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| Hiking | 4.65 Miles |
612 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.65 Miles | 3 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.45 mph |
| 612 ft AEG | 18 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | I've wanted to try this hike for a while now and so on our drive last week; we put it on our agenda. I downloaded the route that I thot was the right route... which it is, after the initial hiccup. We ended up hiking straight off the sidewalk south on a wide trail but not before seeing a group of horse riders crossing over to the other side of the sidewalk. I saw two other hikers head in the same direction we went. I heard and then spotted an old air force plane and got some photos despite the bad light. We got to the topside of a hill and Ambika checked RS where we found we were not on the route so we turned back just near the sidewalk where we headed east. However, we should have gone a little further back on the sidewalk to catch the trail.
So we cross-countried up and over a hill (as apparently others have done) to finally arrive at a wash to be back on the route again. This would be our first of 3 detours that you can definitely see on our route  . We didn't let any of our detours go to waste as it was real pretty out there so we took our share of pictures. After fighting my way past some catclaw we saw the trail we should have been on. We hiked up the wash (south) for this part of the hike for a while. The views were plentiful as were the various kinds of wildflowers; especially Desert Chicory. Of course, Lupine and Desert Hyacinth were also plentiful and some Fairy Duster too. The other star today was Mother Nature as she was painting the sky beautifully. We were constantly in awe of her artwork.
Anytime you got above the wash you had great views toward the Little Four Peaks so we were constantly getting pictures of that from several different angles. As we got more on to the single track and out of the wash, our views to the western Superstitions (Flatiron) opened up nicely. Weavers Needle was right in front of us too. As we got closer to the Hackberry Springs Trail system we would start encountering more hikers. At the initial junction, we made a wrong turn as we wanted to go east down into the First Water Trail so we had to backtrack a bit. We will do that one more time today. We climbed a small hill where we got to another junction near the Wilderness boundary. The hill down was a bit steep and slippery. Probably would be best to do this part of the loop counterclockwise.
After getting to the bottom of the Creek we meandered on the north side as we headed south. Obviously, lots of water, running water  . We enjoyed every moment as we made our way to the next intersection. We stopped a few times to take it all in as the water made its way toward us with the golden grasses blowing lightly all around. We rounded the corner and after walking a little further we decided to take a break in the shade of a rock on the other side of the water, so we hopped over there. While sitting there we noticed that the clouds seemed to be moving rather fast so we shot some hyperlapse video. I should have shot a little longer though.
We stayed on this side of the creek heading west and as we turned south Ambika checked RS and realized we needed to go north at the drainage we were walking by so once again, we had to backtrack a little. But per usual, we got a nice view we wouldn't have noticed before. So up the drainage we went. There was pretty much no water but there were some big step ups. The trail is a little tricky to follow here as it's easy to keep going in the wrong direction. The uphill wasn't too bad; especially when you have wildflowers all around as well as some majestic saguaros.
Once back on the nice trail tread we made some decent time... well for us that is. We were still busy taking pictures and noticing other things along the way. The sun was mostly out continuously now but the breeze kept it comfortable. We did go through an area where we got buzzed... by bees. We just kept moving. On the way back we saw a nice little group of Owl Clover and it also seemed there were many more Fairy Dusters. There was also a big section of those belly Woolly Daisies very low to the ground.
We followed the correct route all the way back; the last part being much easier than our earlier bushwhacking we did. The hike took longer than we anticipated, but we had no idea that we were going to get such a flower show and the distraction of the water and golden grass topped off with a painted sky  . We really enjoyed the hike and hope to do it again next spring. Do not follow our initial route in the last part of our first half mile. The official HAZ route is correct now. I'm surprised those that have gone before us and did the same bushwhack at the beginning didn't let Joe know so he could correct it, but Tibber did.
Video 1 and 2 are from the TH to Hackberry Springs Trail as it reaches the Wilderness Boundary:
[ youtube video ]
[ youtube video ]
Video 3, 4 and 5 are from Hackberry Springs Trail, including the loop in First Water, and then up Hackberry Springs Trail back to Needle Vista TH:
[ youtube video ]
[ youtube video ] the sky was really exceptional in parts of this video
[ youtube video ]
WATCH 9:34AM-1:12PM 4.55 miles, 2091-2328 elevation. Avg bpm 118/max 160 burning 1199 calories. Starting temp 55.9, Fair skies and 38% humidity |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
borderline Substantial |
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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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