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| Hiking | 12.40 Miles |
1,303 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.40 Miles | 5 Hrs 7 Mns | | 2.68 mph |
| 1,303 ft AEG | 29 Mns Break | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | As many times as we have hiked down and back Indian Spring Wash to the slot canyon cave we’ve never hiked from one end to the other until today when we actually did it twice, up and back. At just about 6 miles, it’s nowhere near as long as we thought it was. For the purists in us, a few days before we also hiked the northern portion of the wash up to Indian Butte, from where it begins and then bushwhacked back, catching #1117 right at the Bartlett Dam Highway. That portion is very short, with no notable scenery, and not really worth mentioning except we did it. Since the highlight on Indian Spring Wash is the bootleg slot canyon, and some may only want to do that, I have laid out the various distances in this table. (Table format does not make its way from the draft to the finished product???)
FROM TO DISTANCE(approx.)
Rio Verde Parking lot to Indian Spring wash 1.0 miles
Indian Spring Wash(south end) to Slot Cyn Cave junction 2.3 miles
Slot cyn cave In and Out 0.3 miles
Slot Cyn Cave Jct to Culvert on Bartlett Dam Rd. 2.75 miles
So, for a 5.8 mile round trip you can access the cave from the culvert(north end), with scenic rock formations much of the way. The wash below the cave is also very nice, at least for a couple of miles down to the home of the Phallus Immanemque cliff dwellers. (see the picture) From there on down to the Verde, the wash becomes more of a delta, flat and wide. We left the wash more than ½ mile before the river to respect the Bald Eagle Breeding Area, which, though it is not marked in the wash, is known to be about ½ mile on either side of the river. There are several parking areas below the dam and we picked one with plenty of extra room about 1 mile from the wash. Taking note of @Eagle’s triplog, we didn’t bother exploring any other canyons and so ran up a GPS total of 12.4 miles.(The GPS itself says 11.99 miles but that's because it samples on an average of 12 seconds vs. my trip computer which averages 5 seconds) Saw no eagles or any other humans on the trail. Our friend, the dead owl, which we have seen on other visits, was still looking fairly chipper and holding court, but this time a little north of the cave junction, rather than south. He must have other friends that take him for a ride. We spooked a small herd of javelinas on the dirt road coming in below the dam just before 9 am. Heading south from the culvert you get one shot of Weaver’s Needle on a sightline right down the middle of the wash. As always, most of the pictures are from Phil, who has a real camera and knows how to use it. I have encouraged him to sign up on HIkeAZ but he's having trouble coming up with a suitable trail name, which I told him was a requirement. |
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Wildflowers Observation None
Fair amount of chuparosa near north end. No other wildflowers |
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