Hiking Telegraph Pass in Yuma Arizona…

After all the unplanned refrigerator repairs I finally was able to get to work on my planned repairs. I fixed our Kwickee steps by fabricating a new bolt to secure the last step and turned my attention to restringing our shade over the couch. Since we finally had the repairs behind us we felt like we really needed to go out for a nice hike. Scanning the internet we came across the popular hike to Telegraph Pass. Telegraph Pass is atop the  mountain that dominates the skyline east of Yuma, Arizona.

We left the RV park and made the short drive to the trailhead. We took Interstate 8 east to Foothill Blvd, and turned right onto North Frontage Road. We then followed the road until it dead ended onto a dirt road where we parked a few hundred feet down. I had read there were multiple starting points and we chose the trail that meandered along a dry wash just to the north of where we parked.

 

The first 1.5 miles or so of our hike had us following the dry wash for a good while before it finally merged with an dirt road used by Telecommunications vehicles to service the towers on top of the mountains. The hike up was mostly in typical desert scrub with lots of of the ocotillos, creosote bushes, lime prickly ash and various cacti. As we started to climb we saw an occasional saguaro cactus each of which appeared to be sentries strategically located along the trail.

Before long we were at a locked gate with a no trespassing sign on it which everyone obviously ignores. We went around the gate and the dirt road turned into an poorly paved road that took us all the way up to the communications towers.It didn’t take long on the paved road to come to the steep portion of the trail  The surface of the paved road is intentionally rough so that trucks have some traction to climb the really steep portions of the road.

I read that much of this part of the trail is a 35% incline and that even parts of it are on a 49% grade making this trail the steepest one we have ever attempted. It was a relentless and brutal climb. The total elevation gain is around 1,100 feet over the 2.6 mile one way climb to the summit.  Near the top we came to a bench that overlooked the desert below. Here we signed our names on the log book and took a moment to enjoy the panorama. Following the road further to the top past all the towers we finally reached the very top of Telegraph Pass.

 

The summit offered great views of Yuma, the foothills and all the way into California to the west. To the east were green patches of farmland with their ready to be picked crops. During the hike back down we took our time as the steep slope was really hard on the old joints. We hiked a total of 5.25 miles in a little less than three hours and when we finally made it back to the CRV we sure were very happy to see it. Once back at the RV park we donned our swimsuits and headed over for a good soak in the resort hot tub. And were our feet happy to be in the hot water…