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| Horseshoe Dam Rd Side Track, AZ | | -
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| | Horseshoe Dam Rd Side Track, AZ | | | |
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Horseshoe Dam Rd Side Track, AZ
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| Hiking | 2.80 Miles |
790 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.80 Miles | 3 Hrs 10 Mns | | 0.88 mph |
| 790 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Headed out to Horseshoe Dam Road to check on the wildflowers and snoop around in the hills for signs of ancient habitation. Got a late start so got to Bartlett Dam Road around noon. The traffic was heavy and an accident where the road crosses Camp Creek caused about a 20 minute delay. Didn't see any wrecked vehicles but there was both a fire truck and ambulance at the scene. The ambulance left with out flashing lights or siren - hopefully a sign of no injuries. Side-by-side ATVs were making the unpaved section of Horseshoe Road their own personal race track with super loud exhausts and loud music blaring from large speakers on their roll bars. This whole area has turned into a gasoline powered circus. I was happy to finally make my escape on foot into the nearby foothills.
Starting up the side of a hill, I came across a nice patch of poppies. I'd seen several on south facing hillsides while driving along Bartlett Dam Road and Horseshoe Dam Road but not the blanketed hillsides that should appear in a week or two. The top of the hill rewarded me with a nice ruin. Maybe 6 to 10 rooms clustered around two courtyards. The top of the hill had been flattened out to make room for this cluster by the use of retaining walls around three sides. Pottery sherds were scattered about in several areas.
After leaving the ruin I explored along a ridge top and came across a couple of old prospecting pits and a cairn. On the return I followed my usual practice of making it a loop hike by following the bottom of a drainage - big mistake. After noticing that I was starting to leave a blood trail from encounters with the dreaded catclaw acacia, I managed to escape back to the top of the ridge and retraced my incoming track until seeing an alternative route back to the car making this a "barbell loop" hike. It was a good choice revealing a second ruin very similar in layout to the first but smaller with a single courtyard and very view pottery sherds. As I neared my car, a thunderstorm was approaching from the north and I just made it to the car when the rain started. On the drive back up Bartlett Dam Road the storm turned into full cloudburst mode. I was surprised to be passed by a motorcyclist racing up the road as if there was no rain. Obviously another participant in the gasoline powered circus going on out there. Fortunately he made it safely back to dry land because I later saw him refueling his crotch rocket at the first available gas station. |
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