Ogilby Hills

December 27, 2021

240m

Yuma, CA

Ogilby Hills are a group of lowly summits about 30 km to the NW of Yuma in the vicinity of Cargo Muchacho Mountains with only the high point offering more than 100 m prominence. When Adam suggested this objective I almost decided to just wait in the car but I eventually convinced myself to slog that 100 m elevation gain even just for the sake of doing some exercise. This hike turned out to be much better than expected.

Ogilby Hills high point via NW Ridge. GPX DL

We correctly located some sandy spur roads off Sidewinder Road and drove to as close to the NW Ridge as we could. From where we parked the ascent had only 500 m horizontal distance and less than 100 m elevation gain so we didn’t even need to carry anything. We chose to scramble up the NW Ridge proper instead of finding the path with the least resistance. There were some fun class 2 scrambling but very short-lived. I even traversed to a secondary summit about 100 m to the SE of the high point as it looked to be just as high. The views were great in the late afternoon lighting.

Adam walking towards our objective
The start of the NW Ridge
Looking back at Adam’s Subaru parked on the desert floor
Fun scrambling on the NW Ridge
Summit Panorama from Ogilby Hills. Click to view large size.
Some lower Ogilby Hills with Yuma skyline on the right
Pasadena Mountain that we ascended just a couple hours ago
Stud Mountain is higher than Pasadena Mtn. but Adam had already done
Pilot Knob that we also bagged earlier in this day
Me on the summit of Ogilby Hills

After taking in enough of the views we leisurely descended back to the car via the same route and then drove back into the city of Yuma. Adam’s non-hiking friend, Chris offered us a stay in his home for one night. We drove straight there since we didn’t want to arrive too late.

Adam starting the descent
Walking off the hill with sunset horizon