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Trail with no destination by markthurman53 Overview The “Horse With No Name Trail” is an easy to follow trail that starts along Cottonwood Wash and ends about 1 mile down steam in cottonwood Wash. This trail I think is one of the more scenic trails in the Goldfield Mountains. The trail passes by light colored Rhyolite cliffs, over passes where the only rock is the Rhyolite and the trail is a white ribbon bounded by the yellow lichen. Further in the light Rhyolite gives way to the dark volcanic rock that gives some areas the appearance of a moonscape. The last stretch of trail is along an unnamed wash with impressive views of the surrounding rugged hills. The saguaro forests along this last section are quite impressive. This trail should be called the “Horse Trail with No Destination” because it looks like the ones who made the trail went up canyon to a totally random place and said that is enough and then returned to Cottonwood Wash via a slightly different route. They did pick a scenic route though. Description This description is in a counterclockwise direction from the southernmost end of the trail along Cottonwood creek. The trail is easy to spot along a small section of road FR 3512 which parallels along Cottonwood wash at this point. The trail appears to be heavily used with lots of sign that it is a common horse trail. Immediately the trail heads toward some rather tall cliffs of Rhyolite with numerous interesting nooks and crannies. It remains along the lower part of these cliffs climbing slowly up to a ridge to the south. It gets really interesting from here, at least different from any other trails I have been on in the Goldfields. The trail follows along the top of this pile of Rhyolite, climbing moderately. The trail looks like a white ribbon in a sea of yellow lichen, you can’t miss the trail. This is a wide open area so the views are pretty good, not so much in the distance but in the immediate surrounding area. The trail continues west along this rock slowly dropping into Orohai Wash. The Rhyolite cliffs to the north of the trail start getting taller again. Once past Orohai Wash the trail ascends a low ridge and crosses another small unnamed wash. The ridge between these two washes is the ridge that ascends the three lesser peaks route to the south. Once past the second wash the cliffs to the right of the trail (north) are not as tall and made up of jagged dark volcanic rock. The trail continues alongside this ridge to an unnamed wash. This wash runs parallel to the trail we just came up but on the north side of the ridge of Rhyolite and volcanic rock. Eventually this wash will run into the Cottonwood Wash. Where this trail comes to the unnamed wash the trail splits, the more obvious trail heads down the wash but don’t take that, take the trail that heads up stream. This trail doesn’t go very far, .4 miles, up stream before making a loop and heading back down stream but the landscape along this section is quite interesting. The jagged volcanic rocks give this the appearance of the moon, at least what I would think it looks like. This section of trail adds about 1 mile to the hike. Nice scenery on the return down the unnamed wash to the Cottonwood Wash. There is a magnificent saguaro forest along this section of the wash. Before getting to Cottonwood Wash, Orohai Wash enters from the south. This wash looks easy to navigate and can be used as part of the Three Lesser Peaks route. Once down in the Cottonwood Wash it can be taken up stream back to the start point. Check out the Official Route and Triplogs. Leave No Trace and +Add a Triplog after your hike to support this local community.
One-Way Notice This hike is listed as One-Way. When hiking several trails on a single "hike", log it with a generic name that describes the hike. Then link the trails traveled, check out the example. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
