|
| | | |
| |
|
| Hiking | 6.70 Miles |
592 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.70 Miles | 6 Hrs 4 Mns | | 1.10 mph |
| 592 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | I was on a 2 night campout on the Mogollon Rim with my 10 year old Grandson, Michael, and his Dad, Lloyd, over the Memorial Weekend. We camped at our favorite spot, Camp Grasshopper #3 down FR 139C on the rim of Barbershop Canyon. This spot has been a favorite place on the rim for Lloyd and daughter Elizabeth to take their family camping over the last 9 years since Lloyd and I first met Grasshopper in July 2012 when he was camped at Camp GH #3 and we were camped about 0.2 miles away at Camp GH #2.
Michael wanted to explore Barbershop Canyon so I dusted off an old gps track from 2015 which would lead us directly to the bottom of the canyon from camp. From there we would take the loop going down Barbershop Canyon and then coming back up Merritt Draw. I was concerned about taking Michael down the very steep and somewhat treacherous canyon side at that location. GH prefers a safer route about a quarter mile up canyon but I've always liked shortcuts and had taken this route back in 2015. As it turned out, the only one of the three of us that I should have been worried about was me. Both Michael and Lloyd scampered down the steep slope finding a doable route while I was carefully creeping and butt sliding my way to the bottom. I don't recommend this route for climbing out of the canyon.
We took our time taking in the beauty of this canyon and for Michael finding challenges to his budding climbing ability at every opportunity. Elk trails provided convenient routes around log jams and dead fall. There was a trickle of water flowing down the stream with only occasional stretches of dry creek bed. The pools got larger and more frequent as we neared the U-Bar Trail crossing and many of the pools had schools of minnows and a few larger fish up to about 10 inches long. There appeared to be two different species among the larger fish. The most abundant appeared very dark in color, almost black, with a wide red stripe running the full length of its sides. These did not appear to be trout. The second type of which there were very few were definitely trout, probably rainbow, based on examining a photo taken by Lloyd.
The lower part of Merritt Draw had lots of dead fall blocking passage up the bottom of the canyon. There were Elk trails around many of these obstacles, some requiring detours up the steep sided canyon walls. Some required crawling under or over fallen logs. All these obstacles and the warm afternoon temperatures were depleting what little energy I had left but Michael and Lloyd seemed unfazed. The creek bed was mostly dry but there were a few pools and small trickles of water coming out of two springs on the hillside. The largest pool was at Drift Fence Spring, a popular watering hole for wild critters.
Back at camp we all agreed that this had been the best hike we'd taken from Camp GH over the years of coming here. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
]
