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| Hiking | 10.37 Miles |
1,921 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.37 Miles | 6 Hrs 52 Mns | | 1.62 mph |
| 1,921 ft AEG | 28 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | After bouncing a few ideas around, J and I decided to pop up to to the Doll Baby trailhead to have a look at some ruins and walk some stretch of the AZT. Doll Baby Ranch road is paved for a good section, but there's a stretch on private land that turns into a mudwallow - there are bypasses, but I imagine with every rain, things can change. As expected, there wasn't anyone parked at City Creek, nor at Doll Baby when we arrived.
Temps were a little chilly, but we quickly warmed up as hiked with the ascent to the mesa with the ruins starts pretty much straight away. The road walk was straight forward and the path up to the ruins looks to be well travelled. After exploring the ruins proper, I wandered around hunting for some metates that I had seen mentioned - unfortunately, I didn't have a waypoint to reference, and I hadn't checked for photographs that might provide some insight to their location. After wandering the area for a while, we decided to head back down to continue on our way.
Once we joined up with the road again, we opted to take the shortcut down to the Verde - the trail down proved to be extremely rocky and steep - enough so that I didn't have much interest in ascending it on our return. Once in the bottom of the drainage, the path meanders along and is easy enough to follow - there is catclaw, but it seemed possibly less grabby than usual, perhaps due to regular bovine traffic along the way.
We eventually made our way to the junction with the AZT and the crossing of the Verde. While the water was running clear, it was obviously a bit on the high side, offering no easy way to cross while keeping ones feet dry. After we crossed, we made our way up onto the bank for a break at one of the nearby camp areas. Looking up at the gain to climb out of the Verde's canyon, knowing we'd be turning right back around again, we decided to play things safer and head back towards the trailhead since J's ankle wasn't in agreement with the original plan.
Back across the Verde we went, opting to pick the road back up for the return. On our way up to the road, we were surprised by a small group of javelina crossing the trail - they disappeared too quickly for either of us to capture with a photo. Back at the road, we made decent time back to the turn-off for the ruins. Since there was plenty of daylight, and J mentioned having signal up top, I figured I'd climb back up and see if I could unearth more clues to allow me to find the metates. Unfortunately, I remained unsuccessful, and headed back down to make my way towards the trailhead.
On my way back to the car, I crossed paths with a pair of folk who looked to be hunters scouting with binoculars. Back at the trailhead, our vehicle had been joined by two others. The trip to the ruins was nice - and I got to see them twice. Not sure if I might ever find my way out there again to try for the metates - I greatly prefer a nice trail tread over a roadwalk. It was nice to get out though, and the view from the top was beautiful. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Isolated
Cottonwoods in the Verde are just starting to show color. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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Happier when hiking....I may not move fast (and I'm often distracted by wildflowers), but I'll get there eventually  |
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