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| Perry Mesa-Squaw Creek loop, AZ | |
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| | Perry Mesa-Squaw Creek loop, AZ | | | |
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Perry Mesa-Squaw Creek loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 17.44 Miles |
2,083 AEG |
| | Hiking | 17.44 Miles | 9 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.95 mph |
| 2,083 ft AEG | 34 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Bruce put together this loop, and I was game to check it out. The one other person he invited said he was going to be doing other things on Thursday that did NOT involve hiking with Linda & Bruce. Or something like that.
The first 11 miles of dirt road is fine. The next 4 miles require decent clearance. I had one brief moment of thought while driving in that this road would suck if it was wet. But everything was nice and dry, so I didn’t dwell on it. We parked near the intersection of FS 14 & 610 and got started just before 0800, walking east on 14.
We dropped downhill, the east in a wash. Some vegetation to deal with. Before long, we reached a dam, climbed above it, and walked over to Brooklyn Well. Some brand new looking equipment there. Headed south, passing several ruins along the way, then headed over to several mining sites. We spent some time meandering around this general area before dropping into the North Fork of Squaw Creek. Dodged plenty of catclaw.
Headed south in the creek bed. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it was surprisingly fun, which was good, since we spent 6 miles in that creek bed. It was mostly vegetation free. The geology was neat, with a lot of variation. A few areas to downclimb, but we always found a good route. No water for the first 3 or so miles, then lots of pools after that. No difficulty in keeping our feet dry. Found some nice panels of glyphs near the biggest pools of water. Lots of animal tracks in the sand, including a big kitty.
We followed Squaw Creek down to the Ontario Mill area, where we looked around and had lunch. After that, we retraced our steps back up the creek a short distance to the bottom of the old tramway. We spent some time looking around the various sites at the bottom, then headed uphill, attempting to stay in the cut for the tramway. It was choked with sharp vegetation, so we found ourselves frequently detouring steeply uphill. At one point, the tramway route shifted into the wash, which didn’t look great. We veered farther uphill, hoping to reconnect with the route. In hindsight, we should have just stayed with the tramway cut. Instead, we found found ourselves scaling a steep hillside with no real hope of getting back on track. Every rock was loose and crumbly, nothing could be trusted. The soil was loose. Cactus and catclaw everywhere. Up was the only way to go, and gravity did not want us to get there. While short in distance, it took an hour to go half a mile, and was among the most difficult offtrail I’ve done.
Once at the top of the slope, we breathed a sigh of relief, then headed over to the mines at the top of the tramway. We looked around the Devonshire Mine for a few minutes, then headed uphill on a dirt road, finally back on track. Saw two military jets fly overhead, and we managed to get pics of them. Clouds were starting to build by now and were looking gloomy as we reached the top of Perry Mesa. We headed east across the mesa as it started to sprinkle, then some loud rumbles of thunder. The rain was light and brief, but I wasn’t thrilled about the lightning. We found the red deer glyph after some searching. As were returning from the glyph, we saw our only other person of the day, a guy who had hiked in 7 miles of road. After we said our greetings, Bruce and I decided to skip the rest of our Perry Mesa meandering, and instead opted to follow the road straight back to the jeep. Despite the fairly minimal rain, we got a good leg workout with five pounds of wet clay stuck to each shoe.
We got to the jeep right around 1730, and had a very exciting four mile drive through wet clay. It was not fun, but we made it, and were quite thankful we had opted to drive the jeep vs any other vehicles. It will be glorious today when I park the jeep in my driveway and hose all the mud off of it—my neighbor has a nervous breakdown anytime I get dirt in my driveway. Great hike, lots of things to see along the way, overall very fun day. Thanks, Bruce, for the invitation! |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Saw two different purple flowers, and one yellow. That’s as much as I know about flowers. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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