Rhyodacite Canyon is L shaped. It starts gently at West Goldfield Divide in the high country of the Goldfields, but gets rocky as it flows westward. Then it makes an unexpected bend to the north, continuing its rocky course until it flows into Gateway Canyon northwest of peak 3097. Just west of the bend in Rhyodacite Canyon is a curiously flat natural desert garden with a commanding view to the west. Beyond the garden is a precipice, above a steep, rocky canyon that flows northward from the divide west of Peak 3192.

Ted had consulted the experts about climbing the precipice to get to the bend in Rhyodacite Canyon, and they thought it doable.

This approach doesn’t look too bad ...

But it’s a mighty steep climb to the base of the cliff.

We hiked the dirt road south from Blue Point Trailhead, 1½ miles to the place where a tributary joins Bulldog Canyon from the east. Then we left the road, crossed Bulldog Canyon, and continued another mile and a half east over rolling hills until we came to the west side of the steep, rocky canyon that flows down from Peak 3192.

Peak 2578 Precipice is high up on the other side. So we looked for a way to get across the canyon (easy) and up to the precipice (not so easy). It looked as if we could climb the slope below peak 2578 and make our way northeast along the base of the cliffs.

The slope is just barely climbable. It is as steep as you can get with loose rocks and gravel. You step up and slide down, very tiring on the ankles. Finally we got up to the cliffs and made our way to the precipice, right against the cliffs except where boulders got in the way or Teddy Bear cholla (Opuntia bigelovi) had decided to grow on our intended route.

Peak 2578 Precipice is like Picacho Peak without the cables. Yes, it can be climbed, and it takes an experienced, well-trained rock climber to get up safely. Michael found a way up! But it was a steep, narrow ledge that was not to Dan’s or Ted’s liking.

With heavy hearts, the hikers started back down. No one wanted to take the gravely slope we came up on, so we went straight down from the precipice to the rocky canyon, and didn’t get cliffed out.

O.K., Ted, which way do we go now?

There were some good moments. We saw a rattlesnake, a coyote, some lizards, and lots of ants. On our way down we looked back at the rocky canyon and discovered an arch, high above the place where we climbed down from the challenging Peak 2578 Precipice.

On a hiking disaster scale of 1 to 10, this hike earned a 6. Ted summarily upgraded the official hike rating from "B" to "N.A." (Never Again). However he planned to lead a different Rhyodacite Canyon hike, starting from the other end, some time next season.