Hike Peacock Peak Peacock Mountains BLM, AZ

Oct 13, 2021 — Peacock Peak is located just outside of Kingman, Arizona. Reaching the trailhead is doable by any vehicle. Google will try to take you on lesser-traveled roads, so I recommend navigating here (35.297509, -113.9291669) and heading east on Pate Road to here (35.2974086, -113.8880006) where you turn north onto North Donald Road. Turn right onto Jan Road here (35.3119245, -113.8877854) and follow it to the end. This is where sedans will likely need to stop, and where I decided to in order to save my tires. 4WD can make it farther along the road (I marked this spot on my attached map). Either way it's just a quick road walk/drive to the end of the road at the base of Peacock Peak.

From the end of the road I started up the west ridge of Peacock Peak on somewhat of a social trail, though it disappeared shortly after. I passed over a small hump shortly after starting where I could get good views of Peacock Peak ahead, and then I continued along the ridge. There was a bit of brush, enough to keep my hiking slow to prevent getting whacked with thorns or kicking a cactus, but not enough to say this hike sucks. A few hundred feet of vertical gain trending generally southeast led to some light Class 2 over a rock outcropping, and then the route turned east and followed the ridge from here. There were section sof flat and open terrain, others with sandy slopes, but the majority of the ascent from here was zig-zagging around brush and navigating granite boulders. About 3/4 the way up the ridge, I recommend keeping just right of the ridge crest to avoid excessive brush where it seems to be a bit more clear both brush and granite. You can easily make the route Class 3 or even 4 with some poor foresight, but you can just as easily find Class 2 options. I did pull a Class 3 move here or there just to avoid some bad brush, but on the way down I was able to avoid all of this somehow.

After reaching the top of the ridge, I noticed I wasn't quite to the true high point yet, a hundred feet or so separating me from the summit. A short dip leads from this false summit to a second false summit, and then a spine of interesting granite (Class 2/2+) continues to the true summit. The views were really nice, and getting back down was a lot easier than getting up. The sections of sandy slope were even pleasant and fun to descend.