Eagletail Mountains Climbing

Directions from Phoenix:

4W drive not needed.  High clearance not needed but suggested. 

1. Head West on I-10.  

2. South (left)  on Solome Rd (exit 81)

3. Just after crossing the highway turn right (west)  on Haraquahala.  Haraquahala will parallel I-10 for maybe 1/2 mile then turns south.  Follow Harquahala ~ 5 miles 

4. Turn right on Centennial / Courthouse road.  Follow this road ~ 7 miles to the “mile 0” sign.  Centennial is a large, well maintained dirt road heading directly towards Courthouse rock.  You’ll pass several large agricultural fields on your left side.  

5. At the “mile 0” post sign head slightly right onto a smaller dirt road.  This road narrows and crosses several small, sandy, washes. When confronted with tall pole on the right side of the road, along with a high pressure gas line warning sign, continue straight (slightly left). Follow this road for a total ~2.4 miles.  

6. At approximately 2.4 miles you’ll turn left onto a smaller doubletrack dirt road.  You can tell you’re at the left turn because continuing on the current road will lead to another high pressure gas line as well as piping and industrial equipment Basically dead-ending. You can see the equipment, about 100 ft further from the left turn.

7.  Follow the small dirt road as it winds back and forth, sometimes away, but generally towards courthouse rock.  This small road gets narrow at times and crosses several washes.  You’ll also pass several rocky but flat camp sites. At times the road will split but then converges again so follow the path of least resistance.  Eventually you’ll cross a deep sandy wash. There are several paths down but only one going up the other side.  This is probably the sketchiest part of the drive as the wash walls are fairly steep and the wash bottom is deeper sand.  Choose whichever path looks best to you and go.  Once you cross you’ll follow the road a little bit further and come to a fence made of wooden poles and cable.  This is where you park.  

8. At this point the east face of courthouse rock looms above you. Splitting approximately the middle of the East face is a wash that leads up to just Climber’s right of the buttress for start of the standard route.  Head straight through the desert to this wash and follow the wash to the base of Courthouse rock.  From there move left or right depending on your desired route.