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| Hiking | 2.25 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 2.25 Miles | 1 Hour 30 Mns | | 1.50 mph |
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| no partners | | This is wild and primitive country!
I hiked down on the Lee Trail Road to the creek bottom (about 6 miles upstream of the Gila River). Although you can drive the 0.8 miles to the creek bottom on this road, it is steep! (after getting stuck on another road downstream earlier, I decided not to press my luck) I hiked up canyon on what I assumed was the Lee Trail (no trail, no signs, just a route) for about a quarter mile, making many creek crossings.
The Bonita Creek canyon is narrow, with lots of water, so any hiking along the creek bottom would be much easier in tevas, due to the numerous crossings. I did not encounter any wall to wall pools, although the canyon gets deeper and narrower the farther upstream you go. The canyon is very pretty, with lots of big cottonwood, hackberry, sycamore, and willow trees, under canyon walls of dark basalt.
The cliff dwellings are somewhere upstream of the Lee Trailhead. I found a great article in a local paper about two people who backpacked Bonita Creek up to the dwellings; when I find it again, I will include some info in this triplog.
The Solomon Pass Road from Safford takes you to the Lee Trail Road/West Rim Road junction (park at the top of the Lee Trail Road). It's rough, but someone had driven a car to this junction. I definately would not take a car down to the bottom of Bonita Creek on any of the roads that access it, but would recommend a 4x4. From what I can tell, the Lee Trailhead is probably the best and easiest place to access the upper half of Bonita Creek. The coordinates for the Lee Trailhead itself (bottom of the canyon) are: 32 degrees 57.347' N, 109 degrees 31.874 W. |
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| "…you never know when a hike might break out" -Jim Gaffigan |
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