Jean's Peak & Redstone Loop - 2/20/20

Jean's Peak and Pinto Valley from Redstone Mesa

Large Cairn on Jean's Peak

Redstone from Bridge Trail near Arrowhead Road

Climbing Approach Canyon

 NOT CHUCK'S FAULT!! It's my fault that the hike, today, took a half mile detour into the wrong wash and we ended up at the Redstone! Some of the hikers didn't seem to mind!

Regardless of the extra energy required for the detour, eleven hikers started out to do Jean's Peak with a simple return up the Old Arrowhead Road. Instead, we made our return up through the Cut Wash and through part of the Redstone ... complete with a couple of panels of petroglyphs! Viewing my GPS track, I saw that, somehow, I did not stay in the main wash/road long enough to catch the needed road junction to Heartbreak Hill. Okay, enough of that! 😉

Hiking through Triple Arch

Heading to First Saddle

Climbing Up to Cairn on Jean's Peak

Bitter Spring Cliff in Distance

So, we parked at the mile marker 25 pull out. It's the one with the Call Box. The hike begins in the deep canyon across the road and up a little. An approach trail can be found on the right side of the canyon entrance and scrambling up the wash is preferred rather than trying to hike through the deep gravel of the game trail up to the right. About half way up, the route naturally leads into the game trail and then we climbed up to the triple arch at the base of the rock walls. From the arches, we followed another trail along the wall until the final easy climb to the saddle. We would return to this saddle after our climb to Jean's Peak.

Sandstone Spring area in Distance

Signing the Log Book at the Cairn

Northshore Road from Jean's Peak

At the Jean's Peak Summit

Taking a right at the saddle, we climbed up and around to the right until reaching a flat area that runs atop the intermediary ravines. This is a nice overlook of Bitter Spring Valley to the north and Sandstone Peak and Spring in Pinto Valley to the south. The pointy peaks in the distance toward Lake Mead are Pyramid Peak and Little Pyramid Peak. Redstone can be seen to the east. At this point, we can see the large cairn that was built in honor of Jean up on Jean's Peak ridge to the west. You can see this cairn from Northshore Road below. We climbed to the cairn, wrote in the log book then hiked up to the geological high point of the mountain.

Fred Astaire joined us today!

Descending to Jean's Canyon

Jean's Canyon Junction

Nearing Jean's Canyon Saddle Summit

After peering over the side of the peak's cliffs, we returned to the saddle and took a right to make our descent down to Jean's Canyon. A left turn here would have taken us back to the cars making a 4 mile hike. We took a right to enjoy the other end of the canyon. Up on its saddle, we passed several very healthy bear paw poppies and sun rays. They will be blooming soon. The canyon drops down to a tricky dry fall that we all managed easily. The next tricky spot was the Slip 'n' Slide drop. About half of the hikers managed to descend this obstacle without sitting and using the 5-points of contact strategy! That takes patience! We took our break then continued out the canyon until we poured into the Pinto Valley Wash and the Old Arrowhead Highway.

Tiny Washes at Saddle Summit Area

Dry Fall Scramble

Wash Descent

Top of Slip 'n' Slide Obstacle

We turned left on the Arrowhead Road and followed its two tracks while crisscrossing the main wash of the valley. Although I have done this part of the hike many times, I have yet to find the junction to Heartbreak Hill on the left by myself. This time, I thought I had this! But, somehow, as we climbed the wash/road, I missed the continuation of the main wash and turned into the Cut Wash that leads to foothills of Redstone. I'm not sure what I missed but it will require a pre-hike before I do it again. Nevertheless, I ended up at the "Cut" and knew exactly where I was ... and it wasn't where I was supposed to be. 😑 My facial expression must have been interpreted as "I'm lost!" because everyone decided to start giving me advice all at the same time. (I had a lot of hike leaders on this hike! Lol!) In actuality, my face was screaming, "Drat!" 😧

Nearing the Junction with Arrowhead Road

Old Arrowhead Road (Pinto Valley East)

Heading out Cut Wash

Petroglyphs at Redstone

So, after gathering my wits again and trying to ignore all the advice, I took the best route back to our planned route and hiked through the Redstone area. I knew it wasn't a popular choice with a few of the attendees but, I hoped that everyone understood why I took this route by the time I got back to the Arrowhead Road at the top of Heartbreak Hill. During this detour, we passed by petroglyphs and beautiful views of Pinto Valley. It was a hike I had done a couple of years ago and I welcomed the chance to follow the trail across the "Bridge." Once we got back on the Arrowhead Road, we simply finished the hike as planned. Have a little faith! 😇


6.5 miles; 1500 feet elevation gain; 4.25 hours; average speed 1.5 mph

Small Redstone Scramble

Steep Climb up to Bridge Trail

Bridge Trail back to Arrowhead Road