Quick, easy hike up Spur Cross Trail toward Elephant Mountain, turned off on Tortuga Trail heading South across flat section. Looks like trail improvement has been done in this section too. It is still rocky, but the ruts have been flattened out and the ground in places is very soft. Hiked down Tortuga to the intersection with Spur Cross Trail and DragonFly trails. Headed back North on Spur Cross toward the Tortuga trail (loop) and turned right at the intersection (3 miles total from parking lot) and returned to parking lot via Spur Cross Trail to the Trailhead and parking lot - total roundtrip was 3.7 miles. Great day for a hike with the temp hanging in the low 70's. Some of the sections behind the hill that were in the shade had a perceptible decrease in temperature. Nice hike to get your legs stretched out and get some exercise.

Clouds and cool temps in the valley meant it was Elephant season today in the CCRP. I had thought about Skull or Black, but told myself I could not go hiking out until I completed some chores around the house and did not get to the trailhead until one, so just opted for the shorter Elephant.

I started at Dragon Fly to avoid the fee. I saw a few people on the trails near the trailhead, but nobody after I turned off on Elephant Mountain Trail. The trail to the summit seems to have gotten a little more defined, but that being said, I still had to take a couple minutes a few times to locate the proper route. I spooked a pack of Javelina on the summit, which was about the most excitement on the day. I returned the same way I came.

Just a glorified dog walk and barely that really, as I cut the walk pretty short because I was feeling a little under the weather and generally beat from spending Friday and Saturday coaching at a wrestling tournament in Tucson.

Some annoying sticky mud on the trails and signs of some rainfall out there, but nothing to write home about. The area could still use about another 2-3 inches to get into prime winter condition, but I guess we have to be happy with anything at this point. Not too many people out for your typical Spur Cross Sunday in the winter, but no complaints here.

I rounded up the all stars to follow Oregon_Hiker's track to the Sugarloaf Mountain airplane crash site. 46 degree start at the Spur Cross trail head. We followed Spur Cross trail northwest to Tortuga Loop to Elephant Mountain and continued North to Tonto NF Trail 252 Lime Creek. Stopped by the 2 nearby ruins sites just to the east and then turned west and north up Peterson Spring trail. The trail up to the spring are fairly well marked and easy to follow. Water was running and the pool and tank were full. There's also a cattle feeder above the spring that's worth checking out. This is where the off trail starts. The GPS track takes a pretty natural path to the Sugarloaf/Black Mesa saddle above that has a barb wire fence along the ridge. There's 2 places the fence is down that you can cross to the north side. I wasn't sure which side of the fence we needed to be on and we ended up crawling under once we saw we were no long going in the right direction. Between the fence and the crash site is a real bush wack, we did our best to stay near the track while avoiding pointy things. The crash site way points were right on and brought this 17 year old's tragedy to life. It's hard to imagine the agony that young man went through during his last hours on that hot July morning. From the crash site we headed east toward Trail 4. Travel was slow as we zig zagged through the prickly pear stands and deadly agave spears. The track eventually drops into the same drainage that has the wreckage further up the mountain. We opted to just follow the drainage all the way back to Trail 4. This ended up being much easier than the brutal cross country travel as we were in the shade, it was nice and cool, there was far less spikey things, and we found an large additional plane piece. This was about a half mile from the crash site up the hill! Back on Trail 4, we maintained a brisk pace back to the truck and enjoyed lunch at Big Earl's in Cave Creek.

Big thanks to Oregon_hiker for all his work on this!

Foliage
Tree turning from green to yellow along Cave Creek trail #4.

Stayed in town and got out to the Spur Cross / Jewel of the Creek area.

Temps were perfect in the am, and with the afternoon breeze, never got to warm.

Dragonfly Trail, Maricopa Trail, Elephant Mountain, Tortuga Trail, Towhee, Metate, Cave Creek #4 are all in great shape

Limestone #252 is fading away. It is also filled with icky Foxtail grass.
All 18 minutes of break time were to pull them from my shoes.
Another 45 minutes at home to get them from my shoes and socks.

Saw a Gila Monster in the tall grass, and a bit later, a dead Gray Fox in the middle of the trail. Coincidence?

We decided to hike Spur Cross area to see wildflowers and mission was accomplished! Absolutely beautiful on the Elephant Mountain Trail. It was like the Wizard of Oz walking through a field of poppies. The weather was warm and the climb was steep but the beauty made it so rewarding. Read AZWandering Bear's write-up for more details.

Stephanie mentioned the Elephant Mountain trail a few weeks ago. Thought it might be good for views and wildflowers about now, so off we all went to Spur Cross. Knew the day would get warm before we finished, so we went counter clockwise to get the climb out of the way early and finish in shade at the Jewel of the Creek. Flowers are maybe a week before prime, but still substantial. Noshed a bit on some juicy wolfberries along the way up Elephant.

Bumped into a solo hiker on her first Spur Cross outing. Helped with finding her way (and promoted HAZ, again).

The cottonwoods by the creek gave off nice shade when we stopped to wet some bandannas in the cool clear flow to combat the increasing heat. All is green and lush in that area, so pleasant!

Timed the drive home to allow red beer(s) for the Kutie and some a couple of full (blue) moons for the Beav with salads for all. Another fun outing to Spur Cross!

This hike was exactly what I hoped for in regards to the wild flowers, greenery and of course of beautiful landscape. The water was flowing, hummingbirds were curious, the canyon wrens were vocal and there were no rattle snakes! The beauty was exactly what I had hoped for and can't be missed. I learned about wolf berries, delicious!!!

Wildflowers
poppies, globe mallow, fairy dusters, Indian paintbrush, daisy, brittle bush

We did the loop up Elephant Mountain that uses Tortuga and parts of Spur Cross. Left around 4p and finished at about 6:40p, in the dark. It ended up being fine, but with all the rocks in these trails, they aren't great for night hiking (imo). It was such a beautiful hike though! I am so glad that I finally did this one. I definitely recommend it.

My first real adventure in a hot minute. I love love love Cave Creek, and specifically Spur Cross Ranch!!! I was at the TH before first light and paid my dues with headlamp at the self pay station. Saw about 15 javelina, one of which snorted at me at the first Cave Creek crossing. Made my way up over to Limestone Spring which was dry. All the water sources out there, expectedly are dry as a bone including Cave Creek itself.

After a hot summer in which I've had some medical issues, it felt good to get out and be alone in a beautiful beautiful place.