Nobody will believe this, but here is a story. Back around 1972 or so, I was attending the U of A and had a friend, Mike Gauna. Mike said, "let's climb Rincon Peak!" So we did. We began somewhere on the west side, probably north of Colossal Cave and just struck out for the summit. No trail. We just kept going until we got to the top and then headed back down. I have memories of steep hillsides and grabbing bushes and plants on the way up. We (or I at any rate) just didn't know any better.
Since then, I have been to the top starting in Happy Valley, hiking the trail to Happy Valley Saddle, on from there via the trail to the top. This was perhaps 30 years ago and had plenty of its own adventures that I will no bother giving details about here.
If you miss the sign, you will end up at the Turkey Creek trailhead in 2 or 3 miles. This trail takes you up to the Mica Mountain summit area and the network of trails up there.
The Miller Creek trailhead is on forest service land, and primitive camping is allowed (or was at the time this was written).
The trail does not get a lot of use and can offer some routefinding challenges
The first 1.5 miles of the trail is on forest service land, following Miller Creek for the first part of this distance until you reach the Park boundary.
From the park boundary, it is 2.7 miles to a trail junction at 6160 elevation.. Here you can go right and up to Mica Mountain, or go left (and down) 0.5 miles to Happy Valley saddle at 6080 elevation. From here it is on and up for 3.3 miles to the peak at 8482 elevation.
One way the hike is thus 8.0 miles with an elevation gain of 4242 feet. This is a 16 mile round trip. A demanding day hike.
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org