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| | | Fish Hatchery to Knoll Lake and Myrtle Point, AZ | | | |
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Fish Hatchery to Knoll Lake and Myrtle Point, AZ
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| Hiking | 17.00 Miles |
2,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 17.00 Miles | | | |
| 2,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| Partners |
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| no partners | | Since I had never been to the Tonto Fish Hatchery, Knoll Lake, or Myrtle Point, and had never hiked on the Babe Haught Trail, I decided to kill 4 birds with one stone and knock off all 4 on one hike. Tracie, my intrepid hiking partner, and I began the hike at the Fish Hatchery and took Babe Haught Trail #143 up to Rim Road 300. From there we crossed the Rim Road and took Babe Haught Trail #88 to Knoll Lake, and we reversed course by taking Trail #88 back to the Rim Road. Then we made about a 3.25 mile death march down Rim Road 300 to Trail #300C, which after about 3/4 of a mile took us to Myrtle Point. Lastly, we took Trail #300C back to the Rim Road; marched down the Rim Road for 3.25 miles back to Babe Haught Trail #143; and then took Trail #143 back to the Fish Hatchery.
I thought that Babe Haught Trail #143 was a nice one -- in my eyes it is not as nice as the See Canyon Trail as far as getting up to the Rim, but it is far, far better than going to the Rim on either the Horton Spring Trail or the Promontory Trail. Babe Haught Trail #143 had a good bit of sun exposure for the first two miles(note to self: next time, if it is a warm sunny day don't wear a long sleeve black shirt), but it was in pretty good shape and mostly easy to follow. Once we got up closer to the Rim, there were lots of big trees that provided some filtered shade.
Babe Haught Trail #88 was a delightful trail -- there were lots of big pine trees along the trail and there were numerous LARGE cairns that made the trail easy to follow. Whoever made the cairns must have gone to graduate school in cairn making.
Knoll Lake was really low in water, which made it a bit of a disappointment. At first I thought that the lake was completely dry, but we went a bit farther and found some water.
Myrtle Point had some really nice views, and I enjoyed being there. To get to the logbook, don't follow Road 300C all the way to its end; instead, once you get close to the edge of the rim, veer off to the right of the road a bit. I know that HAZ gives credit to Promontory Butte for being the high point in Gila County, but some sources say that Myrtle Point shares the county high point with Promontory Butte. I do not know, but my GPS recorded them both at about 7,940 feet, so they seem pretty close to me. I cannot say for sure which is higher, but since I have been to both I guess that I can say that I have been to the Gila County high point.
We saw 4 deer (on Babe Haught Trail #143 as we got within 1/4 mile or so of the Rim Road) and one coyote (on Road 300C not far from the edge of the rim).
Note that the route that I posted does not include about the first 3/4 mile of the hike. Somehow, the GPS did not reset when I started the hike, and I did not notice it until after we had gone 3/4 of a mile. At that point, I reset the track and started recording from there.
If you wanted to skip hiking to Knoll Lake and just go to Myrtle Point, the hike would be about 13.5 miles with an AEG of a bit over 2,000'.
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