- Arizona County HP: #5
- Difficulty: ⭐️⭐️ (on a scale of 4)
- Summit Elevation: 4,877 feet
- Mountain Range: Kofa Mountains
- Ancestral Lands: Cocopah, Kwatsáan, Yavapai Apache
PLANNING DETAILS
Location: Signal Peak is located in the Kofa Wilderness approximately 65 miles north of Yuma, AZ. The closest town with amenities is Quartzite, AZ, which is very popular with snowbirds who camp in the Arizona desert through the winter months.
When to Visit: Signal Peak’s lower elevation makes it easy to hike year-round; however October to April is the mildest time of year to visit the Sonoran Desert. If you visit during the summer months, make sure to aim for the coolest part of the day and bring sun protection and plenty of water.
Fees/Permits Required: None
Getting There: The easiest route approaches the Kofa Wilderness from its west side via Palm Canyon. Once inside the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge area, you will circle around the mountain range’s northern end before heading to a trailhead on the east side of Signal Peak.
Directions from Quartzite:
From I-10, take exit 17 (US-95/Yuma). Head to the south side of the interstate and follow Kuehn Street east for 1.4 miles as it parallels I-10. Once you reach US-95, turn right (toward Yuma) and drive south for 18.8 miles. Between milepost 85 and 86, you will see a brown sign with a left arrow pointing toward Kofa National Wildlife Refuge – Palm Canyon. Turn left onto Palm Canyon Road and drive east on this dirt road for 3.4 miles. Just beyond the stone entrance sign for Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, turn left at a sign pointing toward Kofa Queen Canyon. This final road is quite rugged and will require a higher clearance vehicle, 4×4, or OHV. Follow the dirt track for 7.6 miles as it curves its way around the mountains. When you reach Ten Ewe Canyon, there will be a small parking area on the right side of the road.
Directions from Yuma:
From I-8, take exit 12 (Fortuna Rd). Head north on Fortuna Rd, and drive for 2.1 miles until it meets US-95. Turn right onto US-95 and follow it north for 51.6 miles. Between milepost 85 and 86, you will see a brown sign for Kofa National Wildlife Refuge – Palm Canyon. Turn right onto Palm Canyon Road and drive east on the dirt road for 3.4 miles. Just beyond the stone entrance sign for Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, turn left at a sign pointing toward Kofa Queen Canyon. This final road is quite rugged and will require a higher clearance vehicle, 4×4, or OHV. Follow the dirt track for 7.6 miles as it curves its way around the mountains. When you reach Ten Ewe Canyon, there will be a small parking area on the right side of the road.
Parking: The Signal Peak Trail begins at the mouth of Ten Ewe Canyon (also listed as Indian Canyon on some maps). The trailhead is nothing more than a simple dirt pull-out off the OHV road you drove in on. There are no signs for the parking area, so a good GPS route or map is essential. The parking area is large enough for 5 cars and sits approximately 0.7 miles east of Skull Rock – a large rock formation on Kofa Queen Canyon Road that resembles a skeleton’s skull. There are no amenities at this trailhead.
Pets Allowed: Yes. However, this peak sits within a National Wildlife Refuge, so dogs should be under the direct control of the visitors they are accompanying. This is particularly important in the spring during the desert bighorn sheep lambing season.
Kid Friendly: This trail is best suited for children age 10+ due to the physically challenging grade.
The Summit: Signal Peak’s summit contains a geodetic survey monument embedded on the highest rock outcropping on the summit.
TRIP SUMMARY
Date Visited: February 21, 2024
Route Used: Signal Peak Trail from Ten Ewe Canyon – 3.3 miles round-trip
The hardest point of this high point for me was the drive out to the trailhead. Don’t get me wrong. The short, steep high was physically demanding too. But the drive… now that was a real chore!
My visit out to this CoHP came on the heels of my two-week winter visit to the desert Southwest. I was driving west from Phoenix to Palm Springs, CA, and my route on I-10 was taking me right past this high point. How could I not stop? So I set off on what I assumed was going to be a quick and easy detour.
After departing the interstate, it was the 20-mile drive south down US-95. The jagged Kofa Mountains rose up from the Sonoran Desert with such prominence they were impossible to miss. And not long after I passed milepost 86, a brown sign directed me to turn left toward the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and Palm Canyon.
Palm Canyon Road was in quite good condition because it’s a popular spot for seasonal “snowbirds” enjoying the mild winter weather in the Arizona desert. There were no amenities or established campgrounds out here, but the public road was well-compacted so people could drive their RVs and campers out on BLM land to camp near an interesting sight called Spiral Labyrinth.
After 3.5 miles, I encountered the large entrance sign announcing that I was now entering the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. This area was created in 1939 to help protect Desert Bighorn Sheep and other animals and plants native to the Kofa Wilderness. My desert surroundings were showing the first signs of springtime too, with green plants carpeting the desert floor.
Just beyond this stone sign, a smaller brown sign directed me to turn left toward Kofa Queen Canyon. And that’s when the nicely compacted dirt road soon gave way to something far more rugged and loose making me grateful to be at least driving an SUV with higher clearance down this backcountry track.
Driving down Kofa Queen Canyon Road with a 4×4 vehicle would have been a much better choice. Renting an OHV in Quartzite would have been better even still. But, I had to made do with what I had, taking it very slow over all the bumps, and praying I didn’t get a flat tire as I crept along at barely 10 miles per hour.
This portion of the drive was the nerve wreaking part. The next 7 miles down this sandy and rocky rugged road seemed to take forever at my careful, methodical pace. I spotted a handful more people camping deeper into the mountains during the drive, but all of them had trucks campers rather than trailers. Mostly though, it was a solitary ride down the soft dirt track beside lots of cholla cactus and scrub brush.
I did have to stop and pull aside twice in some wider spots to let some OHVs drive past when we crossed paths. And each time the drivers’ face seemed to visibly reflect their thoughts. What the heck was I doing out here in a Kia Sorrento SUV? This was Jeep and OHV terrain!
As the afternoon wore on and I slowly made my toward the trailhead, I began to worry. It was still mid February and the sun would go down around 6 pm tonight. I needed to hurry if I wanted to get this hike in before sunset. One thing was for certain. I did NOT want to navigate back on this uneven road in the pitch black desert. There were just too many hazards between the half-buried rocks, the loose sand that could hold my tires hostage, and the thorny plants trying scrape the paint on the doors and side panels of my rental vehicle.
When I finally spied Skull Rock at 3:30 pm, I decided I was close enough. I found somewhere beside the dirt track to park rather than continuing to press my luck driving the remainder of the way to the trailhead. And honestly, I felt as it my pace on foot would be nearly as fast as continuing to drive toward my destination.
After an easy 0.7-mile trek to trailhead, I was surprised to see a small, flat dirt parking area with enough space for perhaps five cars to park there. The area wasn’t marked with any signs, but some tire tracks indicated that it had clearly seen visitors sometime in the not too distant past.
The trailhead for Signal Peak was equally nondescript – with just a white tipped metal picket and a 3-foot tall wooden post marking its entrance on the western edge of the parking area. These minimalist markings made me all the more glad I had the foresight to annotate my route on my Gaia App beforehand. This definitely wasn’t one of Arizona’s major tourist destinations.
Despite the absence of any trail signs, it was actually fairly easy to figure out where I needed to go. The sandy desert trail went due west, following the center of the canyon toward Ten Ewe Mountain, which loomed ahead of me. Dense desert shrubs and cactus lined the terrain. And, as with many of the less used trails in Arizona, game paths occasionally criss-crossed the hiking trail trying to distract me from the correct route as wove its way through the canyon.
The trail began around 2,200 feet elevation, and it was initially an easy trek. But then, around one-half mile in, I began to ascend the lower slopes of Ten Ewe Mountain. The trail transitioned into much steeper path (with a slope of ~40%) that left me grateful I’d brought my trekking poles along. This steep grade would be mayhem on my knees during the return trip!
As I continued hiking upward, the trail seemed to disappear – on and off – as numerous rock slabs emerged underfoot. I kept my eyes peeled for the rock cairns marking the route, and had to double-check my GPS map several times to make sure I didn’t get off track while continuously climbing the steep grade.
At one point, I stopped for a breather and turned around to look back into the canyon toward the trailhead I started at. It was surprising how high I’d already climbed in such a short distance. All told, this hike would ascend more than 2,600 vertical feet in a mere about 1.5 miles, and my calves and lungs were feeling the effort.
Around mile 0.85, I crested a small pass at about 3,900 feet elevation. This was where the trail headed away from Ten Ewe Mountain and began the ascent on the east side of Signal Peak. Rugged rock walls towered vertically above me, and I was worried there might be some technical climbing ahead that I wasn’t prepared to do. The walls seemed impossibly steep, and I didn’t see how this summit could possible be the “walk-up” that other highpointers described in their trip reports.
I continued hiking west when a weird feeling made me stop and immediately taking in my surroundings. I’m not sure if I heard a sound nearby. Or perhaps it was just a feeling that I was being watched. But I stopped dead in my tracks and quickly surveyed my surroundings. Was there someone else out here too? There hadn’t been any cars parked at the trailhead.
As I stood there, I quickly figured out what was causing the eerie feeling in my gut. I wasn’t alone. A herd of desert bighorn sheep stood up on the jagged rocks and was curiously looking down on me. All told, there were probably 20 ewes and another 10 young lambs perched 70 feet above me.
They sheep seemed to be frozen there just watching me. And then the honcho-in-charge decided I wasn’t a threat, so they started to slowly climb the rocks again – heading up toward the ridgeline and away from me.
Even though I knew the Kofa Wildlife Refuge was created as a protected habitat for these animals, I never expected to see any of them during my highpointing quest. And I certainly didn’t anticipate such a big herd of mamas and youngsters.
Maybe my slow drive this afternoon did me a favor after all. I suspect these sheep were like many animals in the desert. They always seem to become much more active (and visible) in the hours closest to dawn and dusk. The first group of wild javelina I saw in Arizona was right around this same time of day. It’s also the time when I have to remind myself to become more alert for rattlesnakes too!
I was delighted by this impromptu wildlife sighting, but knew I needed to get back to business. I was still racing the sun on my way up to the top of Yuma County.
About a quarter mile before the summit, I finally got my first good views of Signal Peak. Although it’s the tallest peak in the Kofa Wilderness (by about 150 feet), the other peaks seemed to hide it from sight until the very end of my journey. What’s more, I could now see the range of jagged mountains stretching south toward Yuma.
As I hiked even higher on the trail, I spotted some sort of wooden structure or radio relay station on an adjacent peak.
I could now visually confirm the trail went all the way to the summit of Signal Peak too. There would be no rock scrambling nor climbing required. The canyon approach had been quite deceptive, but it turns out the biggest challenge on this final stretch was actually just a little loose talus.
Once I stood atop Signal Peak summit’s with my feet on the metal survey monument, I was blown away by the views unfolding in front of me. The Sonoran Desert stretched for miles and miles. The desert floor was several shades of green thanks to all the recent rain. And the hint of yellow on the horizon told me sunset was not long off. If I wasn’t so worried about driving back on Kofa Queen Canyon Road in the dark, I would have absolutely loved to watch the sunset while perched from this very spot!
As I turned in another direction, the craggy spires of the Kofa Mountain Range rose up in front of me. It was just a breathtaking sight on this clear afternoon. These views pushed Signal Peak instantly to the top of my Arizona CoHP list in terms of natural beauty. I wanted to pinch myself. Was this real? It looked like a photo from a National Geographic calendar.
I couldn’t just stand there forever though. It was already 5 pm and I needed to make it back down the steep trail and back to the car before night fell. I suspected my return trip would be faster than the climb up, but I also knew I’d need to be careful. I couldn’t afford to rush – only to fall or turn my ankle on the steep terrain.
On the way back down toward Ten Ewe Canyon, I saw my herd of desert bighorn sheep again. Then I made a short detour over to a rock cave that I hadn’t noticed on my ascent. The sheep clearly knew about this spot, because piles of “ewe berries” were scattered on the cave’s rock floor. It seemed like the ideal shelter for them in the event of a desert rainstorm.
It took me a full hour to make it back down to the trailhead, and then to walk back the additional 0.75 miles to where I’d parked the car near Skull Rock. Ten Ewe Mountain was blocking the setting sun, and the canyon felt as if it already dropped 10 degrees in temperature. I needed to get my butt in gear if I wanted to make it back out to the hard-packed dirt road before the daylight disappeared on me completely.
As I rounded the northern edge of the mountain range my drive out, I pause for a brief moment to revel. Looking at the sun’s warm golden rays illuminating the mountains was simply breathtaking. This hidden gem of a CoHP in southwest Arizona was just the most pleasant surprise ever.
My evening drive back out of the Kofa Wilderness was slightly faster than the slow, apprehensive drive in this afternoon. I didn’t quite make it to US-95 before dark, but I still made it there safely and without getting the car stuck. And that’s a victory in my book!
Once back onto terra firma again, I had the loveliest outline of Signal Peak’s silhouette in the final moments before night fully descended. What an absolutely fantastic micro-adventure this turned out to be!!
BONUS MATERIAL
Camping nearby:
- Kofa Wilderness allows dispersed camping for up to 14 days. There are no amenities on these public lands, but the area is popular with campers in RVs and trailers, especially in winter, and spring. Visitors are encouraged to choose to established dirt sites where road access is usually easier. Cost: Free
- Mayflower Regional Park is located on the Colorado River in Blythe, CA, approximately 25 miles west of Quartzite. This county campground has 170 RV and tent campsites with picnic tables, fire rings, water, bathrooms, showers, and a boat launch. Cost: $30-45/night.
Resources:
- An Overview of Signal Peak, AZ (Summit Post)
- Kofa National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS)