| |
|
| | |
|
| Hiking | 7.50 Miles |
480 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.50 Miles | 5 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.36 mph |
| 480 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | I was camped in the Aspen Campground at Woods Canyon Lake waiting for my Son-in-Law and Grandson to show up for the weekend. While waiting, I decided to go on a day hike down Woods Canyon Creek from my campsite. I had all day so took my time, stopping to talk with campers and the gate keepers in the campground. I followed the road down to the Spillway Campground, entering the canyon at the dam spillway. The canyon was beautiful with quiet pools of water and with lush green vegetation covering the stream bank. After going about a mile down the canyon, I decided to make a loop out of my hike by climbing up the northeast canyon side and exploring the forest on the way to the east side of the lake.
The hike through the forest was easy with very little elevation gain and wide-open spaces between the tall Ponderosa Pines. That allowed for a straight route on a NNW compass heading for about a mile where I encountered a draw which led me SW to the tip of a long cove protruding from the east bank of the lake. From there I decided to make it a long loop by following the Lake Trail counter-clockwise around the lake. It was a good choice, the lake side scenery made for some good photo ops. A detour from the official lake trail was needed to keep some distance from a Bald Eagle nest by following the lake shore. A watcher from the AZ Bald Eagle Nestwatch Program told me there were three nearly grown eaglets in the nest. The next day I would have an opportunity to get some photos of them in the nest from the watcher's viewpoint on the west side of the lake about a quarter mile from the nest. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
