peaks in the area, along with a couple of add-ons. The peak is unnamed, but we labeled it North Mount Nutt since it's just north of the range high point, and the views of the more craggy and interesting peaks in the area were pretty incredible from the mountain. The peak itself ended up being a lot easier than anticipated, but we enjoyed the hike overall, despite being a bit more tame relative to the area.

We headed into the area from the north, navigating into Golden Valley and turning here (35.22611, -114.30686) onto Egar Road and following it to here (35.18532, -114.30685) onto Bolsa Drive. We followed this road to its end where it turned left and a road diverted to the right here (35.18003, -114.34214). We followed this road past a cattle guard and continued west, then south to Secret Pass. 2WD could make it a mile or so in from the cattle guard, but then the sand becomes deeper and the road gets a bit more rutted. We kept left and headed south when the road continued northwest to Secret Pass, and this brought us to a spot before the road deteriorated enough to be too slow-moving. We were content with starting where we did.

A short hike through a wash leading south brought us to the base of a sloped ridge. We followed this west to the base of Peak 4220, which seemed imposing from all visible sides. We tackled it from the north via a Class 2/3 set of slopes in a weakness in the cliff band. It wasn't a highlight, but it was a nice add-on, and the views of the Breakfast Peaks was great. We came down from Peak 4220 and continued south along the ridge crest. There are a few minor humps along the way with interesting pinnacles and rock outcrops at their tops, an we avoided them all by side-hilling around them.

The ridge continued to go at Class 1/2 until the base of North Mount Nutt's northern cliff band. We inspected the potential to ascend directly, and while it would have likely worked, we instead wrapped around to the peak's west side to locate a more reasonable-looking option. We entered a short and somewhat brushy Class 2/3 canyon that gave way to a grassy Class 2 slope and with some minor route-finding around rock outcrops, we were able to make it to the summit of North Mount Nutt. We took some time gazing at the many volcanic peaks in the area, overwhelmed by how exciting they all looked. We decided to head back and get an unnamed peak close to our car, which we later labeled Trough Peak due to its proximity to Trough Spring.

After backtracking much the same way we ascended, rather than lose time re-ascending toward Peak 4220, we dropped north into easy terrain and down into a vegetated drainage. Keep out of the drainage if you can to avoid prickles. We merged with our previous route and then headed northeast toward Trough Peak. On the way we passed the end of the road (despite how it appears on Google Maps, the road is closed for the wilderness area), where two guys with big Jeeps thought they were going crazy by hearing us, not really understanding how there could be people wandering in the desert. After quick chat, we let them continue with their beers and we headed into the major drainage on the west side of Trough Peak. The going was easy overall, minimal bushwhacking and mostly flat desert leading us all the way around to the saddle on the north side of Trough Peak. We noted a massive arch to the west that we vowed to check out later.

We dropped slightly off the saddle to explore the northeast side of the peak since so far all we saw were cliffs. The terrain here looked possibly pretty complex, but the many pinnacles and drainages seemed like they might give way for a route to the summit. Fortunately, there seemed to be a gully that would lead through some of the pinnacles. It was a little brushy, but we were able to keep to the rocks on the right to avoid the majority of the annoying stuff. We pulled a few easy Class 3 moves. Adam and I separated and both were able to find routes up around this area, but we agreed this seemed to be the only weakness around the entire peak. The ridgeline to the summit was easy Class 2. We attempted to find another way down and failed, cliffs blocking us on all directions. We returned to the weakness we came up and took slight variations on the way down, but still utilized the peak's northeast sloped and pinnacle-filled terrain.

Onward to the arch we spotted earlier. Class 2/2+ led to its base across the drainage we ascended. The arch was around 50+ feet wide and unnamed as far as we could tell. Trough Arch, I guess? If this one has a name, please let me know. It's massive and surprising it's not marked on any maps. We were thrilled, though realized it's unlikely we were the first to find it. It's close enough to the road, but hidden from direct sight. We went under the arch and descended on the slopes on its opposite side in order to get back to where we parked.