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| Hiking | 6.00 Miles |
1,300 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.00 Miles | 4 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.33 mph |
| 1,300 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | First time visiting Hells Canyon Wilderness, so we decided to hike to Burro Flats. I was using Christine Maxa's wildflower book for basic trail description, even though it's too early & too dry for blooms, and had a rough BLM map to supplement.
THE DRIVE:
Castle Hot Springs roads was in great shape — probably because it hasn't rained much all winter (there are pros and cons to everything, I guess). But also because of the work being done to rebuild the old resort, which is scheduled to reopen in October 2018. The turnoff to Cedar Basin Road was unmarked, but easy enough to spot since it is where the CHS road crosses a creek. Take a sharp left and start climbing. On that section of the drive we were glad for 4WD and clearance, but it wasn't too bad. However, our odometer didn't synch very well with the distances in the book and our map was (ahem) less than comprehensive, so when we saw a turnoff and a generic BLM sign for "trailhead," we pulled over and parked, thinking we were at Burro Flats. Unloaded the dog, put up the sunshade, got boots laced & packs buckled and strolled to the register... which said Horse Creek trailhead. So we decided to just hike from there and have an explore. (Note: I don't carry any kind of GPS/pedometer/mileage-tracking-gadget, so all distances are approximate.)
HORSE CREEK TRAIL
The trail is faint in places, especially in the beginning, but gets wider and more obvious as it curves around the south side of the hill and down into a drainage. Great views of peaks and saguaro, but lots of cholla balls on the trail, two of which the dog managed to step on. Eventually the trail drops down into a narrow creek with remnants of a building foundation and what I took to be an old pump box at the spring. Not much water, but it was still nice & cool. Trail crosses to the south side of the creek, then climbs back up a ridge, curves south, and starts easing down into the upper northern edge of the flats. At this point — around a mile from the trailhead, the trail sort of petered out in a maze of game trails, but one path to the east was flagged with pink and orange ribbons, so we picked our way over there to an open area ringed with mesquite (and carpeted in cow patties). This is basically a northern finger of Burro Flats and, right on cue, we saw six burros looking back at us from the slope to the east. They seem both pretty well fed and pretty chill for being feral. Clearly they've acclimated well. And clearly we aren't intimidating to large herbivores.
HORSE CREEK
At this point, we could have continued south on the flats but we were getting a little tired of pulling cholla out of the dog's feet, so we opted to do a little creek bottom exploration instead — since the creeks were all dry and the terrain was pretty easy to see. If it didn't work out, we figured we could just return the way we came. So we followed a small drainage north until it connected with Horse Creek, then followed the creekbed north (past some beautiful rock formations and a few greenish pools of water), for a mile or so until we came out at Garfias Wash. It was easy hiking for bipeds, but a little harder for the dog just because of the rock-hopping required through some sections. But it was mostly sand and there were plenty of shady spots along the way for water and rest breaks. Lots of sections with grassy mesquite bosques along the side of the wash, too, which were nice to see.
GARFIAS WASH
After reaching the spring and the entrance to Hell Canyon itself, we wandered around for a bit and enjoyed the scenery. Then we headed west back toward the road, following the wash. There were several more cool rock formations to check out — including a sweet little slickrock chute — and excellent desert scenery. Saw some big willows and magnificent old cottonwoods, too, which were just beginning to bud out for spring.
Navigation was a piece of cake the whole way, especially since we were just circling Garfias Mountain, which was easy to see from every section of our ad hoc route. And with no water to contend with, we just walked up the middle of the creekbed. Once we got around the north side of the mountain and closer to the road, we had to choose between the various side drainages, but we just kept going west and hit the road about 2 miles after leaving Hell Canyon.
Amazing how remote it feels down in there. Didn't even think about "civilization" until we heard the roar of dirtbikes in the last few hundred yards before we intersected the road. Strolled the mile or so back to the car, drove back to CHS Road and returned home by heading west toward Morristown, which was longer but faster than returning back around the east side. (Which would also have been nice, we just wanted to see more new stuff!)
Saw plenty of sign of javelina (including gnawed up prickly pear) but didn't encounter any. Plenty of birds, though, including cardinals, phainopeplas, gnatcatchers, Gila woodpeckers, flickers, sparrows and pinyon jays.
I can see that the whole area will require repeated visits, since I can imagine how different it is with water in the creeks and/or with flowers blooming. But even in the dry weather, it's a wonderful wilderness experience. Next time, though, I'm getting a real map. |
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I hope I can still tie my own shoes when I'm that age let alone climb an off trail mountain in a wilderness area, Bob Packard is truly the bionic man! 
Not knowing where this was in conjunction to Burro Flats ( and to be honest, still not knowing) I decided to make this my hike 
out of one of them). This conveniently lead me around the wasps and back into the wash. Shortly thereafter, I came upon a huge down Spruce(?). The tree was lying on its side, so it its hard for me to guess on its size, but I would guess at least 15 ft in circumference. It seemed massive, especially for the diminutive size of most of the plant life around. As the area around the wash opened up I spooked my hiking companions for a final time as they "stampeded" out of the wash into some relatively flat terrain. I had just hit the 2 mile mark when I hit what I assume to be the creme de la creme of Hell's Canyon. The wash started to narrow up and the nearby rock formations started to dazzle. Up ahead I could see water pooling amongst the rocks. This made an ideal watering hole...for wasps. If I thought there was wasp problem earlier, then this was disaster. Swarming might be an exageration, but not by much. I debated my options. The wash had become a canyon with the walls climbing high on either side (and there were no cows to help lead me around). Since I wasn't sure how far this trail was suppose to go (and at the time I wasn't even sure if I was doing an "official" trail), I decided on making this my turn around point. As I headed back up the canyon/wash my curiosity got the better of and I wondered what might have been lying ahead of me if I had continued down the canyon. So I detoured out of the wash and climbed the ridge to the north. With just a little bit of climbing I was stunned at the how far down the canyon floor had receded. It was an awesome view. I could see the water going along a ways and then seemingly disappearing. Unsure if the water was flowing and if so, for how long. While on the ridge I came upon what looked like unnatural rock formations. It could have been some burial sites or just my over active imagination. Got back into the wash and returned back to the TH. Wildlife included lizards, chipmunks, burros, a squirrel, roadrunner, 3 deer and of course cows.
