Otero Canyon

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Woolsey Peak is a beautiful, uniquely-shaped lava-dome monolith located in the desert north of Gila Bend in southern Maricopa County, about 60 miles driving from Phoenix. It’s a peak that gets viewed thousands of times a day by travelers along Interstates 8 in Gila Bend of Interstate-10 to the north – the peak itself rises over 2,000 vertical feet above the desert plain and a good 1,000 feet above any of the other peaks in the region (collectively called the Gila Bend Mountains). Instead of the more usual pointed summit shape that most of the peaks have in this region, Woolsey’s summit is a broad rounded dome, surrounded by a palisade of cliffs on all sides.

Below the cliffs is an encircling apron of black basalt lava rock seemingly all set at its angle of repose. Then, of course, down below that is more typical desert terrain of dirt, rock and cactus. It’s very beautiful country, and the peak is the centerpiece of the Woolsey Peak Wilderness which spreads for 64,000 acres.