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| | | Maverick Butte - Deer Flat Loop, AZ | | | |
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Maverick Butte - Deer Flat Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 10.81 Miles |
2,626 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.81 Miles | 8 Hrs 26 Mns | | 1.75 mph |
| 2,626 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We hiked in this general area two weeks ago, and today's plan was to hike up to Maverick Butte and check out some of the small Hohokam ruins along the way, then drop down to Deer Flat and, time permitting, go up to the summit of Willow Spring Mountain. The morning started out ~30° as we headed east from Bronco Trailhead along FR 2047 before making our way up a gentle slope to a ridge north of Sycamore Canyon.
There were a series of three small ruins within a few tenths of a mile of each other on the ridge, though they were badly deteriorated and would've been easy to miss if we hadn't been paying attention. They were little more than low, rectangular outlines of a room or two at each site, more noticeable because of the concentration of rocks than the actual shape of a structure. We didn't spend too much time at any of the sites, but we found very little pottery at any of them. It was interesting, though, that these sites weren't built at particularly high points or areas with especially good visibility.
We headed east from there and found one more small ruin, with maybe two rooms, but still not much pottery, then turned north to approach Maverick Butte. We decided not to make the steep descent down to Duberry Spring to save more time for Willow Spring Mountain, so we continued up and over hill 4533, then dropped down to the saddle and approached Maverick from the south/southeast.
It was a steady incline up the rocky/grassy slope, but a straightforward route without much in the way of loose rock or sharp brush and only a little easy scrambling needed just below the summit, where we saw a deer run off. I placed a summit register in the cairn, and we took a snack break and enjoyed the views. There was a nice dusting of snow on the Mazatzal Peaks and along the Mogollon Rim on the distant northeast horizon. The peak has some nice views of Horseshoe Reservoir, Humboldt Mountain, the distant Superstitions, and even downtown Phoenix through the haze.
[ youtube video ]
We dropped down the west side of the summit and then continued north past the second, lower peak and around the east side of hill 4566, where there was a decent game trail, then connected with a muddy FR 1099. We left the road again near the northern Deer Flat tank, and I could tell we probably wouldn't have time to make it over to Willow Spring Mountain and back with the time we had remaining. TBoneKathy waited while I made my way over there, and I made it most of the way up the ridgeline west of the peak but was a little over a half mile away before I needed to turn back...I think I'd done most of the hard part, but something to see next time  .
We hiked back down to FR 1099 and followed that to Seven Springs Road, roughly a mile and a half to the trailhead to complete the loop. There were a few trucks with trailers parked there, but we didn't see any hikers all day, just some distant ATVs on the roads. The ruins weren't anything spectacular, and we probably saw more pottery in random spots along the route than we did at the sites themselves, but it was nice to explore this area a little more and visit a new peak. I'll have return to finish the Willow Spring portion of the route when I'm out this way again sometime. As it turned out, our route unintentionally ended up being sort of a reverse variation of @The_Eagle's Dec. 2020 Deer Flat/Maverick Butte hike, right down to coming up a little short of Willow Spring Mountain. |
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Route Editor
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Route 
The trail finally leveled out when I reached the first tank, where I came upon 2 deer with the biggest white tails that I can recall seeing. There was no water in the tank, but it was muddy from the recent rain. Just past the tank, to the left, is the “cemetery” under one of the few trees in the area. There were 3 gravesites that I could see: Buddy, Mercy and Pharoah. All had metal crosses with their names upon them. There was a faded wooden sign on the side of one of the graves, which made me think that the wooden sign was the original marker and that they were “refreshed” with metal crosses at some later time. In my mind this is a good turn around spot for someone wanting to hike Deer Flats Rd. It is the high point of the road, providing views to both the east and west sides. However, the road does continue, swinging to the south. This was perfect for me, since it was taking me toward Maverick Butte, which is the obvious high point to the south. I was only on the road for about .3 miles before leaving it and heading cross country. I imagine this may have been a more challenging and beautiful foray before the recent fire. Today, it was just a ravaged landscape with patches of greenery where the fire had hopped. I was surprised to find (what in my mind is) a type of fountain grass being the first to recover. There were clumps of this hardy grass sprouting up in several spots. There were two high points, the one that was further south was higher and the one I summited. Horseshoe Lake looked to be incredible low. I was seeing as much brown from where the lake use to be as the lake itself. 
