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| Rock Springs Butte and Arnett Canyon, AZ | |
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| | Rock Springs Butte and Arnett Canyon, AZ | | | |
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Rock Springs Butte and Arnett Canyon, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.80 Miles |
1,115 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.80 Miles | | | |
| 1,115 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | I "jumped" at the chance to hike to the Salt River Canyon Wilderness highpoint, but unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. I was driving on FR 645 and the road was beginning to get muddy from rain the prior day. Before I knew it I slid to the edge of the road and was stuck in the mud. I aired my tires down and thankfully I was able to extricate my vehicle from the predicament.
I thought about continuing to the TH, but not knowing what the rest of the road was like I decided to turn around and come back another day. I drove back to US 60, reinflated my tires, and then decided to drive 4-5 miles north and hike to Rock Springs Butte. After hiking to Rock Springs Butte, on the way back home we stopped off at the Picketpost TH and hiked along Arnett Canyon for a ways.
Rock Springs Butte
(1.6 miles with 745 feet of AEG)
Rock Springs Butte is in the shadow of the Sevenmile Mountains highpoint, and is across US 60 from Jackson Butte. Its elevation is 5,362 feet and it has prominence of 562 feet, so it is a ranked peak.
I turned off of US 60 on FR 339 and drove about 0.4 miles before parking at a pullout that was not far from the base of Rock Springs Butte. I was NE of the summit and it was just a matter of making my way up the steep slopes to the summit. Down low there was some catclaw, shrub live oak, and other brush to weave around. The slopes were a bit steep but the footing was good so the climb was not to bad. There was a weak cliff band below the summit to work around.
The views at the long, narrow summit were great. I found a summit register but initially I did see the benchmark. After enjoying the views for a while, we decided to leave. Before leaving I looked at the summit cairn and decided to pull a page out of the @FLYING_FLIVER playbook by completely dismantling the summit cairn to see if the benchmark was there. I did that but there was nothing but dirt; however, I took my hand and scraped away some dirt and felt something metallic -- lo and behold it was the benchmark! I used some water and a rag to clean it up a bit, took some photos, put the summit register jar on top of it, and rebuilt the cairn over the benchmark and the summit register.
Arnett Canyon
(5.2 miles with 370 feet of AEG)
From the Picketpost TH we hiked in Arnett Canyon for a ways until we stopped next to the creek in one of the riparian areas. We had a snack while enjoying a shady spot along the creek, and then hiked back to the TH. There were some decent wildflowers to see along the way, and it was a nice, easy hike. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Flowers were light-to-moderate in Arnett Canyon (globemallow was the highlight), and flowers were isolated on Rock Springs Butte. It looked like invasive grasses growing along the trail to Arnett Canyon were choking out a lot of the wildflowers. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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