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| | | Easy Thumb Butte Loop, AZ | | | |
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Easy Thumb Butte Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.98 Miles |
1,018 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.98 Miles | 2 Hrs 58 Mns | | 2.41 mph |
| 1,018 ft AEG | 4 Mns Break | | | |
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none
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| no partners | | This is the easier direction of a seven-mile figure eight loop starting from the parking lot for Thumb Butte Recreation Area. Taking Miller Creek Trail #367 and Garden Grove Trail #392 provides a more gradual climb to the crossover point than staying on Thumb Butte Bypass Trail #326 when Trail #367 continues along Thumb Butte Road and Trail #326 starts climbing up to the crossover point. As seen in the profile of this route, the first mile has 213 feet of elevation gain, while the first mile in the opposite direction (the last mile of this hike) has 347 feet of elevation gain. Furthermore, the steepest portion of this hike (240 feet of elevation gain in 0.6 miles) at the end of Trail #392 is a little less steep than the 250 feet of elevation gain on the steepest section of Trail #326 in the reverse direction. Finally, the high point of 6352 feet is at 4.15 miles in this direction, while it would take less than 3 miles going in the opposite direction to reach the high point.
There are other trails south of Thumb Butte that can be used to shorten or lengthen this hike. For example, the bottom of the figure eight uses Honey Bucket Trail #333 which is a single track with lots of twists and turns. A few yards further south of the junction of Trails #322 and #333, Trail #322 ends at Potts Creek Trail #327. If you don't mind hiking on old forest roads, you can make a larger loop by turning left on Trail #327 and hiking Old Forest Roads #9401J and #9707T to return to Trail #327, then turning left to the junction of Trails #327 and #326 (where Trail #326 ends). This would add about three miles for a ten-mile hike. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
lobe-leaf groundsel, silver puffs, Hill's lupine, longleaf phlox and maybe some showy phlox, filaree, ashen milkvetch, bigleaf periwinkle, southwestern mock verain, Aspen pea, fleabane, dalmatian toadflax (only 1 in bloom, many will be blooming later in April) |
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