Lake Pleasant hikes

JoelHazelton · Post by **JoelHazelton** » Apr 10 2007 10:42 am

Hey all,
On Saturday morning I'm going kayaking with my brother-in-law in Lake Pleasant. After he leaves in late afternoon I'm hoping to be able to go on a hike in the area. It looks to me like the closest trail to the lake that I can find on this website is the Pipeline trail, but that apparently has minimal views of the lake itself and I was hoping to have some nice views. Is my best bet just to find a trail around the circumference and take a stroll with all the other people at the lake? Or is there anything closeby that may have fewer people and nice views... Thanks
-joel

scorpion scus · Post by **scorpion scus** » Apr 13 2007 10:35 am

hells gate wilderness. i know of 1 access, its on a high clearance rd. a couple of miles off castle hot sprgs rd. i here of an easier access,but im not sure where its at. really cool area.

Hoffmaster · Post by **Hoffmaster** » Apr 15 2007 9:28 pm

In response to scorpion scus' reply:
Mike, the area you are referring to is called the Hells Canyon Wilderness, and it is about 5 miles northwest of Lake Pleasant. Hells Gate is east of Payson.
I've never been to Hells Canyon Wilderness. Let's check it out sometime.

JoelHazelton · Post by **JoelHazelton** » Apr 16 2007 12:59 pm

Just ended up doing the pipeline canyon trail. Also submitted a hike description for it and it looks like it made it to the site. Sweet.

te_wa · Post by **te_wa** » Apr 16 2007 1:38 pm

Hoffmaster wrote:Hells Gate is east of Payson.

there is a Hells Gate in Hells Canyon wldrnes. 2 of em, only the map says "big Hells Gate", but that is often just called Hells Gate - Not to be confused with Tonto, of course.

Access
From State Route74, turn north at the Lake Pleasant Regional Park turnoff and continue north on the Castle Hot Springs Road. The only vehicle access to the wilderness boundary is the west side boundary road (Cedar Basin Road). High-clearance and four-wheel-drive vehicles are needed to reach most public access sites to this wilderness. Public access is not available across private lands abutting parts of the north, east, and south wilderness boundaries.

heres a map http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=33. ... &layer=DRG