Hunter Trail: Difficult 1.6 mile trail that goes to the top of the peak. Steep, twisting, and includes anchored steel cables. Gloves are recommended.

Sunset Vista Trail: 2.6 mile trail that joins Hunter to make it 3.1 miles.

Calloway Trail: .5 mile trail that leads to an overlook of the Saguaro filled Sonoran desert landscape.

Nature Trail: Easy .4 mile trail with signs.

Children’s Cave Trail: Easy .2 mile hike to a small mountain cave.

38 miles up the road from Tucson on I-10 is the unmissable Picacho Peak and the State Park that surrounds it. The park is famous for its display of wildflowers from February to April. But, it’s also known for its Civil War re-enactment of the battle of Picacho Peak (or Pass). There are tons of picnic areas, a surprising amount of campsites (78 RV & tent sites), trails, views, and history. Hilariously, Picacho, in Spanish, means peak.

The park showcases a pristine Sonoran Desert landscape and the trails allow you to enjoy the thorny wilderness safely. The re-enactments occur in early March and it showcases the battle that occurred there in April of 1862. For more on that, scroll down.

Taken from my episode over the Civil War in the Southwest: Carleton’s California Column, the Battle at Picacho Peak, & The Rebels Retreat from Tucson:

“On April 15th, the westernmost battle, real fight with casualties, but the westernmost battle of the entire Civil War occurred at a place known as Picacho Peak. It was both the westernmost and quite possibly the smallest battle of the war. The Battle at Picacho Peak actually has annual reenactment that sees 4,000 people show up and around 200 re-enactors fighting it out in the Sonoran Desert. I visited Picacho Peak a few days before Christmas in 2024 and the landscape could not be further from how one pictures a Civil War Battlefield. It is rugged, strewn with Saguaros, and it affords a commanding view of the surrounding harsh desert landscape.

For almost a decade I have driven near the area and have planned on camping at the state park multiple times but I never got around to it. But I’m glad I hadn’t because as I explored the park in December, I saw it through new eyes. Eyes that could picture the battle erupt.

Picacho Peak looks like a volcanic plug but it’s actually just volcanic flow on an uplifted rock and the weaker material has eroded away in this basin and range landscape. Governor Juan Bautista de Anza, a man I have mentioned on several occasions in the past was the first to record this unique looking desert feature way back in 1775 during his expedition to San Francisco. A little later, the Mormon Battalion in 1846 would create a road that the Gold Seeking 49ers and eventually the Butterfield Overland Mail Route would use. So clearly, this place has much history. But on April 15th, 1862, The Confederates put up a fight against the advancing California Column. It would be the Rebel’s last fight in today’s Arizona.

On that day, the same day that Canby and Sibley were fighting at Peralta in the east, a small squad of Confederates led by Captain Sherod Hunter laid an ambush at the foot of this red volcanic rock northwest of Tucson.

Carlton was over at modern day Casa Grand and he was probing the desert mountains for Rebels. He sent out 13 Yankees under a Lt. Barrett to sweep the saguaro strewn landscape for the enemy. These 13 would soon capture three Rebel lookouts who refused to give away the Confederate’s position. Undaunted, the Unionist men then entered the pass at Picacho as another group of Yanks circled around the Peak to envelope any remaining Confederates.

Then, at 2pm, as the California Column crept through the thorny desert, the Rebels unleashed a volley at the main body of Yankees which wounded two and sent the rest a scattering. But once they’d regrouped, Lt. Barrett rallied his men and led them forward to engage the entrenched Southerners again. The fighting would go on for nearly 90 minutes and by the end of the engagement, Lt. Barrett and two other Yanks would lay dead on the desert floor while three others were wounded.

The Fedrals eventually made a hasty retreat through the Sonora Desert to Casa Grande where they told Rigg and the Unionists quite the tall tale of the Rebel’s strength, which ultimately, this exaggeration dealt a blow to the Union Vanguard and the Columns morale. It also bought Hunter just a little time… which is all he had down in dusty ole Tucson.”

For more on the Civil War in the Southwest, listen to my sprawling 11 part series over the often overlooked portion of America’s Brother War.