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| | Hell's Hole and Peak 6076, AZ | | | |
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Hell's Hole and Peak 6076, AZ
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| Hiking | 12.81 Miles |
2,735 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.81 Miles | 9 Hrs 7 Mns | | 1.74 mph |
| 2,735 ft AEG | 1 Hour 45 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We had a pleasantly cool morning to start our Hell’s Hole hike on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Pleasant despite the fact that I had to dodge a "blooming Arizona state flower" as I stepped down from the truck. (This would be the "state flower" that "blooms" when torn off the roll and used.) The small parking lot was empty; the adjacent campground appeared to be quite well inhabited.
The first leg was a steady, but not steep, climb. Some interesting and colorful (on fresh surfaces) conglomerate-type rocks caught my eye along this section. The large-boulder cairn on the right marked the turn onto the non-trail to Peak 6076, and it marks the beginning of the descent to the Workman Creek crossing. I would become very familiar with the area near this cairn later in the day.
The descent was gradual at first, and some was fairly flat. Then, just before the creek, the descent surprised me in its steepness. Looking again at the guide after the hike, I had a much better understanding of @te-wa’s choice of words when he wrote, "...before dropping into it." "Dropping" was key, and I misinterpreted it. Besides that, I’d read one thoughtful entry in which the author quantified their reassurance that steepness wasn’t too bad on this hike, stating that the grade on entire trail never exceeded 6%. Of course, after reading that, on the drive to the trailhead, I had sized up the highway’s signed 6% grades; I decided early on in this descent that the author should have measured twice, written once.
Perusing the triplogs the day before, I expected the toughest part of the hike to be the switchbacks descending to Workman’s Creek at the end. I could be in real trouble both getting to the destination in the last couple of miles, and in getting myself out again. But we crossed the creek, found the trail on the other side, then headed up, and great red rock views presented themselves intermittently at windows in the foliage, making it hard to be overly concerned about later on. Then the cliff views became quite consistent for a stretch. Through the early part of the day, face gnats were pretty much a fact of life. And several species of wasps. One variety was quite large and loud. One individual actually trailed me for awhile.
As the trail began the final descent and brush closed in, I wasn’t eager to continue and lose the views. I jumped with a small scream and ran a few steps at one point on the switchbacks when a loud rattle-like very close to my ear on the brushy cliff side sound startled me. I quickly realized that it had to be an insect. But John10s passed that same spot, he got rattled, too, and the possibility that we’d just got lucky with a rattler seemed fairly likely. When I thought more about it, we were hiking a ledge on a steep mountainside; rock may very well have been just a foot or two from our heads, obscured by brush. So it was a rather noisy hike, especially in the farthest reaches...certain wasps practically roaring, rattles, the Geiger counter beeping loudly intermittently...
The GPS said we’d arrived; arrived with trail ahead yet and still above the destination creek. But we knew to continue and were stunned by the fantastic views. Instead of losing the majestic red cliff views, I felt like we were more a part of it. And we had plenty to explore--a small waterfall, pools, fish that appeared to be some kind of trout, boulders of all sizes, blooms, campsites...
The trip back was not as tough as I expected, and we reached the large cairn at about 0.6 miles from the trailhead where John10s wanted to hike up to 6076. I found a shady spot to wait, explored a bit in the area, and found new shady spots as time passed...after an hour I figured he should be back anytime and I should fight back thoughts of the cooler in the truck, just over a half mile away, full of cold drinks and real food. I just wish I’d thought of it sooner. He showed up a half hour later, successful, scratched, hungry, and we made short work of that last half mile! |
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