Hoovey Canyon Trail #261, AZ

Hoovey Canyon, Green Canyon, and Fife Canyon trails all branch off the 4-wheel drive road that leads down Pine Canyon from the Methodist Camp turnoff. From different points along that road they climb the side canyons for which they are named to the top of Witch Ridge. Because of the status of these trails as primitive, they are unmarked and kept open mainly by the traffic that passes over them. Maintenance on primitive trails is limited to repairing environmental damage and removing blow-downs, so be ready to backtrack if you lose the route. Each of the canyon trails starts by following an abandoned jeep track up a major side drainage of Pine Canyon up the north slope of Witch Ridge. As they climb, jeep tracks give way to trails, which stay with the streambed as the gradient steepens. At some point even the trails disappear. From this point on, these trails might be better described as routes. To follow them all the way to the east-west running Witch Ridge Trail #260 requires exercising some pathfinding skills and perhaps even ascending the last pitch of the slope on hands and knees through the underbrush. Witch Ridge Trail also can be very difficult to find. It is most easily located from the Green Canyon Trail or Hoovey Canyon Trail junctions east of the Rattlesnake Trail. These trails provide a good opportunity for the recreationist who is proficient in the use of a map and compass and is interested in getting away from more crowded trails along the Chiricahua Crest and in Cave Creek and Rucker canyons.

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2018-07-14 HAZ_Hikebot