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| Hiking | 10.11 Miles |
707 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.11 Miles | 3 Hrs 32 Mns | | 2.86 mph |
| 707 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | There’s so many diverse places to hike in Arizona that — other than the Mogollon Rim — I figure I am doing well if I hike them once a year. Today was my annual trip to the Goldfield Mountains.
The last time I hiked from Wolverine Gate, in Apache Junction, was an aborted attempt at climbing Dome Mountain in 2015. I’m a much stronger hiker now, so I better do Dome Mountain soon, before I get too old.
On FR 10, I saw three OHVs, all travelling a reasonable 10 mph, due to the ruggedness of the road. Ironically, the first “vehicle” that crossed my path was a mountain bike. 
There are campsites all along FR 10, but because the middle of Bulldog Canyon is so rugged, the RVs are concentrated along the northern two miles, with a few scattered near the southern ½ mile.
Dome Mountain is to the right, and the morning sun creates areas of light and deep shadows on its west flank. Opposite Dome Mountain, on the west side of Bulldog Canyon is a beautiful cliff band that I had a very hard time getting a decent photo of because it was directly lit.
Besides the beautiful rock formations, the other highlight of Bulldog Canyon is the many prolific saguaro.
Almost two miles into Bulldog Canyon, I spied a sign on my left for Deer Tanks Trail. Not having noticed it during my planning, I figured I should at least scout it. 200 yds. up Deer Tanks Trail, is a catchment area. The upper half of the tin-roofed catchment was bone dry. However the overflow box was 100% full of light green, but otherwise clear, water.
After Deer Tanks Trail, FR 10 enters the middle section of Bulldog Canyon. Bearing in mind that the whole hike only accumulates 528 ft. of elevation gain, there are still some steep & rocky sections. Fine gravelled descents are always the trickiest, and I slipped several times. Thankfully, no falls. ⛷
Although FR 10’s high point is near the two mile gate, around five miles is the visual “saddle” of Bulldog Canyon. That is where Fountain Hills, Fort McDowell and the Mazatzal Mountains hove into view.
FR 10 crosses FR 3554 in a wide, sandy, wash. Like every other wash crossing in Bulldog Canyon, it was bone dry. The two miles between FR 3554 and Bush Highway, are car drivable, so not the most enchanting part of the hike. 
I arrived at Bush Highway, just after noon. After playing Frogger across the road, I started up a wash towards the Salt River. As I was hiking, I pulled out my phone to let my wife know I was about 15 minutes away from Blue Point Picnic Area. My wife had left me a message that the gate to it was locked, and she was parked next to the highway. Good thing I checked!
Hike Video: https://vimeo.com/671647249 |
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Wildflowers Observation None
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Bulldog Canyon |
Dry |
Dry |
| | | I did not witness any water in the canyon bottom, but then I did not search for it either. HOWEVER, the catchment overflow box next to Deer Tanks Trail was 100% full of light green, but otherwise clear water. | | _____________________
| http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
; especially since Kihlauea is at it again. Now it was time to negotiate that slippery section coming down from the Blue Ridge. It's still slick but fortunately, short. I am still amazed that horses traverse that.
The start was a cool 51 degrees with the wind blowing away. The road hiking was easy and the first wash was choked but relatively easy to navigate. The wash up to the saddle was ugly and the traverse up to on ball bearing gravel into the wind tunnel was down right annoying. The cairned route up to Dome Mountain with the wind at our backs was a welcome relief. The guzzler was an interesting distraction and the lunch spot top notch. The ridgeline over to the high point of the hike was well the high point and it went down hill from there. Even the wildlife wasn't anywhere to be found in the thicket. For a while I was thinking this should have been called the Dumb Dumb route but I fell for it. 
We were glad to finally find the trail and it was easy going back. There was good and bad. It was nice to get out with Joe & Bruce and I got to see more of The Goldfields. In the end I'm glad I hiked this route and I'm equally glad it's over.
. We saw the roof of what we eventually figured out must be an animal water catchment area. We ended up walking past the turn on FR10 but not too far because I looked at my HAZtraks route to make sure so we backtracked THIS time.
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
even though HAZtraks said we were veering north when we should be going more to the east. I just figured the track was off and that we would eventually join back with it. THAT of course did NOT happen. We kept on the road going up and down and admiring the many colors of Dome Mountain on our right.
). Once back to the road I wanted to climb up to the top of the road to see what we could see (I did a similar thing with Kelly the month before). There was another very steep hill in front of us that is now closed, thankfully, to rec vehicles so we decided to tackle that. I'm a little leery of steep hills right now but it was short.
. We could see the fog still trying to lift above the Superstitions. Back down the hill we went and headed on FR10. We came to an area that we thot was the turn and way pointed it but it's actually a little further; by the cairn that we totally missed; mostly because I had it in my head that this was a road walk 
and we spend an hour trying to connect in an area with 4G cell reception! (Misbehaving phone + misbehaving mind)
Fitting end to a day of unusals...
