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| | | Spring Creek Rock Creek Loop, AZ | | | |
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Spring Creek Rock Creek Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 16.50 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 16.50 Miles | 9 Hrs | | 1.83 mph |
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| no partners | | Hike and Bike. Found some google earth imagery that looked interesting in the area of Young, AZ. Decided to investigate and make a creek side wander out of it. I never really had a plan. I brought my mountain bike along in case of a shuttle scenario. Instead the mountain bike ended up costing me more mileage due to a mid-hike change of plans. Ended up logging 6 miles on the bike and 10.5 miles by foot.
I rode my bike down a primitive dirt road to a point at the end of a high land peninsula. From there I started down towards what looked like a gorge where Spring Creek passed through. I bushwhacked through heavy manzanita scrub to a fenceline. Followed the fence line then headed down a ridge towards the gorge. Down climbed a steep rocky ledge towards the creek. In deed, there was a narrow gorge just as the Google Earth imagery had led me to believe. Wall to wall water as the creek entered and exited this narrow passage.
Going back up that ridge and fighting the manzanita did not sound pleasant, so I decided to put on my watershoes and follow Spring Creek upstream to its confluence with Rock Creek before traveling south upstream along Rock.
Found many pools along the way and lots of greenery. My trail varied from game trails along the creeks edge to rock hopping and wading through the creek itself. All pools too deep for wading were easily climbed around.
As I approached a side canyon to my left, my gps reminded me of a feature I had discovered on Google Earth. It looked like some type of wreckage. This was only to be a .25 mile explore, so I went for it. Travel up the canyon was easy and I soon came across rusted metal parts, hoses, pipes, and then the old vehicle I had seen on Google Earth. The front of the truck looked mangled like it was a wreckage that fell off the cliff above. The backside of the truck looked like a factory and was mostly undamaged, which leads me to believe this truck was purposely driven into this drainage. How that would have happened is beyond me. Whoever put this truck here, was doing it to accomplish something with the intention of never moving the truck out.
This is when I discovered the mine shaft just a few feet from the truck. Hoses, pipes and even rail tracks led into the mine which was about 5-6 feet high at the opening. The shaft went back maybe a 100 feet? More or less. It was far enough back that when I reached the end, I could no longer see the opening due to the slight curve in the tunnel. There was a side tunnel about half way back. The side tunnel did not go back but 20 feet, but then looking up with my flashlight, I noticed a tunnel that went straight up into total darkness. Hard to say how high this tunnel went. Not feeling comfortable about staying too long, since I was by myself, I decided to get out of the mine shaft.
I headed back down towards Rock Creek. The next little mystery was what looked like a structure in the satellite imagery. Sure enough, I came across an old cabin (built lincoln log style). The log cabin with sheet metal roof looked to be in pretty good shape. A couple of old bed spring frames are inside. Found an old baby crib in pieces outside.
From here I headed out along the creek to my exit point, a road up the east slope of the canyon. I followed the road up and out of the canyon and wrapped up a big chunk of my remaining mileage traveling along roads. Never saw another person during the entire 16 mile hike and bike.
Oh, the bike! Once I reached my Tahoe, I threw on a change of dry clothes and shoes, grabbed some food and started walking another 2 miles to get the bike I had parked at the end of the peninsula. The whole way I thought about how much time and energy I could have saved by properly planning a bike shuttle into my trip. Doesn't matter though. The weather was ideal, cool. The clouds and the scenery amazing. I found my bike parked under the tree where I had left it. Hopped in the saddle and biked the 2 miles back to the truck.
Great full day under perfect conditions. I will be back. |
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| This is my gym. I have to travel down a bumpy road to get there. There are no treadmillls, no machines, and no personal trainers. I walk..I run..I breathe the fresh air. I can go any time I want, as much as I want and there is no membership fee. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
The late arrival back was partially due to our previous plans to spend the entire day soaking in the remoteness of this area, soaking in riparian-perennial Rock Creek, and taking in the history of this area- Rock Creek Cabin and the Rock Creek "Rose Tungsten Mines" with an open 40ft lower adit (where 3-4 total upper/lower 30'to 40'adits produced a few tons of concentrated tungsten from 1937-1958).
topped-off with an unexpected stop two miles from home at 12:45am by a motorcycle patrol officer who claimed I was driving on the freeway shoulder lane.. 
After he discovered we had 12 empty water bottles tossed in the back of my Jeep and another two full water bottles within reach, he moved on.. 
