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| Hiking | 4.30 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 4.30 Miles | | | |
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| partners | | After seeing some photos posted on HAZ from the area west of Haystack Butte near the Salt River Wilderness, Grasshopper came up with a proposed hiking route down Hess Canyon to the Salt River based on topo maps. He asked me to check it out on Google Earth for obstacles and possible hilltop Indian Ruins in the area. The route looked like it could have some water fall obstacles but was worth checking out. So the two of us headed up there for a day hike. It was a perfect day for hiking with mild temperatures and a fantastically deep blue sky like I've only seen here in AZ. Our driving route was up Highway 60 past Globe and then left on Haystack Butte Rd (FR 303) to FR 367. The Haystack Butte Rd is a maintained gravel road and was in good condition. FR 367 is not maintained though in fairly good shape up to a large corral on the left. We went through five barbed wire gates on this short section of road and all required opening and closing (thank you, Grasshopper). After the fifth gate the road got narrow and many new AZ pinstripes were added to my FJ. We parked just above a partially washed out and steep section of the road and walked the last 0.9 miles down to Hess Creek. A good decision because the 4WD track got pretty nasty although OK for a skilled driver on an ATV.
We explored an old overgrown corral and the remains of a sheet metal storage shed/shack on the bank of Hess Creek and then started the hike down the stream bed. There were lots of trees lining the bank of the creek near the old corral, some of which were in autumn colors. The stream bed was mostly sandy with some patches of rock making it easy hiking. The creek passed through a series of cliff walled slots about 200 yards downstream from the corral. The cliff walls were multicolored and polished to a marble like appearance from stream erosion. After only going about a mile downstream we were stopped by a rock drop off spanning the width of the slot. Although not that much of an obstacle, the extremely slippery surface of the polished rock made it too much of a risk for us. We were happy to have found this beautiful canyon but disappointed at not being able to reach the Salt River. So back to the car we went to explore a 4WD road into Yankee Joe Canyon looking for another possible hiking route down to the Salt River. |
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