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| Backpack | 19.37 Miles |
4,564 AEG |
| | Backpack | 19.37 Miles | 1 Day 44 Mns | | |
| 4,564 ft AEG | | 27 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | TL;DR: Very pretty, senic, and green set of trails. There's good water at Tub Spring, Anita Spring, and Cima Spring right now. Stick to the Crest Trail to avoid deadfall.
I've wanted to go up to Chiricahua Peak for a while and I was able to arrange plans to go this weekend. The road up from the west we were able to go up with 2WD and 8 inches ground clearance. On the way up, two deer dashed in front of our car and down into the canyon on a very steep section right by the saddle. Up at elevation, it was probably in the 70s in the mountains with wind blowing east. Stopped before the road to Barfoot Campground to hike up to 31.9132, -109.2658 for a wonderful view into NM and the expanse of the mountains. After this we parked at the entrance to Barfoot Park.
The park was very pretty with irises all along the flowing creek. The park was fenced off so there was only one way in/out. After this we hiked up to the Crest Trail. The trail up to it had ~5 trees crossing the trail. One of these gave my splinters so avoid touching them with your hands. One or two of these we had to squat under. The views of Barfoot Peak were very pretty from the trail with the peak's lush aspens and beautifully colored scree. Up to the peak it was slow going but offered pretty views. At the top there were views to all sides and everything was very pretty. There was a benchmark, summit register, some sort of antenna at the top, and a few ladybugs. These would be the only few we saw on the hike. Under the summit register from 2022 in the center of the foundation of the lookout house was a ladybug graveyard. Headed down to the Crest Trail again and took that to the Bootlegger Trail. The only deadfall on the crest trail was here and it was easy to step over. What was surprising is all around this area we had 4G signal with Verizon. The trail in this section had a few plants bleeding onto it and the soil and therefore the tread was loose, a common theme with the Crest Trail. From here continued on to some cliffs which were nice to lay underneath and look at the views.
We stopped at Hillside Spring for a lunch bar. It was very tasty and the shade of the pines made it cool. Here we saw the only person we would see on the trails on the road beneath the spring. They were wearing all white and carrying an insect net. After this we moved to Fly Saddle and then up to Flys Peak. At the saddle were good views westwards. Going up was hard since my legs were already starting to get tired. The peak was so pretty though because of all of the aspen surrounding us on the way up, a green tunnel. At the top was a fire pit and a couple camping spots. There was also the concrete piers for the lookout tower. There 3 benchmarks up here in 2010, but we could only find the reference marks. The arrows were known to be off and we weren't sure exactly the spot the mark should have been. We searched for 30 minutes but to no avail. Looks like I might have to bring the metal detector to find this one in the future, if it is still there.
Going downhill was fast but time was passing by quickly. There were cairns on this side of the peak but the trail was easy to see. We decided that we would look for water, then camp and do Chiricahua Peak in the morning. We walked right past the junction for the Anita Park Trail as the sign was on the ground and not obvious. At the park we saw the perfect camp spot but continued on to the spring. There were 15 pieces of deadfall on this trail. The way down from the park was cairned well although it helped having the route on my phone. The spring had water so we filtered a few liters and carried it up to the campsite. The campsite had a few stumps and was situated right next to a stand of aspen, protecting us from the winds. A bit north there were two fire pits where we boiled water and rehydrated our dinners. Before this we realized we forgot our sporks so we widdled a dead aspen tree into forks with a multitool. I had beef stroganoff. It wasn't bad. A bit more north of this we hung our food and other smelly items in a dead tree. I was in my sleeping bag by 8 and fell asleep afterwards.
My sleep wasn't the best, waking up several times during the night for a matter of minutes. At 12 or so I looked up at the stars. I could just make out the cloud that makes up the milkyway. It was the most I'd ever seen of it. All the pictures I see of the sky seem fake. How am I supposed to make out so much detail? I woke up at 5-ish.
We slowly packed up and got ready. My breakfast was rehydrated biscuits and gravy. It was hard to finish by the end, not the best one I've had. We decided that we had enough water already so we would go to the helipad and then Chiricahua Peak without our backpacks and then come back and depart for Barfoot park. The helipad offered impressive views. Do not skip this if you come past here. The climb to the top was slow and steady through a tunnel of green aspens. We saw some stale bear scat on the trail. There was maybe 3 ground-level pieces of deadfall on this trail. At the top was a benchmark with the elevation off by ~20 feet. Saw Chumley had summited the day before. Headed down, got our bags, and headed back. I wanted to survey some of the springs on the way back so we went down to the cabin down the Greenhouse Trail. There was no deadfall on this trail. The stream was flowing pretty good but there were a ton of gnats/flys. There was a bathroom as well which was in good condition, if you bring your own toilet paper. Cima Spring can be spotted from the trail because of the typical lush plants that grow around water here. Approach the spring from the east, not the west. The scent of the pine forest was really nice here. It was a bit hotter today though because the sun was right on us and the wind had died down, although the skies seemed a tiny bit clearer.
We turned down the Bear Wallow Trail to the Bear Wallow Spring. NOTE: The sign for the Booger Spring Trail has the arrow pointing the wrong direction. The Bear Wallow Spring had good water. Before this, the trail was pretty visible from the saddle but so much deadfall appeared out of nowhere. For the next tenth of a mile or so it was just tree after tree that we navigated over and around. Some of the trees I crossed required decent flexibility so be prepared if you want to cross this section. We linked back up with the trail and made it to the Centella Trail. The trail was much more defined but there was still some smaller deadfall on the trail. An unmarked spring at (31.8781842, -109.2802300) had good water, on par with Tub Spring, which we saw next. This section of the trail was surrounded be trees so we couldn't see much.
We met back up with the Crest Trail and decided to check out Fly Park Spring (31.8813200, -109.2839600). I saw on OpenStreetMap there was supposed to be a trail there. Nope. Ended up cutting myself on some deadfall in the process of making it to the spring. The spring was some seepage out of the ground and was only a small trickle. Don't bother with this. Take the hike to Tub Spring instead. We took a break under the shade of a pine and headed up the hillside to the Long Park Trail, which had little deadfall and was pretty short up to the trail. This is definitely the recommended way. We went back to the Crest Trail and trucked our way all the way back to Barfoot Park. We fixed/propped up any signs that we were able to fix at junctions along our way. Some of them need replacing. We saw one turkey fly away from us when hiking back. We also saw two deer on the way down the road. We got chocolate dipped cones at the DQ in Wilcox afterwards. Also gas is a dollar cheaper in Wilcox than in Tucson right now. Stop in Wilcox or at a Loves. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
Rocky mountain irises were common in the grasslands at saddles. Some other purple flowers, maybe purple locoweeds or new mexico lupines were also present, although less frequent. The occasional small yellow flowers were around as well. |
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Anita Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Rocks seep from rocks into the basin which is overflowing slowly in the canyon. The basin had some earth at the bottom but still plenty of water which was clear and tasty after filtered. |
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Barfoot Spring |
Gallon per minute |
Gallon per minute |
| | | Really good water flow. Didn't open spring box but safe to say it had quite a bit in it. |
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Bear Wallow Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Spring box had cover off which revealed good quality water pretty deep. The creek adj. to the box had a light flow. |
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Cima Spring |
Gallon per minute |
Gallon per minute |
| | | Spring box did not have overflow water. Didn't lift the cover but dropped a rock under it which revealed water in the box. Water was seeping in the surrounding area. By the cabin there was good water flow. |
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Hillside Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Didn't open catchment. The exposed box had water slowly seeping into it with about an inch of murky water. The spring source had deeper water of better quality. |
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Tub Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Box is a couple inches deep but filled with leaves and sticks. The stream is running pretty well probably a couple quarts per min, although it is shallow which might make it hard to collect water from it. | | _____________________
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