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| Hiking | 6.40 Miles |
1,290 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.40 Miles | | | |
| 1,290 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I've been wanting to do this hike for some time as well as checkout Workman Creek Falls and Aztec Peak. Sunday afternoon things were quieting down at the HAZ Summer Fest on the Mogollon Rim so I decided to head for the Sierra Ancha via Highway 288 through Young. On the way through Young I stopped at this hole-in-the wall country bar to ask about the forest fire smoke I saw in the general direction of where I was headed. I didn't know about the Mistake fire. The bartender and the single patron at the bar (a lady that looked to be at least ninety) were clueless. I was also hungry but they didn't have food - just beer in all the light flavors. The bartender told me to go back down the road to the Antler Cafe and Bar. Turned out to be a popular place. There were quite a few locals having a late lunch at 2:00 in the afternoon. The food on the tables looked good. I ordered a french dip sandwich - best I've had in a long time.
My next stop was Workman Creek Falls. It was still early enough in the afternoon for a hike so I bushwacked across the hillside from a starting point on the road about a quarter mile past the falls. My destination was the cliffs on the north side of the canyon above the falls. It was an easy bushwack through tall trees. Got to the cliffs and poked around for a while, found what I was looking for and headed back to the car. Then up to Aztec Peak. The lookout tower was deserted - no Red. I did encounter an older couple who were camped near the stone age furniture. They were from Globe and had been visiting the Sierra Anchas for at least a half century. He showed me an old map that was covered with red dots. I asked him about the dots - each one showed the location of Indian Ruins. I should have gotten a picture of it. I checked out the stone age furniture and then headed down the hill to find a camping spot for the night.
The next morning I drove to the Murphy Ranch trailhead, loaded up Grasshopper's gps track for this hike and took off down the well maintained trail. The vegetation along the first mile is a jungle, probably new growth that proliferated after the Coon Creek Fire. Once I got to the Rim Trail #139 there were more tall trees and some open areas under the trees. As I approached the upper end of Cold Spring Canyon I decided to change my destination from the Pueblo Canyon Overlook and bushwack east along the CS Canyon south rim. It was fairly easy going as long as I stuck to the elk trails. Got to the rim and Wow! What a narrow, deep, vertical walled canyon. I followed the rim east and got into dense thorn thickets crossing a shallow draw but then got back out in the open. There were great views of the southeast face of Center Mtn, the east end of CS Cnyn and beyond. Unfortunately the Mistake fire had made the more distant views too hazy for good photos. On the way back to the trail I left the rim and stuck to the top of the ridge line. This was a relatively open area under tall pine trees so I made good time getting back to the trail. There was a monster pile of fresh bear scat on a well used animal trail in this area - made me start looking over my shoulder. By mid morning the temperatures had started to get uncomfortably warm for uphill hiking so I stopped dilly-dallying around and headed straight back to the trailhead. I made it back to the car at noon ahead of my 1:00 pm deadline for starting the drive back to Phoenix. |
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