Derrick - Horton Loop Photoset • The_N • 2016-02-13 • HikeArizona.COM

Derrick - Horton Loop, AZ

	2016-02-13
	11 by The_N

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Derrick - Horton Loop

Payson, AZ

Derrick - Horton Loop

Payson, AZ

Hiking	13.40 Miles	2,956 AEG

Hiking	13.40 Miles	5 Hrs 45 Mns	3.19 mph
	2,956 ft AEG	1 Hour 33 Mns Break

Linked

linked

Horton Creek Trail #285

Highline Trail #31

Derrick Trail #33

Partners

none

no partners

Rim Country hiking season is now in full swing for me. I needed something easy today to break in a new pair of Merrells and test the knee that gave me problems last weekend, both performed well. I started up Horton and looped clockwise. The creek was flowing stronger than I've ever seen. Not many people on the trail today despite the perfect weather (about 65 degrees and sunny). Just a few couples on Valentine's Day backpack trips to the spring. Met a group of 4 young men from Tempe at the spring who wanted to continue hiking but didn't know where to go. I told them about the loop and guided them onto Highline, gave them directions and continued on alone. The first 2.5miles of Highline east of Horton Spring was entirely snow. Depth was at least a foot with a few knee deep spots. I'm curious if the guys kept going or turned around since they weren't anticipating seeing any snow and 2 of them didn't have on proper footwear. I stopped once out of the snow for a brief nutrition break and finished out the loop rather quickly. I then decided to hike back up Horton Creek again. This time I stayed away from the trail and just walked along the creek. About 1.5miles up I crossed and went up a hill east of the creek and found a nice campsite loaded with firewood. This encouraged me to take a dip, start a fire and hang for about an hour before packing up and heading back to the TH.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Horton Spring

East Fork Horton Creek

Pools to trickle

	Horton Creek	Heavy flow	Heavy flow
	Good flow all the way down to the confluence with Tonto

Horton Spring

Gallon + per minute

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