Chiricahua Wilderness

[Taishan68]

I’m planning to backpack from Cave Creek Canyon to Chiricahua Peak around March 20. Any advice/warnings? I am not familiar with the area. I understand it will be cold at night. Thanks!

[xsproutx]

@Taishan68
It's tough, but fun. I assume you're talking about starting from the South Fork Trailhead? There's a member here who has done an absolute ton of work in that area @jonathanpatt and I'm almost certain I remember him saying that Cave Creek stretch had been cleared and maintained up to the 270c junction. Depending on how far they got, that could make a big difference in the quality of the trail for a decent portion.

[Taishan68]

@xsproutx
Thanks! Planning 3 day loop up South Fork Trail and down Snowshed/Herb Martyr. Mainly concerned about temperatures at night and possible snow conditions on top of Chiricahua Peak. Following weather forecast on Mountain Forecast.

[xsproutx]

I'd expect and be prepared for the teens and with the rain we got last week and more coming this upcoming week... I expect there will be snow. Perhaps quite a bit of it, even since most of what you're looking to do is over 8k ft and even 9k. Might be wise to call up someone from the National Monument there before your trip and see what they have to say closer to the date. It's not the same place but it's close and they'd probably have more info/can at least tell you what their conditions are.

[Taishan68]

@xsproutx
Thanks! Yeah, I am going to reach out to the Douglas Region ranger or similar. There’s a visitor center in Portal I thought I might reach out to. Calling the Monument is a good idea.

[jonathanpatt]

As @xsproutx mentioned, I have worked on the South Fork Trail with my Wild Arizona crews, and we completed restoration of the trail through to the top in the spring of 2023. I have not, however, been back up there since. I know there has been some volunteer effort to continue maintaining the upper portions of the trail but as it's fairly remote it doesn't get frequently maintained. I would anticipate some deadfall in the canyon portions of the trail and probably some brushiness at times. The upper canyon portions can hold snow for a bit, often more than the top of the South Fork Trail which is more exposed despite being north facing. I saw quite a bit of snow from a distance in the Chiricahua Peak area yesterday, though I don't know what sort of levels it might be at.

The Crest between South Fork and Snowshed is intermittently decent and intermittently very faint and almost nonexistent. We plan to have a crew up there in late April to work on that section of trail, better defining tread in some of the faint areas.

Snowshed itself I haven't been on for some time, but I would expect that it still has faint tread in spots, and probably has some trees down and brushy sections. Below Pine Park the trail gets fairly faint in some areas generally between Fossil Spring and Cypress Saddle, and you might consider going down the Herb Martyr Trail instead which is usually in better condition.

[Taishan68]

@jonathanpatt
Many thanks for sharing that information and many thanks for doing the trail maintenance! I also do trail maintenance in the Catskill region of NY.