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| Willow Spring Basin Meander, AZ | |
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| | Willow Spring Basin Meander, AZ | | | |
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Willow Spring Basin Meander, AZ
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| Hiking | 8.26 Miles |
969 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.26 Miles | 3 Hrs 54 Mns | | 2.59 mph |
| 969 ft AEG | 43 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | On my last day out hiking before heading back to Tucson I decided to head back to the Goldfield Mountains. This hike would be an exploratory hike, "Fly by the seat of the pants", "go which ever way the wind blows". In spite of researching names of trails I could not find much, HAZ had a lot of different routes with names but some were trails some were routes. There were no definite boundaries to the trail starts and ends. So this hike I would walk a few of the routes posted and see what happens. I also plotted a few routes from google earth that look like trails.
Started at the Willow Springs Canyon Trail Head and hiked up Willow Springs Canyon. This trail/4WD road is labeled as 12 which leads to at least Bagley Tank. I Took 12 (two track) to about half way to Bagley Tank and the wind blew in a different direction and I headed back to Willow Spring Canyon. There were some rock tanks along the creek to Bagley Tank that still had pools of water in them, otherwise the creek was dry. I followed Willow Spring Canyon up to where Willow Spring Basin Tank is. There is a 4WD road leaving the wash heading to the tank. Willow Spring Basin Tank was filled to the brim. From the tank I headed south along a trail I spotted on Google earth. Turns out this trail is what is called the Golden Eye Mine Trail. Really nice horse trail. This trail terminates along what appears to be the Quartz Crystal Canyon Trail near the junction with the Gold Eagles Nugget Trail.
Returned via the Gold Eagles Nugget Trail that I was on the night before. Wasn't long before the wind changed direction again and I took a trail that splits off to the north from Gold Eagles Nugget Trail. I spotted this trail on Google earth and it heads back to Willow Spring Basin Tank. This is another good trail and stays to the east of Golden Eye Mine Trail on the ridge west of Willow Spring Canyon. On HAZ a portion of this trail is listed under Little Chance Canyon loop. If I were naming trails I would call this the Willow Spring Basin Tank Trail that connects the Gold Eagles Nugget Trail to Willow Spring Basin Tank. I hiked this half way to where it drops down close to Willow Spring Wash and took that back to the Willow Spring Canyon Trail Head. Will have to finish this up on another hike.
Nice hike for a day after a long hike. Fairly easy walking with great scenery. It's nice sometimes to hike without a destination, just walk until you get tired. I have come up with some names for these trails that I was on that set well in my mind.
WILLOW SPRING CANYON TRAIL: Follows up Willow Spring Canyon
GOLDEN EYE MINE TRAIL: Willow Spring Basin Tank to Quartz Crystal Canyon Trail
GOLD EAGLES NUGGET TRAIL: Willow Spring Canyon Trail to Quartz Crystal Canyon Trail
WILLOW SPRING BASIN TANK TRAIL: From Gold Eagles Nugget Trail to Willow Springs Basin Tank
BAGLEY TANK TRAIL: 4WD route from Willow Spring Canyon to Bagley Tank |
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