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| Hiking | 6.42 Miles |
1,832 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.42 Miles | 5 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.17 mph |
| 1,832 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was really a "fill in the rest of the day" sort of hike, since I was already going to be in the area searching for some nearby pictos that I failed to find last spring. Found them this time (I didn't include photos of the pictos since some excellent photos of them were recently shared by AZLOT69). But for being a secondary filler hike today, O'Carroll really exceeded my expectations.
A search online for O'Carroll Canyon didn't result in much information except for a couple of blog articles. Some photos of it sure looked interesting. The articles discussed abandoned mining equipment in the area, several fossils, a wrecked vehicle in the canyon bottom, and toppled power line towers that once serviced the Christmas mine. The geology and fossils are what convinced me to give it a look.
There are no hiking trails, so I plotted a hiking route partly on a jeep trail and the rest off trail.
I parked in a dirt lot next to a gate where the canyon meets highway 77, northeast of Winkelman. Two other vehicles were parked there, each with empty trailers. There are several ATV routes that can be started here. When I later returned back to my vehicle, the other two vehicles were gone. I never saw or heard anyone all day.
After walking through the gate, I started on a jeep trail for a short distance, and then I dropped a few feet down into the canyon at an old bridge. I was surprised to see two sets of hiking boot prints also heading up the canyon. Went a short distance up the canyon to Apache Spring. There were a couple of pools and light flowing water. I got onto some swampy ground with waist-high grasses, so I decided to climb up and get on the northern rim at that point. This is where I first noticed the fancy and strange geology - some orange fist-sized rocks and streaks embedded in broken, light gray bedrock. This continues along the length of the rim, and it was so fascinating. Apparently a sea bed with fossils. I hiked along the rim and had amazing views down into the canyon.
While off trail, I shockingly came upon the exact same spiral fossil that was in a photo in one of the online articles. I also saw the wrecked vehicle and one of the toppled power line towers.
There was a nice breeze all day, and the hike was just beautiful. I especially liked the towering rock walls, crazy geology, wildflowers and desert scenery. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Poppies, desert hyacinth, tuber anemones, fiddleneck |
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