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| | | Squaw Canyon and Triangle Cave, AZ | | | |
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Squaw Canyon and Triangle Cave, AZ
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| Hiking | 18.15 Miles |
2,759 AEG |
| | Hiking | 18.15 Miles | 10 Hrs 18 Mns | | 2.06 mph |
| 2,759 ft AEG | 1 Hour 29 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | On a hike to Charlebois Spring three weeks ago, we noticed an intriguing cave high up on the canyon wall in Squaw Canyon/Marsh Valley. I took some zoomed-in shots that looked promising [ photo ] , but we didn't have time to explore it that day. So, today we returned to do some off-trail exploring in Squaw Canyon, with "Triangle Cave" the main destination.
We started from First Water Trailhead, and the parking lot was almost full when we pulled in around 7AM...full of vehicles and campers. Someone had set up a tent in one parking spot, and another person was sleeping outside in a sleeping bag in the spot next to it. A bold move, and also a fairly selfish move with a nearly-full lot when there are plenty of places to camp that aren't in numbered parking spaces  .
The creek beds and washes still had some water, but not nearly as much as we saw three weeks ago. It was still trickling and flowing in most spots, but there were also a lot more stagnant pools and algae this time. I was pleasantly surprised by how few people we saw on the trails after seeing the crowded parking lot. We took Dutchman Trail to Bull Pass and got our first views of Triangle Cave off in the distance, then diverged from our pervious Charlebois route and turned onto Cavalry Trail. The water was especially deep and clear near Squaw Canyon, and that was where we headed off-trail toward the cave. It looked like we had a long, slow bushwhack up the side of the mountain. @TboneKathy opted to stay down below, and I left some stuff with her to lighten my pack and took off.
I stayed in the drainage, where the brush wasn't as bad, as long as I could and then headed up the slope. It was exactly as described in the guide: Loose scree, cacti, and all sorts of evil vegetation awaiting you. Due to the ruggedness of terrain, 1 mile/hr is about as good as you can expect unless you are super-Wally.
I channeled my inner Super-Wally and tried to keep a decent pace as I made my way around the vertical rock outcroppings and the thicker stands of catclaw, and I made it up in ~40-45 minutes. The cave entrance is located on a ledge ~10 feet high, and I started to climb up the right side, but it looked a lot easier to go around to the left, so I did that instead. At the base of the ledge directly below the cave, I came across an old, rusty shovel head and a piece of red pottery--the first sign of habitation.
As I approached on the ledge, I heard a lot of buzzing, and I hoped it wasn't one of those caves swarming with territorial bees. Luckily, they seemed to hang out just on that one side and weren't an issue inside the cave. It was shallower than I'd expected--I guess the guide does refer to it as an alcove--but the views looking out toward Weaver's Needle and the creek below were fantastic.
Unfortunately, the comment about the site being destroyed by pot hunters/vandals is certainly true--whatever dwellings may have existed inside are virtually unrecognizable as anything more than random piles of rock. The middle of the cave's opening has a pile of rubble and boulders that creates a separate opening--it looked like a big chunk of overhanging rock may have crumbled off from above at some point. I came across some bones and a few more pottery sherds, though it appears just about everything has been removed. The most interesting artifacts inside were a grinding hole/grinding stone and another rock nearby with a recession that appeared to be used for grinding as well. I didn't see the vandals' sledgehammer mentioned in the guide, nor did I see a second metate that @nonot mentioned in his 2010 triplog...maybe that's also been removed, or I didn't look closely enough.
[ youtube video ]
Even though there's not much left of the site, it was a lot of fun exploring and worth the climb. I took some pictures and videos, enjoyed the views, and then started the dreaded descent back down the scree slope. It was slower than the climb up, but on the way down, I noticed a rock bridge tucked back in a corner in the east canyon wall that I recognized from some of Super-Wally's old photosets . Once I was back on flatter ground, I came across an old, squared-off shovel head in the drainage.
On our hike out, we took Dutchman around the south side of Black Top Mesa, and I went off-trail to check out an alcove I noticed last time that looked like it had some walls at the bottom, though I suspected they were modern. I was right on both counts--there were walls, and they were modern, with a campfire ring inside.
[ youtube video ]
Someone went to a lot of work to set up a campsite in a very inconvenient location, but the views of Aylor's Arch and Weaver's Needle were great. It was another good day in the Superstitions--perfect weather, great scenery, and some fun off-trail. It would be interesting to know what that site looked like before it was destroyed... |
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