Ragged Top Peak and Sasco Ghost Town
November 30, 2008

Participants

Description

After getting back down, we stopped at the nearby Sasco ghost town, which was interesting, but unfortunately had a number of other people hanging around and was littered with beer cans and bottles, ammo casings, and paintballs.

More info about hiking Ragged Top Peak is available here, here, and here. The last one follows a somewhat different route than we took. Some further info about the Sasco ghost town is available here and here.

My Photos

	Medium Large	At the parking area
	Medium Large	Small grave marker near the parking area
	Medium Large	Heading off through the desert. There was no real trail, so we had to find our own way, which wasn't too bad since there was a large peak we were walking towards.
	Medium Large	Millipede, with keys for scale
	Medium Large	Getting closer to the mountain. We're taking a route up the big gully that's illuminated by the sunbeams. The summit is the peak on the far left, I believe.
	Medium Large	Heading up the gully. There were sections that had a faint trail, but for the most part it was steep and rocky the whole way up.
	Medium Large	Looking back down the gully to the North
	Medium Large	View to the South from a saddle before the summit
	Medium Large	Scrambling up to the summit. This was definitely the steepest section, and the upper part right before the summit required some rock-climbing moves. || || \/
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	Medium Large	Summit shots || || \/
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	Medium Large	Here you can see Picacho Peak and Newman Peak towards the middle of the photo
	Medium Large	Panorama of all the mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson Basin (the Santa Catalina, Rincon, Santa Rita, and Tucson Mountains). As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've seen a view like this. Usually I see no more than 3 of them, because I'm standing on the fourth!
	Medium Large	The Silverbell copper mine, which is in the Silverbell Mountains south of Ragged Top Peak. I believe it is currently active.
	Medium Large	A Cholla cactus. Ask Veronica about these...
	Medium Large	Coming down from the summit--a very steep section of the hike!
	Medium Large	Coming down the main gully that leads up the mountain
	Medium Large	Silverbell road. We didn't make it exactly back to where our cars were parked, so we had to wander along it for a little while till we met up with them again.
	Medium Large	One last look back at Ragged Top Peak
	Medium Large	The Sasco ghost town. This was the home of a smelting operation that processed ore, mainly from the Silverbell mine. The following photos are of various structures associated with the smelters. There were a lot of other people besides us around, and unfortunately the area was littered with bottles and cans, ammo casings, and paintball splatters. || || \/
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	Medium Large	Remains of an old hotel, which I believe was called the Rockland Hotel || || \/
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	Medium Large	Remains of a jail