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| Hiking | 1.77 Miles |
405 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.77 Miles | 1 Hour 19 Mns | | 1.93 mph |
| 405 ft AEG | 24 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Part II of our hiking day that was thwarted by rain on the Kachina Trail that we turned around on. We had our lunch with a view from the Snowbowl lot and then decided to head to Buffalo Park to do some more hiking. But for some reason when I got to Aspen Corner I wondered  ... maybe we could catch the Aspen Nature Loop from there. I always see cars parked there so the trail must lead somewhere.
We pulled over and put our packs on. Well almost immediately the trail splits and I decided to go right thinking that was the chance to join up with the Nature Trail. Soon we were going up and up and up and the trail splits again. I veer to the right and up and up we go for a bit before we top out only to see the darn highway ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") with no further options.
So we stay up on the ridge and head to this rock outcropping. It's pretty cool but we kind of cliff out so head back on another use trail we see and back to the main trail. We see another hiker and ask, where does that trail go? He says to a tank. Is it very far? No, not at all. Of course, his version of "not very far" might be a little different than ours but as it turned out, he was right on the money. I had asked him if it hooked up with the AZT which it does.
Down we went. It looks like it was a road at one time. It also seems they had to do a lot of log cutting to keep the trail passable. We hit the intersection with the AZT as it crosses this path and we continue down in a north western direction. Soon you are out of the forest and have the view of a tank. It was real pretty as the scenery around and off in the distance was quite nice as well. We decided to head for the log by the tree on the other side of the tank.
While walking over there the dam of the tank is lined with beautiful wildflowers  . Cathy spotted a cutesy little snake in the water so I came over to film the creature. The frogs would occasionally serenade us as well. I saw some white lupine so went down and got a couple pics. While sitting on the log, I enjoyed watching all the big clouds dancing off and on the SF Peaks. It was quite something really as the cloud action was very fast.
As we walked away from the tank on our way back, we noticed a heavy use trail that continued west on the south side. Wonder where it goes? and can you make some sort of loop or longer hike out of the trails to this really clean and beautiful tank?
We both thot the hike back up to the road would be longer and steeper but before you knew it, we were back at Tonto and our hiking day was done  . I'm glad my curiosity is now satisfied. Thx for coming with Cathy. It was great fun.
Video: http://youtu.be/MUvxn-hfyJc |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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