Cottonwood Loop from Spur Cross Photoset • LosDosSloFolks • 2021-03-07 • HikeArizona.COM

Cottonwood Loop from Spur Cross, AZ

	2021-03-07
	23 by LosDosSloFolks

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Cottonwood Loop from Spur Cross, AZ

Hiking	10.10 Miles	1,456 AEG

Hiking	10.10 Miles	6 Hrs 11 Mns	1.88 mph
	1,456 ft AEG	48 Mns Break

no routes

Linked

linked

Spur Cross Trail

Mariposa Hill

Cottonwood Trail #247

Cave Creek Trail #4

Metate Trail - Spur Cross

Partners

partners

rayhuston

Tired of hiking solo, I cojoled @rayhuston into joining me on a hike up here in my neck of the woods. I hadn't seen Ray since meeting and hiking with him on the HAZ New Year topper event in 2020.

We started at the Spur Cross Trail Head and headed north into the Tonto National Forest using Trails 247A and 247B to reach Cottonwood Trail #247 at the southern end of "Inspiration Ridge" as @joebartels call it. The original plan was to head west and then follow the creek south back to the trail head. Upon reaching the creek we both still had some gas in the tank and did an improvised addition of going up Cave Creek Trail #4 to FR 1533 and going north and then looping back down to the creek. From there it was just 4 miles and 7 or 8 creek crossings back to the starting point. [ photo ]

While on 247B we saw a group of 3 backpackers heading east on 247 and later a pair of hikers beginning the climb up 247 as we were descending towards the creek. Lots of solitude for a Sunday.

Of course as we neared the trail head back at Spur Cross we encountered the usual droves of "Instagram Warriors" as Ray called them.

Thanks for the company Ray!

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Dudleya Juniper Saguaro

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Spring Box

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Black Mesa Black Mountain Dirt Trough Creek New River Mesa Skull Mesa Sugarloaf Mountain

	Cave Creek	Medium flow	Medium flow
	Nice flow but with easy crossings at all locations.

	Dirt Trough Creek	Pools to trickle	Pools to trickle
	Light flow leaving the spring box and going downstream about 100 yards.

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