St. Johns Speedway

It is wise to hang food high or place it in bear-proof containers.

On Mount Peeley in the Tonto National Forest, three major trails come together, which, in turn, connect with 240 miles of hiking and riding trails that crisscross the spine of the Mazatzal range. There are plenty of springs-sycamore and cottonwood trees usually mark the water holes-but you seldom find many people beyond day-hiking distance from the trailheads.

But while Mount Peeley offers welcome year-round escape from a teeming mega-lopolis, there are caveats. Powerful storms rake the Mazatzals during the late spring wildflower season. In summer, while shady trails feel relatively cool, sun-exposed places sizzle. Autumn is magnificent, but winter may bring surprise snowstorms.

sizzle. Autumn is magnificent, but winter may bring surprise snowstorms.

Set back a ways, Mount Peeley reveals little of itself to passersby-an unspectacular hump of a mountain with its evergreen top invisible from the highway and its lower elevations sheathed by nearly impenetrable chaparral taller than a man. You wouldn't guess that a road goes all the way up.

The summit road comes with its own caveat. It's hard-packed but only a bit wider than one lane. The road once served small mines later closed by the Forest Service following passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. It zigzags along razorback ridges for 12 miles on the mountain's sun-facing southern slope, gaining about 2,700 feet between State 87 and the road's end at a turnaround situated at about 6,500 feet.

[PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 38 AND 39] Sweeping vistas unfold along the road to Mount Peeley's summit, a kick-off point for great day hikes or more extensive backpack treks. Pine and manzanita forests crowd the mountainside in this view southeast toward Mount Ord and the Superstition Mountains.

[OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP LEFT] Framed by ponderosa pines atop Mount Peeley, Mazatzal Peak warms to a summer sunrise.

[ABOVE] Mount Peeley's shrubby sumacs and pale-trunked Arizona sycamores display the first blush of fall color.

A high-clearance vehicle is a necessity, and a four-wheel-drive is preferable for climbing over the rough and rugged spots on the road, depending on the weather. But no matter what you're driving, the view from the driver's seat can be intimidating when two vehicles meet on the narrow road with a steep uphill bank on one side and a 1,500-foot rollover into a rocky wash on the other. It's not a road I'd want to haul a horse trailer up-or down.The turnaround at road's end puts you in the middle of things right away, and there are trailhead signs to guide you. The parking area accommodates eight vehicles.

Cornucopia Trail 86 leaves from the left of the parking area on an old road and comes in a quarter-mile to where Mazatzal Divide Trail 23 splits off and heads uphill on a series of switchbacks. The route continues south, bearing right at trail junctions. It eventually arrives 3.5 miles later at Forest Service Road 25A, which loops back to 87 a half-mile north of Sunflower. Riders sometimes use this route to avoid hauling a trailer up the mountain.Deer Creek Trail 45 ends at the Peeley turnaround after coming 9 miles from the east up steep Deer Creek Canyon. Its signed trailhead is on 87, at the junction with State Route 188, 7 miles south of Rye. The trail is not recommended for horses.

Spring and summer wildflowers bloom all the time somewhere in the Mazatzals' LOCATION: 55 miles northeast of Phoenix.

GETTING THERE: From Phoenix, take State Route 87 to a signed turnoff for Sycamore Creek at .6 miles north of Milepost 222. Turn left across the divided highway and follow the road to a dirt road on the right at 1.2 miles. Cross a cattle guard and drive 1.2 miles to the fork of Forest Service Road 25 and Forest Service Road 201. Veer right and follow FR 201, the Mount Peeley summit road, to its end.

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Heavy rain or snow can turn stretches of the summit road muddy. Lightning strikes at higher elevations are common during monsoon season from June through August. GPS waypoints given as UTM coordinates: start of Mount Peeley road, 458482mE, 3755773mN; Mazatzal Divide Trail turnoff, 455973mE, 3762257mN; Thicket Spring, 455068mE, 3761135mN.

WARNING: There are no facilities. All campsites are primitive. Carry all the water you'll need.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Tonto National Forest, Mesa Ranger District, (480) 610-3300, and Payson Ranger District, (928) 474-7900.

Two distinct ecological zones of high chaparral desert and alpine highland. My favorite, the saffron-colored blossoms of the Oregon grape, releases a strong, seductive fragrance in late spring. The fire-red stalks of Indian paintbrush smolder in open places. Monkeyflower pods dangle from nodding stems by every spring. A pretty picture, to be sure. But also know that campsites on Mount Peeley are at a premium near the road. The mountain is so pitched that hardly a level place remains to stand until you reach the summit area. Some primitive, poorly shaded campsites are available near Horse Camp Seep. At 10 miles, take the road that turns left past the cattle guard. A few other, more shaded sites are available near road's end.

The Mazatzal Divide Trail is a major through-route and always a pleasure to hike. Only an hour from the nation's sixth-largest city, it will take you through pine-scented timber under whose shadows daytime temperatures remain in the 80s in summer and even cooler at night.

About a mile beyond the summit parking area, the trail tops out abruptly where stunted agave and yucca give way to piñon and ponderosa pines. You literally step out of the woods onto a vista point that looks across a broad canyon toward the bald pate of 7,903-foot Mazatzal Peak, the highest point around. There's even a boulder just the right size on which to sit and admire the view. Off to the right, the broad cleft of Deer Creek Canyon plunges eastward into deep shadows toward Windsor camping area along the Deer Creek Trail, a midway lunch spot for hikers.

Bring binoculars. There'll be plenty of opportunity to use them. Not only does the mountain offer great overlooks, but you're apt to spot some interesting birds, including eagles. And while you're looking up, don't forget occasionally to look down. Poisonous rattlesnakes and centipedes are found at all elevations in the Mazatzals.

At this point on the trail, you may choose to bushwhack the remaining couple of hundred yards to the Mount Peeley summit for a view of the rolling, high-desert badlands that stretch nearly to Phoenix. Or you can continue from the vista point as the trail follows gentle contours through stands of pine on the mountain's shaded northfacing slope.The Mazatzal Divide Trail stays high for most of the 29 miles to its northern terminus with the City Creek Trail on Forest