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| Backpack | 19.26 Miles |
4,928 AEG |
| | Backpack | 19.26 Miles | 2 Days 3 Hrs 46 Mns | | |
| 4,928 ft AEG | | 26 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Corey asked me to plan a three-day backpacking trip in October. Having a hankering for some Type II fun and little regard for the physical or psychological well-being of myself or my companions, I planned a return trip to circuit Rucker Canyon. This time we'd do the loop counterclockwise, and head up Price Canyon instead of Baker.
Rucker Canyon Trail #222
Every previous trip up this canyon since 2021, it was in pretty abused shape with large sections washed out or obstructed with deadfall and overgrowth. Well, some wonderful people have since fixed everything. I mean, everything. Wow. This trail was in perfect shape! No deadfall whatsoever. No overgrowth. Perfect tread. Even about .3 miles of new trail to reroute out of the most flood-prone areas. Kudos to the trail crews who did all that work! Amazing job!  Even the switchbacks at the east end, headed to the ridge between Rucker and Price Canyons, are totally clear.
There was plenty of water in the creek with great flow. If there was any more flow it would have been really difficult to cross with dry feet. I'd seen that the Chiricahuas were the only corner of the state at present in Severe Drought status, so I wasn't expecting much, but recent rains must have done some real good anyway.
We tanked up at the base of the switchbacks (which are pretty much endless, but shady and with great views), and rested a bit at the cool cavey rock formation at the top. We then did the moderate bushwhack to camp, just above the descent to Price Canyon. In case anyone is wondering if there is a point to clearing the ridge, there is a fabulous camp spot with the best view I've ever seen of Rucker Canyon at the end of it. The tread on the ridge is a little faint in spots but totally followable, just overgrown with oak scrub.
Saturday morning we woke fresh for the ordeal to come: descending into Price Canyon, and then following it up to the Crest. It would only be about four or five miles, but I expected it would take us all day, and it just about did.
The final few hundred feet of Rucker Canyon trail down into Price Canyon is very overgrown with oak and sticker bushes. I brought a folding saw and hand pruners, but knew it would take too long to actually clear the trail. We did fairly minimal pruning only when the overgrowth was too difficult to push through. The last 30 feet or so was dense overgrowth with deadfall, but a side drainage headed straight down to the canyon and we took that.
Price Canyon Trail #224
There are no trail reports anywhere I could find on the interweb for Price Canyon above the junction with Rucker Canyon Trail. There is a good reason for that. Other than migrants, I'm not sure anyone has really been that way in many years. Consequently I knew the trail would be in bad shape, or perhaps gone completely, which we observed to be more or less true. However, if you want to do a loop around Rucker Canyon, you essentially have two choices: you go via Baker Canyon (which is pretty trashed) or you go via Price Canyon. Having now done both, I can safely say both choices are essentially off-trail adventures.
On our trip, there was plenty of flowing water, falls, and large pools in Price Canyon. It was a beautiful and delightful place, even if passage up stream was a creek scramble over boulders and fallen logs. We filtered water at the junction with Rucker Canyon Trail (marked with a cairn) before proceeding since the next water source would be Juniper Spring.
Well hydrated we headed up canyon, and it didn't take long for us to find decent tread, if overgrown in places. We could follow it quite nicely for about a mile. Then the official route deviated from the faint trail we were following; the official route switchbacked up the slope. Here we made our first real mistake. Steven had continued on following the trail, while Corey and I decided to try to recover the official route. From this point on, about a mile above Rucker Canyon Trail junction, the official trail is totally gone. In trying to follow it using GPS, we found the slopes completely eroded, especially in burn areas. Oak regrowth obstructs passage, and there are quite a few deep gullies to cross. Even in the few stretches of relatively healthy forest, the soils are so steep and loose that whatever tread might have been there is gone. There are lots of game trails or trails possibly cut by migrants using the canyon to get to the Crest. We followed those when possible, and just dealt with a fairly steady stream of obstacles and steep scrambles for about another mile, until we were just below the Crest. Steven was waiting for us up there, signaling with a water bottle. He hadn't tried to find the historical trail, so he made much better time following the path of least resistance.
The final three tenths of a mile to the Crest was relatively unobstructed and the slope less severe, but we were dead tired. Confident that finding the original tread was pointless, even if I did have a recollection of seeing it from the Crest a few years back, we just hiked straight up the ridge. At the Crest at last, there was much rejoicing. It had taken us about 5 hours to hike 2.7 miles. Had we not tried to follow the official route, it might have saved us quite a bit.
Price Canyon is actually quite pretty, but it's clear that the upper mile and a half needs to be completely rebuilt following a new route.
Crest #270C
From where we intercepted the Crest southeast of the Price Canyon junction, we headed to camp at Juniper Saddle. We passed the junction of Price Canyon trail, which is faint but visible, marked with a signless post. Fitting, since it's a trail-less trail.
Back in 2021, this section of the Crest was pretty faint, but it seems like some tread improvements have been made since then as it was quite clear and in good condition. I don't recall any significant deadfall or overgrowth, other than one enthusiastic young pine tree growing just off the trail. The views into Rucker Canyon along this stretch are pretty sweet, and when you get to the saddles between prominences you can see quite far to the east as well. The aspens were showing their stuff on the east-facing slopes of Rucker Canyon, and also into the south fork of Cave Creek.
Juniper Saddle is a fabulous place to camp, with three water sources nearby, though Juniper Spring is the easiest to get to and in my experience is generally reliable. We arrived around 3pm totally spent from the day.
Crest 270C from Juniper Saddle to Aspen Saddle is in pretty decent shape and it looks like someone did some tread work since last September (thousands thanks!). It gets a little faint toward Aspen Saddle but it's still quite followable.
Crest #270D "Chiricahua Bypass"
The sign at Aspen Saddle for this trail is in good shape, and the tread is faint but followable. It starts off on a gravelly slope with sporadic low scrubby vegetation. As it cuts across the slope of Chiricahua Peak, erosion starts taking its toll on tread quality, but it's still quite followable. When it nears the forested area on the southwestern slopes, the trail is very faint and almost disappears for a bit, though it's relatively easy to pick up again. Back in 2021 we lost a straggling hiker here who had poor route-finding skills. Conditions are no better now.
Tread is excellent through the forested section as the trail switchbacks up and around the western slope, then cuts east along the northern slope before switching back west again. This area has a lot of deadfall, mostly aspens about six or eight inches in diameter, but often in groups and piles. It's a very dense, old forest that hasn't burned in a long time, so there is quite a buildup of fuels. 
The trail ends at Chiricahua Saddle, which is a nice dry camping spot if you don't mind camping at a trail junction.
Crest #270B
From Chiricahua Saddle we headed southwest toward Raspberry Ridge. This trail has definitely seen maintenance and is devoid of obstacles, and has great tread. Whilst ogling at Paint Rock and yellow aspens everywhere, I startled a twin spotted rattlesnake on the trail. It buzzed loudly and darted into some undergrowth off the trail. Not long after, we sighted four large turkeys climbing up the slope in front of us, and I managed a couple rather poor photographs of one or two.
This is a really pretty section of trail with a great variety of terrain and spectacular views, and was a joy to hike.
Raspberry Ridge Trail #228
This trail also has a great variety of terrain and spectacular views, but "joy to hike" isn't really something that comes to the top of mind. We knew it would suck, so we just embraced it and soldiered on.
The trail heads south faintly from its junction with the Crest, the sign marking it basically a pile of rocks with a broken piece of wood (still clearly stating the trail name and direction) on top. The sign condition here is also a pretty good reflection of the trail itself: a pile of rocks with broken wood on top, stretching for miles.
The tread is actually relatively followable until it comes to patches of deadfall across it, and then washed out terrain after. Since it often follows the contour of a steep slope on the east side of the ridge, and the slope is basically scree, there isn't trail at all for significant sections. A couple times we decided it might be easier to just hike the ridge, except that sometimes the ridge is great on the north slope but then when you descend the south side it's a steep decline of aspen-choked boulders, or in one case a sheer cliff. The descent to Raspberry Saddle is steep, sketchy, and rocky with lots of oak overgrowth, but GPS worked out to show us where the original tread was and we managed to find the way down without too much trouble.
We rested at the saddle before tackling the switchbacks down into the side canyon above Bear Canyon. The tread there is faint and existent toward the top of the saddle, if overgrown with oak scrub in places, but after a bit you get to some steep and deep gullies that have washed the trail away completely. So we gave up on the trail and picked our way down following the path of least resistance, until we could pick up another stretch of tread (which didn't happen often). At the bottom of the switchbacks (or what were switchbacks at one time, anyway) is a drainage, and GPS showed it just followed the creek bottom. The creek bottom is blown out with cobble most of the way, so hiking on that wasn't a lot of fun either. I'd heard the segment of Raspberry Ridge Trail running along Bear Canyon had been recently maintained, so we kept searching for cairns in hope of finding something easier to walk on. Sure enough, a short distance from Bear Canyon, Steven found a large, friendly cairn marking a trail, made visible with a series of more large, friendly cairns. We gratefully followed the cairns, crossed Bear Canyon, and headed back to the car.
The trail following Bear Canyon sticks to the west side of the creek the entire way and is generally in good shape and well marked with still more large cairns. There are a few sketchy spots where brush hasn't been cleared, and there is some deadfall along the trail, but compared to what we had just spent the last two and a half miles fighting through, we took it all as a win.
As we got back to the car around 3pm, a ranger drove up and chatted with us a bit. When we told him what we had done, his eyes popped out of his head. It was a really hard trip, but definitely great memories that will stay with us for a long time... kinda like the first trip in 2021. Maybe in four more years we'll do it again...  |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Substantial
At elevation, most of the aspens are yellow with a few splashes of red. The best show was along Crest 270B from Paint Rock to Raspberry Ridge, and then along Raspberry Ridge above Raspberry Saddle. Honorable mention for Crest 270C, especially from around Juniper Saddle. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Quite a few hangers-on along the Crest. Even a few late-season raspberries on Raspberry Ridge, so the trail name is appropriate. |
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Eagle Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Plenty of water. A little green, but not as green as observed on previous trips. |
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Juniper Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Actually quite a bit of water. There was even water in the otherwise defunct overflow. The best place to get it is in the basin that looks like a toilet seat. Had a nice champagne color and filtered great. For grins we removed the fallen tree from atop of the overflow. | | | |
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