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I called the Prison at Fort Grant to see if they still give out the key to the gate to access Lower Grant Creek at the base of Mt Graham. They said that they no longer give out the key.

I then called the Safford Ranger District and they said there is a new road with a cattle guard before you get to the Prison complex.

Has anyone here taken this access to Lower Grant Creek? I just want to make sure I can get in before I drive all the way out there.

Thanks

Sorry I meant Grant Creek in the Piñalenos. Not in the White Mountains.

The area has a city grade resolution on Google maps, in other words you can make out bushes and cars. Not sure what your looking to do... hike up that trail or simply get to the creek to fish, camp or whatnot, but it looks like at worst you'd have to go through 1.5 miles easy off-trail. Hopefully one of the more knowledgable locals will post.

How far up are you planing to hike. Have you hiked the other trails from the base of Mt. Graham ?

We really wanted to camp at the end of the 4wd road and then do a couple day hikes. I also wanted to show the Falls to my buds.

I'm going to try to get there using the Ranger's directions. I'll post a note whether we make it in or get shot by the prison guards

We hiked up the Shake trail from the Stockton Pass campground a few months back. This trail is my guess 5-10 miles to the east of this trail but does climb up the Pinalenos from the south side. This is a good trail with a spring and no fire damage and ends at the Swift highway. We were talking about doing the Grant Goudy Ridge trail to Soldier Creek CG as a backpack in the future so any info would be appreciated. I do know the upper Grant Creek trail received fire damage from the Nuttall Complex fire 2 years ago.

We were able to gain access to Lower Grant Creek. The Forest Service has purchased a 20-foot wide easement through the ranch that borders the Fort Grant Prison complex, so there is no key required.

When we got to the Prison turnoff there was a roadblock. It seems they had an escape Friday night, and the Prison was under lockdown. They had caught the two prisoners at the base of the Galiuros about 16 miles away and were bringing them back. He told us they would not allow us in until the prisoners were returned. We decided to do some exploring around the area to waste a little time. Two hours later we were able to drive up the canyon.

It is a pretty difficult 4wd road, but worth the trip. The Falls were running but the flow was really low.

I have a copy of the GPS track mapped in Google Earth if anyone is interested.