Yuma County Highpoint Trip Report
Signal Peak
Date: December 8, 2007
Author: Layne Bracy
The last 3-4 miles of the Kofa Queen Canyon road were truly horrid, pushing the
limits of my mediocre 4WD skill. Scott Surgent's two route photos on his
summitpost page are excellent and I arrived at the 'half-way saddle' without difficulty.
At this point I lost the trail and wasn't sure where the route went.
The trail and cairns do continue but circle around left after the saddle.
Instead, I continued straight, lost some elevation, then bushwhacked up the slope.
After a few hundred feet I started contouring left below the steeper high terrain.
I finally rejoined the trail with maybe 1/4 mile to go to the summit.
Weather was clear, opposed to the rain in the Phoenix area. I visited the
northern contour, then followed the trail down - a nice improvement.
I noticed an interesting summit log phenomenon - no climbers between April and
October the last two years. This, in contrast to Colorado, where entries are
generally between June and October for high peaks. Got me wondering -
in Colorado, folks like to do 14ers in winter months for extra challenge.
Does the reverse exist - do some of you desert dwellers await the dead
of summer to challenge yourselves on the low hot summits?
Anyway, an excellent adventure - love the cacti.