Friday, April 11, 2025
After spending an easy day around Flagstaff on Thursday, we still had one more day to wait until our Crack-In-Rock Pueblo hike which was scheduled for Saturday and I was wanting to go on a longer hike early this morning to help pass the time. Last October while Diane and I were hiking the trails in Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument I had noticed a road switchbacking up O’Leary Peak to a fire lookout tower on top and thought to myself that I should hike up there the next time I am in the area and have a little extra time, so that’s what I decided to do this morning before it started getting too warm out. Diane wasn’t interested in hiking another 2,000 feet of elevation today, so she stayed back at the hotel while I headed out to visit the fire lookout on the summit of O’Leary Peak.
After making my way over to the trailhead located near the O’Leary Campground before sunrise, I started hiking up the closed road at dawn and watched the sunrise light up the surrounding San Francisco Volcanic Field as I hiked higher up the side of this Lava Dome Volcano.
Once I hiked high enough up the road to see over the shoulder of Robinson Mountain I had a great view of the peaks of San Francisco Mountain.
Looking down across the Bonito Lava Flow toward the Cinder Hills where there was a lot of smoke from ongoing prescribed burns in the area.
Agassiz Peak and Humphreys Peak surround the Inner Basin of San Francisco Mountain.
There was a lot of smoke in the area from the prescribed burns this morning.
After following the road for about 5 miles and 2,000 feet up to the top of O’Leary Peak, I reached the lookout tower.
O’Leary Lookout
O’Leary, 1965
There was a nice view from the top.
Sunset Crater & Smoke
O’Leary Peak Fire Lookout
It looks like the tower passed it’s inspection in 2022.
After leaving the tower I hiked over to the western summit of O’Leary Peak which is slightly higher.
Almost to the top…
I’ve never seen this stamped onto a benchmark before.
O’Leary Peak West Summit
Hiking back down the O’Leary Peak Road.
Here’s one last look back to O’Leary Peak before I returned to the trailhead and then headed back to the hotel.
