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| 235 Road Trail - Mogollon Rim, AZ | |
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| | 235 Road Trail - Mogollon Rim, AZ | | | |
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235 Road Trail - Mogollon Rim, AZ
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| Hiking | 8.80 Miles |
781 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.80 Miles | 3 Hrs 47 Mns | | 2.49 mph |
| 781 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | We managed to accomplish everything we intended on this hike... well almost, but more about that later.
1. Escape the triple digit temps
Check! It just hit 89 at the end of the hike.
2. Not too long a drive nor cost too much
Check! Just over a hundred miles each way, all paved so we saved $25 in gas by taking the Fit.
3. Something flat! (I'm still recovering from hip/knee issues)
Check! Less than 90' per mile instead of the 300-500 feet/mile I've been doing of late.
4. Something new!
Check! So 'new' it's not even listed on HAZ!
5. Encounter a bear, elk, deer or at least something larger than a rabbit anyway.
Nope! Plenty of elk scat, some deer scat, old bear scat but nothing but a cotton-tail and two chipmunks.
The hike:
It was easy going along what used to be Forest Road 235 but is now a designated bike trail closed to motorized traffic. The trail continues up the center of a flat ridge (more like a peninsula) which lies between Woods Canyon to the west and Willow Springs Canyon to the east.
We had a nice leisurely jaunt through the pines, encountering two solo elderly men (older than me anyway) and it just so happened each was taking a break on their return legs when we met them. We chatted a few moments with each before completing the 4-mile hike to the end where there is a nice Chevelon Canyon overlook.
From there we wandered first over to the Woods Canyon side for some photos, then back over to the Willow Springs side for a few more photos. For the return leg we took a meandering route south along Willow Springs Canyon rim before crossing west over to Woods Canyon rim for most of the latter part of the hike, ending up with a figure-eight route.
As mentioned above, we saw plenty of elk and deer scat along with some bear scat, but with none very fresh we didn't expect to encounter any if the above, and we didn't. However, we did follow a well-traveled elk trail along the edge of the peninsula along the Woods Canyon side, which made for some easy off-trail hiking.
Even though everything was very dry, it was a nice day for a hike. According to one of the solo hikers we met there had only been one short rain in this area since the beginning of monsoon season. So I guess it's hit-and-miss on the rim as well as in Mesa, where we've had one 1/2-inch deluge a few weeks ago and another few hundredths-of-an-inch all year!
If you seek a nice flat leisurely ~8 mile hike in the pines of Rim Country this is it! |
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