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Jun 04, 2020 — The hike to O'Leary Peak is a popular walk along a dirt road used also by official vehicles to access the O'Leary lookout tower. I really wasn't excited to hike up a dirt road, so I planned a potential loop route that would descend on the standard road hike, but ascend using the ridge between O'Leary Peak and its neighbor, Robinson Mountain. This resulted in the route becoming a favorite in the Flagstaff area.
Starting from the O'Leary Trailhead, I headed north through the O'Leary Campground and then walked through conifer forest, intending to beeline to the summit of Robinson Mountain. As I started to ascend the steep slope, I ran into an old mining road which led me to a scar in the face of the slope, which I assume is the remains of some old mine. From here, I slogged up the steep remainder of the slope to the summit of Robinson Mountain. The last few hundred feet surprised me with some incredible views toward Humphreys Peak. The ridge leading down from Robinson crossed a dirt road and then started to ascend the mellow southern slopes of O'Leary Peak. It was an uneventful, but pleasant ridge. The pleasantness left as the slope steepened and became a terrible slog up cinder, two steps up and one step back. It was slow moving enough that I added in a purple dotted line on my map with the route I would recommend taking rather than following mine to the summit.
Once on the summit of O'Leary, a very obvious social trail leads to the dirt road that authorized cars use to get up to the lookout tower. I followed it to the lookout tower, which was closed due to COVID, of course. I was now along the standard route and could take this all the way back to the trailhead. Despite being a boring road walk, the views down were nice and Humphreys Peak looked quite impressive.
I left the road for a jaunt up Darton Dome, just off the road. This was a short slope with no trail and the summit had obscured views.
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