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| Hiking | 5.50 Miles |
1,519 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.50 Miles | 3 Hrs 31 Mns | | 1.56 mph |
| 1,519 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | This was the second hike of the day for our big roadtrip/daytrip to Organ Pipe NM. We finished up the Victoria Mine/Lost Cabin hike before 11am, and got started on this one just before noon. Hiking Arch Canyon was also a consideration as a third hike for the day, trying to be ambitious. The problem was the fact that the loop road to both hikes is a one way road, and it's about 17 miles long, and the Estes Canyon-Bull Pasture hike is after Arch Canyon. Bull Pasture was higher on the priority list so we were doing that first. Doing Arch Canyon meant driving the 17 mile loop all over again. It was already getting late in the day, so we decided to skip it for this trip.
We started along the Estes Canyon Trail, making a clockwise loop. The views along this trail are immediately amazing. the hike starts mostly level for the first mile and a half, which is enough time to warm up and loosen up the muscles before the big climb.
The trail heads into the canyon and then turns south and starts to climb up. Soon enough there is the junction with Bull Pasture Trail, which has a sign indicating it's a half mile to Bull Pasture. The climb up there is at least as much from the bottom of the canyon to the trail junction.
At the end of the official trail, there is a sign that only says "Bull Pasture", and a box for a sign in register, with no actual register. From that point there are two easily visible trails that continue. We took the one for over a half mile further. It went further south and then headed east around the actual Bull Pasture and then we could see it started to climb. I kept expecting it to fade away and end. When I looked ahead, I could it was climbing more and then I noticed that we weren't all that far from the top of Mt. Ajo. It was then that I remembered seeing the alternate routes for this hike and they were all Mt. Ajo summit, if I was remembering correctly. I asked Joe if he had internet access to check the site but he didn't. I later checked at home and confirmed what I thought. We weren't all that far form the top, but between it being almost 2pm and I had my smaller Camelbak and not enough water, it became obvious it was time to head back.
At the southern end of the Bull Pasture along this unofficial trail, we were able to see some kind of white cabinet that was adjacent to the trail as we walked in. Not sure what it was, maybe some kind of rain gauge or weather data collection station. We couldn't see it as we walked back and this was mentioned several times by Joe. I should have taken a zoom in photo of it to get a better view of what it was.
From the end of the official trail we took the second trail spur to the ridge just to the south that overlooks the loop road. The views from that spot are phenomenal. You can see Mt. Ajo well, the Bull Pasture, Estes Canyon and far south into Mexico. The 100 Classic Hikes book says there is no established trail to this spot, but I don't agree with that, not for current conditions. The trail is faint but is pretty established, just not an official trail maintained by NPS.
On the hike back down we saw more hikers than the rest of the entire day. And by some odd stroke of luck, it seemed like every hiker we was on this hike was within a quarter mile of the trail junction of the Bull Pasture and Estes Canyon trails.
The extra exploring we did on this hike made it obvious that it was the right decision to skip Arch Canyon. It was also good scouting for a possible return trip on day to attempt to summit Mt. Ajo, which seems possible from both here and from Arch Canyon, making for either a shuttle or loop hike.
the weather for both our hikes today was just nearly perfect. It was a little cool and windy on this hike the higher up we got, but nothing bad enough that I would call chilly. Nice to have a chance to check out this area.
Left my house at 4:30am and got home at 7:30pm, making for a long day. The traffic back on I-10 was nearly rush hour conditions, which was rough to deal with at the end of a long day, but made getting home that much nicer.
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