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| | | Snowshed Peak and Turkey Creek loop, AZ | | | |
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Snowshed Peak and Turkey Creek loop, AZ
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| Backpack | 25.44 Miles |
5,595 AEG |
| | Backpack | 25.44 Miles | 2 Days 2 Hrs 29 Mns | | |
| 5,595 ft AEG | | 30 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I've been wanting to bag Snowshed Peak for a while. Decided to make a long loop out of it, and knock off a few more new-to-me Chiricahua trails too. I figured I could head up Turkey Pen and Rock Creek to Bootlegger Saddle, stay the night, move camp to Juniper Saddle and bag Snowshed Peak, then return to the car down any of several trails back down into Turkey Creek.
Turkey Pen
Started at the Turkey Pen trailhead around 9:30am on Friday. The Forest Service description claims this trail is a primitive route, but there wasn't anything primitive about it that I could see. The tread is excellent, there were no obstacles or overgrowth. It was obvious the trail was frequently used by equestrians. It starts off with a brief climb over a ridge, then drops down into Turkey Pen Canyon, in which it gradually climbs before climbing over a little saddle and dropping into Upper Rock Creek Canyon. Turkey Pen Canyon had some occasional surface flow and a series of nice slickrock pools. At the top of the little saddle above Upper Rock Creek, there were some enthusiastic lupines.
Upper Rock Creek
Turkey Pen Trail ends at Rock Creek Trail. There is a sign there for the Fitch Corral Trail, which heads North, but no sign for the Rock Creek Trail, which heads either East or West as it travels along the canyon. I didn't see any indication of Rock Creek Trail heading West, and in fact it took me a while to realize that Turkey Pen had effectively morphed into Rock Creek Trail.
Trail conditions on Rock Creek above the terminus of Turkey Pen declined somewhat, but it was still quite followable and free of obstacles. The trail would occasionally enter the creek, which had regular surface flow. Where it was faint there were cairns, flagging tape, or failing either of those, horse poo.
One stretch in the creek had steep cliff walls on either side for a stretch, and ended at a waterfall and large pool. It appeared to be a dead end, and the only way to continue was to scramble up a steep sidewall to get atop the waterfall. There must have been an alternate path for equestrians, as horse poo resumed when trail tread reappeared up the creek.
After the junction with the Saulsbury Connector trail, the tread just stopped. There were cairns to follow, however, and more horse poo. It wasn't terribly difficult to follow the route, and there were no obstacles other than faint or non-existent tread. The tread eventually reappeared, and remained in pretty good shape the rest of the way to Rock Saddle. Surprisingly there was only one short burn section not far below Rock Saddle, and other than a bit of overgrowth it was no problem at all.
Rock Saddle was burned at one point, and all tread is gone. It's actually a junction for several trails, but the sign is on the ground and completely weathered away as to be illegible. I had to scout around a bit looking for the trail to continue to Bootlegger Saddle.
There is some confusion about trail names here: the sign suggests the Bootlegger Trail #257, which descends from Rustler Park, continues up to Bootlegger Saddle. This makes sense to me, and some old maps concur. However, a lot of credible sources state that Bootlegger starts at Rustler Park and continues West to Rattlesnake Trail at Rattle Rock Saddle. In this case, Rock Creek Trail continues to Bootlegger Saddle, and Bootlegger Trail does not in fact go to Bootlegger Saddle. The sign at Bootlegger Saddle supports this. 
Wherever it actually ends, Rock Creek Trail is absolutely gorgeous. It has many large pools in the creek, and miles of pristine piney goodness. For being listed as a primitive route, it's actually not terribly difficult to navigate.
I spent my first night at Bootlegger Saddle, and used Hillside Spring as a water source. It was windy, but Bootlegger has a large rock outcrop that effectively blocked it.
Crest 270A
Saturday morning I packed up and headed for Juniper Saddle, expecting to make camp there. This trail is clear and well-maintained, and sees regular traffic from hikers headed to Chiricahua Peak from either Rustler Park or Barfoot. In fact, the only other people I saw on the entire trip were on this segment: a solitary hiker and his dog, and a young couple with their dog.
The trail traverses a number of severely burned areas from the 2011 Horseshoe II fire, though the forest is recovering in different ways. There are beautiful views, aspen tunnels, remnant old-growth forest, stretches of charred tree skeletons, and meadows. Most of the time the trail hugs the western slopes of the crest, periodically descending and ascending as it enters and leaves a series of wide saddles called Parks. In the summer the wildflower displays can be amazing, and there are miles of raspberry bushes to sate any appetite, but my trip was too early for all that.
Anita Park and Spring
Shortly before Junction Saddle, I took the short path up to Anita Park, which is pretty horrifically burned but slowly recovering. On past trips, usually in the fall, I'd tried to use Anita Spring but often could not find it due to overgrowth. Since it was spring, I figured it would be much easier to find today, and it was. I dropped my heavy pack at Anita Park as the trail down to the spring is quite steep. I collected fresh, clear water from the spring and had a brief rest at Anita Park while waiting for the water to filter. The trail to the spring is clear and often delineated on either side with fallen logs.
Crest 270C
This leg of the crest runs from Junction Saddle at the base of Chiricahua Peak all the way southeast to Sentinel Peak. I only took it as far as Juniper Saddle.
Junction Saddle was wide and clear, all the trails were visible and easy to follow, and there were new signs! 270C is probably the least used of the trails that connect here, and in the past it had been hard to see, but not today.
Last time I was on this trail, the segment between Junction and Aspen saddles had many downed logs. They have since been removed, and there was only one large downed tree shortly after leaving Junction Saddle. The segment to Aspen Saddle burned, but not horribly, so there are still many old growth pines standing with new growth in between. It's actually quite densely forested and a nice hike.
Aspen Saddle is coming along nicely, with many young pines filling in the area. There is a lovely camping spot with remnant old growth surrounded by younger trees, perhaps 15-20' tall, and no more snags threatening to come down.
The views on 270C from Aspen Saddle all the way to Juniper Saddle are fantastic. It has a far less apocalyptic vibe than parts of 270A, and you get to enjoy relatively unobstructed views of Chiricahua Peak, Paint Rock, Rucker Canyon, Monte Vista Peak, Raspberry Ridge, and on into Mexico. For views, this is by far my favorite stretch of trail in the entire range. It's also great for solitude, as relatively few people come this way.
At Juniper Saddle I had lunch and started scouting for camp spots. Unfortunately the wind was getting quite strong and the natural rock formations were channeling the wind rather than breaking it up. I'd hoped to set up camp at Juniper Saddle and do a quick peak-bag of Snowshed nearby, but I wound up rucking my whole pack up Snowshed instead. I stopped to collect a couple liters at Juniper Spring first.
Snowshed Trail and Snowshed Peak Trail
Neither of these trails have seen maintenance in years. In the summer or fall, they get very overgrown, and the tread is faint enough anyway that they all but disappear in places. There are aspens and other shrubby things growing in the middle of the trail, too. In spring, with less overgrowth, they are actually pretty easy to follow.
Snowshed from Juniper Spring to Snowshed Saddle is faint and eroded, but it's still visible and followable the whole way. Tread completely disappears at the saddle where it meets the Snowshed Peak trail. The junction is cairned and has been delineated with downed logs. There is no sign, but the metal band featured on most Chiricahua signs is rusted and bent on the ground where the sign once was.
The route to Snowshed Peak is cairned, with no visible tread as it leaves the saddle. It's not too difficult to stay on track, and the tread appears before too long and remains in decent to excellent shape almost the entire way. Many aspens are growing in the middle of the trail though. As it climbs toward the summit, it moves in and out of relatively unburnt forest. Just before the peak itself I found a decent spot to camp; it was breezy but not as bad as Juniper Saddle. So I found and signed the peak log, enjoyed the fair views to the south and southwest, and set up camp.
The weather was not particularly pleasant to experience because of the wind, and there were various isolated storm cells forming to the southwest and blowing in my direction. Some of them were rumbly, and it snailed lightly. Sorta like snow and hail, like it couldn't figure out which one it wanted to be so it tried to be both. It also rained a bit. But the real problem was the wind. I was hammock camping, which was not the greatest choice for the weather. I spent all night wishing I was in a tent, though my rain fly did a decent job of keeping the wind off me. I had to be very diligent about tying the guy lines down so they wouldn't get ripped out of the ground. I basically tied them to rocks and made little cairns over them to weigh them down, which worked. The next morning as I packed up (in the wind) I noticed one of the guy lines had frayed almost all the way through at a cord lock. Whew!
Sunday morning I made excellent time down Snowshed and around Aspen Peak to the Chiricahua Bypass.
Crest 270D "Chiricahua Bypass"
Another sparsely used trail, mostly because it's most useful for people doing loop hikes around Rucker Canyon (a definite minority of people). Or in my case, a loop hike around Turkey Creek with a dogleg to Snowshed Peak. I had done such a Rucker Canyon circuit last fall, and all I can report is that not much has changed. A little more trail is lost to erosion, and there's more deadfall. There are a few more downed trees at Chiricahua Saddle too, which are also obstructing the more commonly used 270B.
Mormon Ridge
This trail comes up from Turkey Creek to the Crest at Chiricahua Saddle. I took it down. It traverses a burn as it descends to Mormon Saddle, and there's some deadfall along it, but it's nothing major. At Mormon Saddle the trail sign is gone, but you have two options for the descent. Either continue on Mormon Ridge or drop down into Mormon Canyon. The former would deposit me closer to the car, but it's also a longer trail. The latter is shorter, much steeper, and would deposit me further up the road. I chose the more gradual, longer descent.
The remainder of Mormon Ridge has quite a variety of landscapes, from healthy pine forest to oak scrub, scree fields, and mixed woodland. The scrubby parts in the middle elevations tend to be overgrown, and tread quality is eroding in the scree fields, but generally speaking the trail is without any real obstacles. Since it's a ridge hike there was more wind, but it was warm out. Seeing how the wind was no longer viciously trying to tear apart my sleeping arrangements, I was able to appreciate its more refreshing side. There's also more sun on the hike, and that means more wildflowers. It was still pretty sporadic, but lower down there was quite a variety of blooms.
The trail ends at Turkey Creek Road. The creek had light flow and was easy to cross. The remainder of the trip was a little over half mile of road walk to the car.
Overall another fabulous romp in the Chiricahuas, with just enough Type 2 fun to keep things interesting. Next trip I'll go back to carrying a tent if there's any chance of wind. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Here and there, but at times in small, intense displays. Lupines especially, quite a few overachievers on Turkey Pen. |
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Anita Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Spring box full of cool, clear, yummy H2O |
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Eagle Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Overflow full and very green, as usual. |
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Hillside Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Spring box under concrete cover was far down and didn't look much better than what was in the overflow trough. Lots of debris, but filterable. A bit of algae and grass on the nose, but filtered clear and tasted fine. |
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Juniper Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Pipe to the spring trough broken, but water available in the spring box itself. Someone moved the concrete lid from the lower box to the upper one, which didn't seem to have done much to keep debris out. Filtered great. |
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Turkey Pen Canyon |
Pools to trickle |
Pools to trickle |
| | | Large slick rock pools and occasional surface flow. | | | |
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