Geronimo Cave off the Peralta Trail

[Dirt4dinner]

My wife said she would like to go for a dayhike on Easter (SHE NEVER WANTS TO HIKE!). So now I am feeling the pressure to find a nice, scenic, fairly low mileage hike near Mesa. I was thinking of hiking down in the Roger's Canyon Ruins (but I've been there a lot already). So, I started staring at the map and noticed this little cross cut trail that runs from the Peralta Trail over to the Bluff Spring Trail. It passes by Geronimo Cave occording to the map. Who has done this? Is it worth the dayhike or I am better to take her down into Roger's Canyon?

[joebartels]

http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=24

[Dirt4dinner]

Hmmm......So you think if I print your directions, and print all the pictures I can get us up and over this trail? I don't see what could really go wrong as far as getting lost. It's surrounded on all sides by trails. Your directions look pretty darn good, and the photos are perfect! You have done it though...what do you think?

[big_load]

I found it easier to follow the terrain than to worry too much about which of the multitude of social trails I was on.

[johnlp]

The Cave trail is not too hard to follow as there are lots of cairns to lead you along. First time is a bit tricky though. You might want to top it off by going north on Bluff Springs trail from the Cave trail/Bluff Springs intersection and doing lower Barks canyon down to the Dutchman and back to the trailhead for about 6-7 miles total. Lower Barks should be nice after the rain we are supposed to get Thursday.

[nonot]

Gah, don't follow the cairns on Cave trail, just go the route that looks best to you. Cairns are placed by thousands of lost folks, but only ten people who knew where they were.

[SuperstitionGuy]

The more cairns there are, the greater the maze that you have to hike through.
And you can quote me on that! ;)

[tahosa]

Cave trail is fairly easy to follow if you know the tricks of the route. I prefer to go up the Cave and back down the Peralta. And don't trust those rock cairns, remember they were probably placed by someone who thought they knew where they were.

[big_load]

remember they were probably placed by someone who thought they knew where they were.

Or worse, knew that they didn't know where they were, but wanted to be sure of getting back from wherever it was.

[PLC92084]

I have it on good authority there are fewer cairns now... :whistle:

... and thanks for the guided tour tahosa!! Appreciated it immensely!

[Dirt4dinner]

I took my wife today up to this trail. We got up to Freemont Pass and she was feeling the burn! I talked her into walking out to at least take a look at the pine tree on the view point (que evil grin). I happened to notice the very obvious trail that headed off towards the Geronimo Caves. With that...we were off on our Cave Trail adventure! The carines were plentiful....at times TOO plentiful! I was able to poke around the caves, and we made it safely through the duration of the Cave Trail with not so much as a "do you think it's this way or that....?". It was easy to follow this trail! Just stay on the obvious route (there is some false advertising, but the obvious route is a well trodden path). Thanks for the tips! We really enjoyed it!