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| Hiking | 16.59 Miles |
3,162 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.59 Miles | 10 Hrs 3 Mns | | 1.97 mph |
| 3,162 ft AEG | 1 Hour 38 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | This was my first time hiking from Spur Cross Ranch, and we started on Spur Cross Trail just after sunrise. We planned on hiking up to Skull Mesa and tried to take the shortcut from DixieFlyer's 2/8/20 triplog, turning right on Mariposa Hill Trail about a mile into the hike. But we quickly reached an "Area Closed" sign, so we backtracked to Spur Cross Trail, the shortcut having turned into a slight longcut. In hindsight, we should have just ignored the sign...when I took a closer look at the triplog later, I saw that DixieFlyer had a photo of the same sign and continued through that area anyway  .
We followed Cottonwood Trail to Skull Mesa Trail and headed up the switchbacks to the top. It's a very scenic hike, with a lot of large saguaros, nice canyons, and great views to the south on the way up. There was a lot of haze/smog over Phoenix today, but that created a nice effect with the more distant peaks visible above the low layer of clouds.
I'd marked a few points of interest on top of Skull Mesa that we wanted to check out, including some petroglyphs, grinding holes, and a metate. We didn't have time to do too much exploring and didn't find any of those sites right away, but there were a few areas with higher concentrations of pottery, and we found one faint petroglyph panel with a few scattered drawings. We hiked pretty far north along the mesa, and I was close to the ruins and could see some of the walls on top, but we didn't quite make it over there before we needed to head back, so that'll be a destination for another day.
Before hiking down off the mesa, we stopped at the overlook at the south end and enjoyed the spectacular views, including Weaver's Needle and the Superstitions to the southeast. On our way down Skull Mesa Trail, I noticed a large rock with a symmetrical spiral carved into it...the shadows were just right such that it caught my eye, and that was a nice find.
We only saw two groups of hikers all day--and only one other group up on the mesa--until we were back within a mile or two of Spur Cross Ranch and started to see more runners/hikers/horseback riders. The weather was perfect today, and it was a nice intro to Spur Cross Ranch...the ruins will be the focus on my next visit. |
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