Picketpost Mountain
— — the rock the road bends around.
Not only on a wall.
“Picketpost stands alone above the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, a 4,375-foot block of dark volcanic rock that catches the eye on the drive east from Phoenix toward Globe. The Arizona Trail crosses its north flank on Passage 18. A small metal ammunition box on the summit holds the climbing register, with entries running back to the 1960s.
Picketpost Mountain, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Picketpost Mountain rises to 4,375 feet just south of US-60 near the old copper town of Superior, Arizona, about an hour east of downtown Phoenix. The mountain is dacite and andesite from the mid-Tertiary volcanic field of central Arizona. Boyce Thompson Arboretum, the state's oldest and largest botanical garden, sits at its base on the Queen Creek floor. The peak forms a recognised waymark on Passage 18 of the Arizona National Scenic Trail, which crosses from the Gila River basin up toward the Superstition Wilderness.
The summit cap is dacite, a fine-grained volcanic rock laid down roughly 20 million years ago during the regional eruption sequence that built the Superstition and Pinal volcanic fields. The dark cliffs read black-brown at noon and copper at sunset. A small metal ammunition box on the summit holds the climbing register, with entries running back to the 1960s; the volunteer who maintains the box swaps a new book in roughly every five years. The peak's name comes from a 19th-century military picket post stationed nearby.
The Picketpost trailhead sits south of US-60 near milepost 221, with a small lot maintained by Tonto National Forest. The summit route climbs about 2,000 feet over roughly two miles, with no marked trail past the saddle and exposed Class 3 scrambling on the upper block; cairns and a topo map are essential. The arboretum at the base is open year-round with about 3,900 plant species from the world's deserts and is a quieter alternative for anyone not climbing. October through April is the comfortable window.