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| Upper Ruelas Canyon Horse Trails, AZ | |
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| | Upper Ruelas Canyon Horse Trails, AZ | | | |
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Upper Ruelas Canyon Horse Trails, AZ
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| Hiking | 14.13 Miles |
2,325 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.13 Miles | 6 Hrs 51 Mns | | 2.12 mph |
| 2,325 ft AEG | 12 Mns Break | 8 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Off trail exploring in upper Ruelas Canyon looking for the wild horses. Started the hike with the most direct route from the Wild Burro trailhead to the upper parts of Ridgeline Trail... up the wash, Alamo Springs Spur, and Ridgeline. 5 1/4 miles in you reach the top of the ridge and an overlook into the large basin near the top of Ruelas Canyon, above the Canyon Pass Development. Judging by the manure the horses spend a good deal of time here, and it is from this overlook I spotted a pair of horses on the ridge on Halloween. From here the next 3 miles would be cross country on a mix of horse trail, wash, and ridge walks. Most of the route had intermittent horse trails, some quite worn complete with switchbacks, traversing drainage crossings, and traverses to avoid impassible parts of the drainage. I choose the more direct route up to the ridge (NNE), although the horses seem to prefer the broader drainage to the NW, which I rejoined later. There was a good deal of water (relatively speaking) in this drainage, and lots of small animal tracks around the scattered pools. There are a couple of summit opportunities to explore next time, including Peak 4530--the last summit east of Ridgeline Trail, (32.50111, -111.03463) which is more accessible from the backside. A mix of horse trail and wash walk brought me back to the windmill at Wild Burro Spring, and a more refined trail walk back via Wild Burro Trail.
Nearly 3 miles of off-trail, mostly very navigable terrain, and some great views from the ridge of both the Falcon and Avra Valleys and the Catalinas.
The horses, they proved elusive again. Maybe next time. (the horse pics in the album are from my Halloween day hike on-trail on Ridgeline, the only time I have actually seen the horses) |
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Wild Burro Tank |
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| | | Tank and trough full. Good flow under the surface on the trough if you depress the float value. | | | |
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