Corral Canyon Trail #291, AZ

Overview
This trail connects the East Divide Trail #287 with the Powers Garden Trail #96. Sections of the trail are difficult to find due to tall grass and deadfall. You won’t see a lot of people on this trail. The trail is described from bottom to top.


Hike
At the bottom, the trail is good. It is marked by occasional cairns and features good tread and not a lot of brush. Someone has clipped a few of the more offensive bits of brush, but it could do with a lot more maintenance.

At around ~1.3 miles from Rattlesnake Creek, the trail becomes pretty vague. For the next half mile or so, just follow the creek, until you encounter a couple of large cairns directing you up the hill on the north side of the creek. If you get as far as Corral Spring, you must backtrack to find the switchbacks up the grassy north side of the canyon, which take you around a redoubtable waterfall.


The switchbacks are hard to find in the grass, but there are regular cairns that appear, letting you know you are on the right track. If you load the GPS tracks from previous HAZers, you can follow those. Eventually, the trail returns to the stream just above the waterfall. The best path onward seems to be in the creek, following the south fork where it splits. There is quite a bit of deadfall to work around.

After a short section a ways up on the south canyon wall, the trail crosses the canyon and begins another aggressive set of switchbacks up the grassy north side of the canyon. The trail is hard to spot, but again, cairns will appear confirming you are on the right path. Just before the top, the trail makes a U-turn around the end of a ridge. Near here is a nice outcrop with good views to Mt Lemmon and Wrightson. From there, it is an easy ½ mile to the intersection at a pass with the East Divide Trail, which is tangled in deadfall.

Check out the Official Route and Triplogs.

Leave No Trace and +Add a Triplog after your hike to support this local community.

2023-02-06 GrangerGuy