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| Hiking | 12.13 Miles |
1,132 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.13 Miles | 5 Hrs 27 Mns | | 2.55 mph |
| 1,132 ft AEG | 42 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We hiked Sycamore Rim Loop around this time last year and decided to come back and see if the falls were flowing after all the rain this summer. Our first stop of the morning was Keyhole Sink, then we drove over to Dow Spring Trailhead, our same starting point as last year. Even on the drive to the trailhead, the wildflowers were fantastic, and that continued throughout the hike. There was so much more color than our visit last September, when everything was dry and the sky was a hazy gray because of all the wildfire smoke...this time: a lot more green, more wildflowers, and a clear, blue sky.
We hiked the loop clockwise this time and did the lower/flatter part of the loop first, and there was a fair amount of water around Dow and L.O. Springs. I had a feeling Sycamore Falls wouldn't be flowing, though, when some of the areas of Sycamore Creek on the eastern part of the loop only had a trickle, not much different from last year. We took a short break at Sycamore Canyon Vista and enjoyed the overlook, and the trail was mostly empty to that point, with only two other groups of hikers.
We started to see more hikers and climbers near Sycamore Falls, which, as expected, was dry again this year. We did spend a little more time in that area and went over to the west side of the canyon and got some better views looking down into the canyon at the creek. The Pomeroy Tanks area had a lot of water and greenery, and there were some huge tad poles in the pools.
The mosquitoes were out of control on K.A. Hill, which was strange because that's one of the driest parts of the hike. We didn't take any time to enjoy the views up there since stopping meant getting immediately swarmed by mosquitoes...not that moving helped much anyway--I picked up a lot of bites along that part of the hike. The bug situation improved as we came down the other side of K.A. Hill, and the area around K.A. Trailhead was very green and beautiful--a lot more water and greenery there, too.
Even though Sycamore Falls wasn't flowing, this is always a really nice hike, and it was great to see all the flowers and bright colors. We'll have to come back during the snow melt sometime to see the falls. And we got lucky with the Labor Day traffic on I-17, with only a few slowdowns. |
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Wildflowers Observation Substantial
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Isham Spring Canyon |
Pools to trickle |
Pools to trickle |
| | | Some nice big pools in the area, but didn't see any flowing water. | | | |
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