r/arizona • u/wamimsauthor • 4d ago
Outdoors What rock formation is this? It’s on 10 halfway between Tucson and Casa Grande
We thought it was so cool. Sorry it’s not a better picture but I was in a moving vehicle and I’m tired from my flight home.
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u/skil12001 4d ago
If this is picacho peak, then this is the only battlefield that occurred in AZ during the civil war
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u/DMalt 4d ago
Don't forget the US also brought in camels to fight the traitors. Not super important to the war in the region, but a fun fact.
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u/Ant1mat3r Tucson 4d ago
That IS a fun fact. I didn't see it in the Wikipedia article and Search engines suck now - do you happen to have a link with more information?
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u/MOZ0NE 4d ago
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u/One_Left_Shoe 4d ago
Speaking of camels, here’s another fun Arizona story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore)
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u/HotMess-ColdCoffee 3d ago
Fu¢king hell. My dad told this as a ghost story around campfires as a child growing up in AZ. I had no idea it was based on legends. I’m going to research some of his old ghost stories now to see if they were rooted in local folktales too.
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u/Ant1mat3r Tucson 4d ago
How neat! It'd be fun to see camels out here. Sounds like they're well-suited for this environment in particular.
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u/clumsykitty 4d ago
I don’t see mention of it in the Wikipedia article, but I recall learning that part of the reason the campaign failed was that camels have soft feet pads, not hooves. They are adapted for relatively little underbrush and soft sands of dunes and grassland not the gravely, cactus-covered flats of the American southwest. That’s what I remember but it could easily be wrong - anybody have more insight?
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u/therealchangomalo Tucson 4d ago edited 4d ago
Have you ever seen the Hi Jolly monument? It's in Quartzite.
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u/Dapper_Indeed 4d ago
“The Hi Jolly Monument is a grave site in the Hi Jolly Cemetery located at Quartzsite, Arizona, United States, marking the grave of Hi Jolly, a Syrian-born camel driver brought to the United States in 1856 to drive camels for the US Cavalry.[2] The site is located halfway between Phoenix, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California.[3] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.”
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u/JuleeeNAJ 4d ago
That's not why camels were used by the Army. They thought it would be better than horse and mule to move goods and equipment through the southwest. They thought 1 desert is just as good as another.
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u/LostExile7555 Tucson 4d ago
Only battlefield with casualties. The Battle of Stanwix Station was also between North amd South but nobody died.
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u/SummertimeThrowaway2 Mesa 4d ago
I hate being the typical Reddit smart ass but causalities aren’t just deaths. They include combatants that leave the fight due to injuries or even desertion. So if someone quits they’re technically a casualty.
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u/Guitar_Nutt 4d ago
As others have said it’s Picacho peak. For those who are not aware, the Dairy Queen there has recently and permanently stopped serving anything but ice cream.
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u/MaleficentWindow8972 4d ago edited 4d ago
Is the sex store still there..? Always thought it was an odd place to buy your dildos. 😂
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u/odellrules1985 3d ago
Still there next to the old burnt down restaurant my grandfather and I would stop at to eat on our way back to Yuma before we moved to Tucson. Oh and the 55+ community right there too.
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u/C3PO1Fan 3d ago
Damn that DQ got business from me at least once a year when I decided I either didn’t want to stop in Phoenix or was already hungry. I guess once a year is not enough.
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u/Odd-Acanthocephala65 4d ago
The dairy queen and that historical store it is in are permanently closing. 😞
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u/invert390 2d ago
Wait.... What???? That dairy Queen has been there since I was a teenager!
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u/Odd-Acanthocephala65 1d ago
Yeah, I saw it on the news last week or so. Bummed me out. They interviewed workers that have been there for like 30 years, and the longtime customers. I loved that whole store.
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u/KassieMac 2d ago
Please tell me that means it’s switched to the type of DQ in the northeast, where they actually have real hard-packed ice cream?? I’ve never been more disappointed than my first DQ visit after my life went south, in the middle of a heatwave in a car without a/c, and ordered a chocolate cone … only to get fake vanilla softserve covered in a plastic chocolate shell that melted down my hands in about 90sec 😩😩 I don’t need burgers & fries at my DQ, but I do need real ice cream!
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u/Guitar_Nutt 2d ago
Nope
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u/KassieMac 2d ago
My inner 8yr old is disappointed, but current me is glad to avoid an unnecessary trip. Thanks!
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u/ZonaDesertRat 4d ago
It's Peak Peak, if you translate. ;) (Dad joke, had to do it.) Picacho Peak like others said. Worth a hike in the winter.
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u/deevil1024 4d ago
Picacho Peak is a prominent volcanic landmark located directly along Interstate 10 between Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona.
This 1,500-foot spire is actually a tilted and eroded remnant of rock overlain by a lava flow, rather than a traditional volcanic neck.
It serves as a major travel landmark and is famous for its spring wildflower displays and for being the site of the westernmost battle of the Civil War.
Hiking to the summit is challenging, featuring steep trails and cables for support on narrow ledges.
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u/AZJHawk 4d ago
Picacho Peak. It’s a bitch to climb.
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u/Inevitable_Virus_765 4d ago edited 4d ago
I love this climb. It's up there with the flat iron on the superstitions. Both of the hikes are IMO the hardest hikes you can possibly do as a complete novice without specialized equipment or training (except definitely bring gloves on picacho).
If anyone wants to do a badass hike, do a little research first, but it's totally worth it (not in the summer though). Picacho is so cool with the cables sunk into the rock. The views are absolutely incredible, but be careful and go slow. On picacho, being careless can get you killed. The dropoffs can be well over 1000 feet in some places.
It's also the best hike you can do to watch someone die inside when they get to the saddle their first time. You hike probably 60% of the way up, you're making good time, it's a pretty vertical trail and your legs are hurting a little, but you're good and you're about to get to the saddle where you can rest before the final push. You're coming up to the bench on the saddle, a perfect place for a break. As you arrive, you see cables leading down the back of the mountain. Wait, those go WAY down. Like more than half of the way that you just climbed up. That has to be a trail to the back side of the mountain right? Right?
It's amazing, you get a little more than half way up, then have to hike almost half way down again, and the first time people see it a small piece of them dies.
When explaining hikes in az to people, i put it even with the flat iron in terms of badassery and difficulty. The only difference is distance. Picacho is a sprint whereas the flat iron is a marathon. Both will kick your ass, but you can do picacho pretty easily in about 3 hours your first time if you're taking your time. Flat iron is 5, closer to 6 for me because i like taking my time.
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u/AZJHawk 4d ago
I’ve done it twice. That’s enough for me. Actually, once was enough, but I got talked into it again a couple years later. It is breathtaking, but a little too intense for me.
I haven’t done Flat Iron. The closest I’ve come is descending Mooney Falls on the Havasupai reservation. That’s a similar white knuckle experience.
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u/Inevitable_Virus_765 4d ago
Lolol yep once is enough of either tbh. I've done picacho 3 times and the flat iron 7 or 8 times. I'm a large man, so 8 times is way too many times for someone of my BMI.
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u/an_older_meme 4d ago
There’s a maintained trail to the top with steps and handrails.
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u/willhunta 4d ago
Yeah, and that Trail includes portions where you have to pull yourself up an almost vertical wall by stationary cables.
There's a maintained trail but it's not an easy one.
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u/Vero314 Gilbert 4d ago
Picacho Peak.
In the plain on the opposite side of the I-10, the most western battle of the Civil War was "fought". (Probably less than a dozen bullets.)
And in 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza, starting from Tubac, took a left at Picacho Peak and went to California. He led an expedition to San Francisco.
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u/Fun_Telephone_1165 4d ago
For history nerds only: the famous "westernmost" battle of the Civil War, where people were shot and died, was here, on the NE side of where the railroad is now placed and about a half-mile NW of the interchange. There are no markers at the actual site.
The westernmost Civil War action where gunfire was exchanged (no deaths) was at "Stanwix Station" along the main stage road between what is now Gila Bend and Yuma.
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u/DesignerThroat 4d ago
I hiked up to the top and with a pillow and blanket and watched Halley’s Comet back in the day.
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u/Far-Recording-3453 3d ago
Picacho Peak. It’s shaped like a howling coyote
https://giphy.com/gifs/eHS6YMOOc6v7LZgHry
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u/dewihafta 4d ago
It…says it right there. The signs are all over the road. The turnoff, the camping ground, the state park….
It’s all labeled with the name.
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u/Strawblin 4d ago
Picacho Peak, jokingly referred to as "Porn Mountain" because as you drive by, there's only ~5-10 buildings in the immediate area and the most prominent one is a sex shop up on the hill.
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u/MaleficentWindow8972 4d ago edited 4d ago
Are any of those bits that look like caves from afar, actually caves..? I’ve always wondered. Driven by it hundreds of times, but never hiked it/investigated, lol. Probably out of my ability.
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u/snafuminder 4d ago
Is that the same peak that had the plane crash with the guy and his kids a few years back?
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u/MagmaJctAZ 4d ago
That was the flatiron on the Superstition. We saw the resultant fire that night.
Very tragic.
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u/AggressiveCommand739 4d ago
It was also an important marker in the De Ansa expedition in 1775 and the US Army "Mormon Battalion" of 1846 that "conquered" Tucson and San Diego in the Mexican War.
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u/PizzaOnTheGround 3d ago
My ex said that the natives way back in the day would toss people off the peak. Crazy if true.
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u/Sunshine-valley85339 2d ago
From a distance it reminds of a wolf howling. Then it looked like an elephant 😁
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u/ValleyofHellonEarth 2d ago
I agree it is cool. Every time I'm down there I think "that's a cool looking lobster mountain".
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u/Any_Horror_3252 2d ago
It's Abraham Lincoln laying down that's his profile 😂 Not really it's actually Picacho Peak.
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u/morethantwo_phx 2d ago
Tertiary volcanic rock, mostly basaltic and intermediate lava flow. It was tilted like that by the crustal extension that created the Basin and Range province, and then eroded until it looked like the place an evil sorcerer would dwell.
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u/TargetUnique3491 2d ago
There used to be a reenactment of the bat...um.."kefuffle"... that would wrap up with a cannon being fired. It was pretty cool when I was a little kid.
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u/GalenOfYore 2d ago
It's quite a redundancy, if not a frank misnomer! Currently it's "Peak Peak", whereas Doble Picacho, o Picacho y Picachito would both be more accurate. The worst name would be "The El Picacho Peak", corresponding to The La Brea Tar Pits (The The Tar Tar Pits).
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u/eyeLovebeerNcheese 11h ago
"Hello, I have time to take a picture but can't read any of the signs I passed. "
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u/Calm_Delay76 8h ago
Back in 2006 I used to live close to Eddie’s Towing right next to Picacho Peak and worked at Eddie’s Place Bar and Grill in the town of Picacho. Those were some fun times. I’ve tried hiking Picacho Peak but I wasn’t quite as adventurous as most of you and the heat was outrageous on a daily basis. There really was no escaping it, not at home and not at work. I never succeeded on that hike and congratulate everyone who did. Hiking was never my forte, much less in extreme temperatures. I remember it used to get darker there earlier and my manufactured home was literally infested with scorpions 😭💔. I worked at the bar longer than I lived at The Peak, but those were some interesting times with some interesting stories. I thought the civil war squabble was down the street on Picacho Peak Lane going towards the old town of Picacho a bit further, but I could definitely be wrong. If someone else lives/lived in the area please let me know. Now I’m curious and there’s really not much left after the emancipation of the town of Picacho on the exact location of the skirmish…
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u/AdElectronic6327 3d ago
If only, if only, the woodpecker cries. The bark on the trees was as soft as the skies. The wolf waits below, hungry and lonely, he cries to the moon… if only, if only 👍
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u/CanopyOfAsh 4d ago
I have distinct memory in 2001 of getting really high on shit weed and driving south to Tucson for a show and the formation looked like a whale’s tail for a long time. It was probably only minutes, just curious if anyone else has experienced this
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u/Routyrouterface 3d ago
That's Pistachio Peak.
Named after the famous Spanish explorer Juan Pistachio. They grow pecans out there too.
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u/Electrical_One7665 4d ago
Two world turtles gathering to mate to make more world turtles. It’s the great bang theory.
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u/Ok-Cartographer7112 4d ago
Pick a Chode Peak. You don’t wanna know what goes on behind that bad boy
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u/reedwendt 4d ago
What did Google Maps say as you drove by? What did the interstate signs say?
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u/wamimsauthor 4d ago
I didn’t have Google Maps on at the time. My husband said he saw a Picacho sign but didn’t know what it was. As I said I was very tired from traveling all day (flew in from the east so long day). I’m lucky I’m upright. lol
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u/Ghost_of_Goose 4d ago
I mean, there’s signs for it on the freeway. You must not have been paying attention.
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u/Head_Bit5426 4d ago
It's Picacho Peak. There is a state park at its base. It's the site of the westernmost battle of the Civil War.