Hike Sawtooth Spire and Pinhole Peak Ironwood Forest National Monument, AZ

Jan 25, 2024 — Sawtooth Spire and Pinhole Peak are two minor summits within the Sawtooth Mountains that offer excellent scrambling despite their humble prominence. I grouped both hikes as one trip report since they're too short on their own, so the stats include everything described below. To reach the trailheads, navigate to this turn-off (32.56465, -111.73709) and head north. The road is suitable for Crossover SUVs or better.

The trailhead coordinates above (32.62688, -111.71589) are for where we began Sawtooth Spire and a warm-up hike to neighboring Peak 2417. This unnamed peak is neat-looking, with a slope rising gently above a serious cliff on its east side. We hiked along a road for a short time before we all agreed to start north through the prickly desert. Being the first hike of our trip, we were all moving slowly to get our desert navigation brains turned on and bad terrain legs warmed up. Shawn poked his head into a dark little hole and found a curled-up skunk, somehow not spooking the stinky guy. The slope proved straightforward, with options to include some Class 3, but easily kept Class 2 if preferred. The summit gave us a nice perspective toward the other peaks in the area, but we were antsy to get over to the more exciting-looking Sawtooth Spire.

Back at the car, we started east through the desert again. After a bit of off-trail travel, we stumbled on an animal trail that led us to the southern base of Sawtooth Spire. From here, we picked our way through a cliff band via a slope weakness and then followed Class 2/3 terrain to gain the ridge. Once on the ridge, we wrapped around a couple of rock outcroppings, and the summit spire came into view. From afar a dark chimney looked like the route since everything else looked intensely steep, but as we approached it became clear that, despite a pretty serious drop on the right, the ridge crest was the proper choice. Starting up lovely Class 3 on impressively solid rock, the 40-foot scramble obviously got progressively scarier, though the moves only slightly more difficult as we ascended. I'd call it Class 3+/4 due to the exposure. A fixed line was in place at the top of the scramble for rappelling, but we didn't use it. It's likely that some may want to rappel rather than down-climb, but I found the peak enjoyable on the way up and just spicy enough on the way down.

To reach Pinhole Peak, we got back in our cars and parked here (32.61234, -111.71603), just to the south. This minor summit is named for a large hole on the south side of the summit block. We headed to the ridgeline on our ascent, following it to the base of Pinhole Peak and only encountering some light Class 2. Once we reached the westernmost reaches of the summit block, we kept left and wrapped around the dark cliffs and then ascended a steep slope right to the base of the pinhole. It's an impressive feature, formed serendipitously to provide the easiest access to gain the summit. We took turns scrambling up through the pinhole, a 30-foot climb involving some stemming and using generally solid holds, protected-feeling Class 4. At the top of the scramble was a small crawl space that spit us out on a ledge and then a short scramble took us to the summit. I'm in love with this short, sweet little peak/route. On our descent, we located an animal trail that led more directly back to the cars.