Southern Sierra Ancha Tour Photoset • MountainMatt • 2018-03-03 • HikeArizona.COM

Southern Sierra Ancha Tour, AZ

	2018-03-03
	10 by MountainMatt

Southern Sierra Ancha Tour, AZ

Hiking	11.84 Miles	3,377 AEG

Hiking	11.84 Miles	8 Hrs 40 Mns		1.81 mph
	3,377 ft AEG	2 Hrs 7 Mns Break	30 LBS Pack

Linked

linked

Coon Spring Trail #124

Nordhoff-Hope Cliff Dwelling/SiteV:1:170

Partners

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BethMarie

A weekend in paradise!

Arrived at the our 5 star Air BNB late Friday night and slept in luxury which led to a fresh early start.

This was my first time in this area and I was in awe of how beautiful and rugged the terrain looks as we descended down to upper Coon Creek spring.
Rather vague cow paths and a bit of bushwhacking with steep gain after crossing the creek and heading up #124 just as the description states which at the time of the hike I had no idea someone had done a portion of this specific route/agenda before.

Even in the morning the sun exposure was a bit rough until reaching the shaded forest immediately after crossing a side canyon which at that point most of the climb was already over with.

Saw a shiny new 4Runner at the remote TH and left them some fruit snacks because I figured they would enjoy a sugary treat.
Not a cloud in the sky and not much wind made for such a surprisingly warm day, 82oz of water was packed but complete lack of shade during high sun seemed to drain us all.

The remnants of the ancient civilization housing was amazing as expected and would love to spend some more time climbing around and inspecting other areas of interest nearby.

We had agreed about the idea of not wanting to do an out and back throughout the day and were willing to take on the challenge of taking it off trail in the Anchas.
Again the sun exposure was an issue and it just felt downright hot as we descended and fought through some gnarly vegetation.
Cliffed out the Coon canyon edge but continued downstream and it was that point I was literally praying we would find surface water near the lower spring.

Caught a glimpse of slick rock and saw what I was hoping was water and not a crude mirage and after a few more minutes we were splashing around in a cool bounty of much needed H2O.

With relief we took a much needed break in the cool shade, filtered and loaded our bottles and marched up and out back towards home.
After that it was more of them same going up and down through some rough land but after many scratches and pricks we finally made it back to our homestead.

We had company over at the house Saturday night as we were joined by two bearded beer beasts and a legendary schnauzer.

	Coon Creek Spring	Dripping	Dripping
	Reliable pools of water above and below the Lower Coon Creek Spring.

	Coon Creek Spring	Dripping	Dripping
	Stagnant spring box water, nothing in the creek bed.

Oak Creek

Dry

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