Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones • Hike • Arizona • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

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Mar 09 2023

markthurman53

Guides 187
Routes 989
Photos 12,068
Triplogs 864

72 male

Joined Jun 27 2015
Tucson, Arizona

Guindani Cottonwood Trail, AZ

Hiking		Mar 09 2023
		markthurman53 • Triplogs 864

Hiking	9.05 Miles	2,160 AEG

Hiking	9.05 Miles	5 Hrs 28 Mns	1.71 mph
	2,160 ft AEG	11 Mns Break

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Guindani Trail

Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

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mamakatt22

Back to the Whetstones this time to hike the Guindani and Cottonwood Saddle Trails. I have done these before about 3 years ago but needed a refresher Coarse on just how nice it is in this area. We starting at Karchner Caverns State Park. Did the Guindani CW direction. The Whetstones are an interesting mountain range, unlike the other ranges in southern Arizona these are pretty much a stack of Sedimentary rocks. After saying that this hike was through the one section that is mainly Cambrian igneous intrusions. Won't bore you with the details but I was excited (Alaskite and Quartz Monzonite oh my). Good amount of water flowing in the streams. Ginny's new boots appeared to work just fine. The weather was in the low 70's in the afternoon with a slight breeze to cool things off a bit.

The Guidani Trail heads up along the south side of a hill that offers great views to the East over San Pedro River Valley and the Dragoon Mountains. To the South overlooking Middle Canyon and The Cape which reminds me of Ramsey Peak in the Huachuca Mountains. After climbing 1000 feet you cross over a saddle and head down into Cottonwood Creek. Multiple mines along the trail are Fluorspar mines active in the early 1900's and as late as 1967. All the rocks of this hill are Alaskite butted up against Pinal Schist.

Once down from the saddle and in Cottonwood creek the Cottonwood Saddle trail heads up stream. Fairly easy trail up to the saddle, a few short lived steep sections. Rocks along the canyon are Quartz Monzonite darker than the light colored Alaskite, both are Precambrian in age. Water was flowing in the creek almost all the way to the saddle. Nothing spectacular at the saddle, in fact I don't even remember being here before, that's how memorable it was. Catalina Mountains and Rincon Mountains can be seen to the north.

Headed back down the way we came up and returned on the Guidani trail in the CW direction. Pretty much follows and crosses the creek many times before exiting to the south and reconnecting with itself. One of the largest ocotillo I have ever seen is along this trail just before completing the loop. The branches/stems were at least 5 inches across it would take both hands to wrap around it if you were so inclined to do that.

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May 17 2020

sami_h

Routes 1
Photos 6
Triplogs 7

41 female

Joined Sep 25 2011
Tucson, AZ

Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

Tucson, AZ

Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

Tucson, AZ

Hiking		May 17 2020
		sami_h • Triplogs 7

Hiking	6.00 Miles

Hiking	6.00 Miles	6 Hrs	1.00 mph

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A friend and I hiked up the Guindani and Cottonwood Saddle trails to get out of the house and try out SIA's new Spring Seeker app to survey a few springs. Trails were in good shape. Cottonwood saddle was fainter, but still easy to follow. Water at a trough on the trail by Box Artesia Well (actually a hillslope spring piped down from above the trough). Went as far as Basin Spring, which is probably intermittent. We found a tiny pool of water about an inch deep there. Not one to count on for a drink!. A fair bit of water in Guindani canyon off and on though, a pleasant surprise! Probably sprinkled with springs here and there that aren't on the map. Poor pup got overheated the last mile back. I'll be more careful next time.

	Guindani Box Artesia Well	Quart per minute	Quart per minute
	Not sure of the exact flow rate, but the troughs were full/overflowing. Plenty of water!

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May 13 2020

markthurman53

Guides 187
Routes 989
Photos 12,068
Triplogs 864

72 male

Joined Jun 27 2015
Tucson, Arizona

Guindani Cottonwood Saddle, AZ

Hiking		May 13 2020
		markthurman53 • Triplogs 864

Hiking	8.79 Miles	1,975 AEG

Hiking	8.79 Miles	4 Hrs 13 Mns		2.49 mph
	1,975 ft AEG	41 Mns Break	15 LBS Pack

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Guindani Trail

Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

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I took another short hike close to home but this time in the Whetstone Mountains. I have not been in these mountains in over 30 years, before Karchner Cavern Park even existed. The Guindani Trail starts in the park and exits almost immediately to National Forest. This trail is a 4.3 mile loop that I did clockwise with a side trip up to Cottonwood saddle. Karchner Cavern State Park was empty with only a couple of die hard campers and one other hiker. It turned out to be a great day to do this hike. My original plan was to take a dirt road north of the park that leads to the Ricketts mine and head south to the Guindani Trail to avoid the park mess. The dirt road was blocked off by a gate so I had to change my plan. This is state trust land so I’m not sure what the story is.

The Guindani Trail is in good shape and appears to get a lot of use. In the clock wise direction the climb up to the ridge is done first and then drops down into Guindani Canyon where it intersects the Cottonwood Saddle Trail. There was water intermittently along this canyon. I made the assumption that the Guindani Canyon is north of the hill that the Guindani Trail goes around and that Middle canyon is to the south.

The Cottonwood saddle Trail, 2.2 miles, is also in good condition with only a few sections on the upper end where it gets vague. There are plenty of rock cairns so loosing the trail except momentarily is not an issue. Near the saddle is a spring box and there was a trickle of water there. Views from the saddle are not terrific with the exception of one good view of Rincon Peak to the north, but you have to locate yourself just right between two tree/shrubs.

Surprisingly good weather on this hike with temps in the low 80’s and a good breeze especially on the high spots. I only brought a quart of water with me since this was a short hike. Probably would be wise to take a bit more this time of year. I ended up with a bit left when I finished and I sampled some of the water in the stream also. Always have to give my immune system a workout too.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Bluestem Prickly Poppy New Mexico Thistle

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] California Sister

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Windmill

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] The Cape

	Guindani Canyon	Pools to trickle	Pools to trickle
	Upper canyon near the Cottonwood Saddle Trail. also along stream intermittently on the Cottonwood Saddle Trail

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Sep 02 2017

dieanotherday15

Guides 2
Photos 95
Triplogs 20

35 male

Joined Jul 08 2012
Tucson, AZ

Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

Tucson, AZ

Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

Tucson, AZ

Hiking		Sep 02 2017
		dieanotherday15 • Triplogs 20

Hiking	2.20 Miles	1,027 AEG

Hiking	2.20 Miles
	1,027 ft AEG

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On a whim, I decided to take this trail while hiking the main one. As others have noted, the trail is very overgrown. My legs looked like chop suey from all the scratches. Nevertheless, it stays pretty close to the stream most of the way. I followed it for as long as I could rebuilding fallen cairns. I think I went about 1.5 miles before I finally could not find the trail and turned around. Either it was a fun way to get a little deeper into this beautiful mountain range.

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Dec 05 2012

camiles

Triplogs 108

51 male

Joined Feb 19 2012
Tucson, AZ

Guindani Trail

Tucson, AZ

Guindani Trail

Tucson, AZ

Hiking		Dec 05 2012
		camiles • Triplogs 108

Hiking	9.14 Miles	1,700 AEG

Hiking	9.14 Miles
	1,700 ft AEG

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Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

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We headed out along the Guindani Trail with the intention of doing the Guindani/Foothills figure 8 - but when we arrived at the junction with the Cottonwood Saddle Trail and saw that it continued near the rather beautiful Guindani canyon we could not resist exploring!!

The description below is great - but a little long so I thought I would mention at the top of this post that I REALLY enjoyed this trail and while it is faint and prickly I thought the area was beautiful and I am a little surprised it doesn't get more use!!!

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmiles/sets/72157632151341337/

The Cottonwood Saddle trail is overgrown, very prickly and does not seem to get much use. Cairns are certainly your friend if you want to follow the trail - at the beginning it is reasonably easy to follow. At about 2.8 miles into the trip the trail enters the canyon, a small drainage enters from the north - I believe at this spot that you should continue along the bottom of the canyon looking for two cairns on the right that will take you out of the canyon onto the north side (there may be another path here, on the way up followed a different cairn and exited to the south side of the canyon, we didn't find a good path on that side and ended up working back to the trail on the north side). While there are plenty of other spots that could be confusing two that we almost missed: at about 3.3 we almost missed a wash crossing, and at 3.5 we almost crossed the wash rather than finding the trail on the same side we were already on... After some more slightly hard to find cairns up overgrown grassy hillsides the trail eventually becomes easier to find up to the saddle.

A fence splits the saddle and there are some great views - all the way across the Rincons into the Santa Catalina Mountains with the Summit Crags visible!! From here we went down the way we came up.

On this trip we did not have time to go to Cottonwood Peak or East Peak - but when I do this again I will certainly save time to go to some of the nearby high points.

The trail appears to continue down the other side from the saddle - I did not find a lot of information but on continuing past the saddle but Scott Morris's trip report (mountain bike) http://www.topofusion.com/diary/2011/05/12/island-hopping-whetstone-and-chiricahua/ is interesting and this Wilderness Proposal Draft http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5284418.pdf mentions that the trail connects to the Cottonwood Canyon Road (Forest Road 4012) (which the report mentions connects to Post Ranch Road (Forest Road 4596) and out to Highway 90 - although I am unsure if this is official 'public' access...).

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Dec 01 2012

southpawaz

Routes 22
Photos 276
Triplogs 94

62 male

Joined Mar 18 2008
Phoenix, AZ

Cottonwood Saddle, AZ

Hiking		Dec 01 2012
		southpawaz • Triplogs 94

Hiking	8.10 Miles	1,644 AEG

Hiking	8.10 Miles
	1,644 ft AEG

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Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

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cindyl

I picked this hike out for us to do today on our way down to visit friends in Whetstone. I'd done a longer version of it previously, hitting both Cottonwood and East Peaks with a bushwhack down off East Peak, but due to a time constraint today we decided to content ourselves with an out and back to Cottonwood Saddle.

We reached the Karchner trailhead after paying our $6, and set off on the Guindani Trail towards the canyon. Part of the lower trail is a two track jointly signed as a Forest Road which must be accessible from elsewhere, because we did see quad tracks on it as we came out that weren't there when we went in. The canyon showed signs of a good monsoon season past, with plentiful grasses and other plants, now dry for the winter. Agave stalks are plentiful in this area, with some truly impressive in size. About the only color we saw all day was a smattering of a few Hummingbird Trumpets here and there.

When we reached the junction where the Cottonwood Trail spurs off of the Guindani Loop, it was obvious immediately that the vast majority hike the loop and very few continue up the canyon. Beyond this point, knee high grass crowded the trail and obscured the cairns, making it difficult to follow. We got off track several times, but never too far that correcting back to the trail became problematic. There were a couple spots I remembered where I had lost the trail the other time I was here and we lost it again in one of the same spots along the section where the trail arcs around to head north up to the saddle.

Once the trail starts the slightly more steep but still gentle climb up to the saddle, the trail improved quite a bit and showed more signs of use. A couple pieces of litter spotted along this section indicated likely smuggling usage at times, so we perked up the radar but all was quiet today. We finished off the uphill to the saddle and set down for a break, enjoying the views for a while before starting down.

We passed another pair of hikers as we got down to the main canyon, but those were the only folks we saw on the trail all day. Once the creek bed widened out we decided to forego the trail for a bit and walk down the creek for a ways, and ventured off to look for a spring shown on the map but couldn't find it. We were surprised when we got cliffed out by a 10 or so foot high dam in the creek bed so at that point we hopped back up onto the trail for the rest of the way out.

We decided to leave the rest of the Guindani Loop for another time, made our way back to the trailhead and then drove down to Whetstone for a wonderful evening with friends around a backyard campfire.

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Dec 01 2012

cindyl

Routes 17
Photos 2,773
Triplogs 249

53 female

Joined May 15 2009
Phoenix and Tucs

Cottonwood Saddle, AZ

Hiking		Dec 01 2012
		cindyl • Triplogs 249

Hiking	8.10 Miles	1,644 AEG

Hiking	8.10 Miles
	1,644 ft AEG

no routes

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Cottonwood Saddle Trail #386 - Whetstones

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southpawaz

from kartchner caverns, we went up the guindani trail to the cottonwood saddle trail. the cottonwood saddle trail was really hard to follow until we got close to the top. those illegals sure know how to rut in a trail. on a time crunch to make it to a holiday party in whetstone, we didn't go up to either of the peaks available from here, but rather went back down, tried to find a couple of springs to no avail, and explored the canyon a bit before coming back out the same way we went in. all in all a good day.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Agave

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Windmill

Wildflowers Observation Isolated

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There are just two switchbacks left. And another half-mile to the destination...

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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