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| Bush-Beeline Horse Trails, AZ | | -
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| | Bush-Beeline Horse Trails, AZ | | | |
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Bush-Beeline Horse Trails, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.20 Miles |
577 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.20 Miles | 2 Hrs 25 Mns | | 2.57 mph |
| 577 ft AEG | | 12 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | It's been two years since I last biked from the gate along Bush Highway just .75 mile SW of the Beeline (AZ 87) so I was already planning for an upcoming ride. However, being a 'hike' day with Tracey I would make it double as a recon for the upcoming ride, comparing the pre-fire conditions of the previous ride to today.
As I was scoping out the plan on Route Editor, I noticed the gate has now been labeled on Google Maps as "Salt River Horse Viewing", which lately has become a joke, as the last half-dozen hikes over the last few years has netted ZERO horse sightings from that point. Sure, a few years ago there was enough vegetation that the horses would browse the area every once in a while, but since the ground is practically been vacuumed clean of any edible plants, the horses stay elsewhere... like on the ridge next to the Salt River Wild Horses Management compound along the AZ 87. And that is what became the destination for today, albeit taking in a long and relatively narrow loop along the way.
We began by hiking North roughly parallel with Bush Highway until swinging West up to the ridge ending at the Bush/Beeline intersection. From that point we followed the horse trails South along the ridge, eventually turning West onto another ridge which would take us almost all the way to AZ 87, where we would follow roughly parallel with the highway toward the "Hill of Horses". In keeping with expectations, it would be 2 miles before seeing a horse, and another half mile before reaching that hill.
The horse were scattered over a reasonably wide area, but never farther than a hundred yards from the feed and watering tanks on the ridge. It always blows my mind they are called "wild" horses, yet they feed and water them to "keep them healthy" while using birth control to keep the population down. That sounds like simple horse management to me, not wild, or feral, which is closer to reality. (Historically from the SRPMIC Reservation) If they are wild, let them fend for themselves... like the rabbits, coyote, deer, javelina and bighorn in the area must.
Wild/feral rant over...
(Yes, a number of times I've encountered a small group of bighorn sheep roaming in the Goldfield Ovens Loop area)
Anyway, other than the horses near the feeding station, we saw one jack rabbit, and one cardinal. While encountering cardinals isn't that rare, it is VERY RARE for me to get a decent photo of one. Usually they tease us, showing their bright red color before hiding in the middle of a bush... which this one did at first, then settled in the open just long enough to snap a photo. I tried to get a second slightly better shot, but by then it was gone. Oh well, I'll settle for only my 7th halfway decent photo of a cardinal in 22+ years I've lived in Arizona.
As we neared the end of the hike we saw a couple walking out from the "Salt River Horse Viewing" gate, and by the look of it they were prepared for some wild horse sightings. For a minute I thought of heading toward them and let them know it's at least a 4-mile round-trip to see any horses today, but within moments, by the look of their downcast faces it appeared they had already given up, barely 1/8 mile from the gate. At least they didn't waste too much time on their quest. |
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Route Editor
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