Camp Grasshopper - Salome Wild Boundary Area • Car Camp Trip • Arizona • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Park McFadden Trail Loop, AZ

Hiking		Oct 18 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	4.33 Miles	717 AEG

Hiking	4.33 Miles	3 Hrs 46 Mns	1.44 mph
	717 ft AEG	45 Mns Break

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Park McFadden Trail #55

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This was my last hike during our week long stay at our camp near Park Tank. GH stayed in camp starting to pack up for an early departure the next day. I started off from camp through the forest of mostly smaller junipers mixed with a few pines towards the 4WD road FR2752, that would be our exit route the next day. I followed that road for about a mile to see if the road had dried out after the heavy rain 3 nights before. Then the plan was to take an old road shown on some maps to head east up the side of McFadden Peak to connect with the Park McFadden Trail #55. I found no sign of that old road so just followed animal trails going that direction. The forest in this area is a scenic mix of pine, oak and junipers with very little brush under the trees to block a hiker's progress. A large black bear ambling along the hillside about 20 yards away made enough noise to catch my attention. When I turned to see what or who was making that noise, I found the bear staring at me. When I raised my camera to get a photo he continued ambling but at a slightly faster pace and so did I in the opposite direction frequently checking over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't following me.

Upon reaching Trail #55, I followed it down the side of the peak to loop back to Park Tank and from there to our camp. This section of Trail #55 is on an old road which makes for easy hiking. It passes the Park McFadden Tank which, unlike Park Tank, was empty. When Trail #55 gets within 0.3 miles of Park Tank it turns southeast bypassing the tank. At that point I headed off trail in a straight line towards the tank. The forest here is fairly thick but following the trusty cow trails to link small clearings soon delivered me to my destination, the gate at Park Tank. Then it was back up FR2752 to where I had crossed through the forest from camp. GH was still in camp busy packing up for departure the next morning.

The forest in the area around our camp, which I call the Park Tank pasture, is littered with juniper trees that have been sawn down sometime in the past and left laying on the ground. Most of the remaining trees were small enough to have grown in around those dead soldiers over the years. I had seen this area on Google Earth several years ago and assumed it was the site of an old prescribed burn or wildfire. But that was not the case. All the trees laying on the ground had been sawn down and showed no sign of being burned. Investigating the timing of the tree cutting on Google Earth images over the years, it was revealed that the trees had been cut down sometime between June 2007 and June 2010. But this investigation also revealed that his area before the cutting had been covered with smaller trees of a more uniform size compared to the surrounding forest. I suspect that the old original trees in the Park Tank pasture had been cut down at least once before, perhaps mid-1900s, probably by Tonto National Forest, to increase open cattle grazing area. But the juniper trees had started to take over by 2007 and the trees were once again cut down. The last 3 photos in this trip's photoset show historical Google Earth images which confirm the timing of this last cutting.

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Black Bear Wild Turkey

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Park McFadden Tank

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Oct 17 2022

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Salome Cny Overlook Peak 5612, AZ

Hiking		Oct 17 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	4.83 Miles	682 AEG

Hiking	4.83 Miles	5 Hrs 51 Mns	1.12 mph
	682 ft AEG	1 Hour 32 Mns Break

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[ checklist ] Buckaroo Flats Cataract Canyon Greenback Peak Peak 5612 - Copper Mtn 7.5 Topo Redman Mesa Salome Canyon Creek Thoroughbred Canyon Creek Thoroughbred Pasture Tank Turkey Creek

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Grasshopper

This hike started out from our camp near Park Tank and took us to a point overlooking Salome Canyon and then to the top of nearby Peak 5612. The first 1.3 miles of the hike were an easy stroll along the old road FR2747 to its intersection with a track leading to Thoroughbred Pasture Tank. At this intersection we found two fairly new road markers labeling the road from camp as FR2747 and the track to the tank as FR2750. Up until that time we actually hadn't known the up-to-date forest road numbers for these tracks as they are not shown on either the topo maps on HAZ or our Garmin hiking GPS's. I suspect that Tonto National Forest has been placing these new road markers in preparation for issuing a Motor Vehicle Use Map.

At this intersection we then followed the track to the tank for 0.2 miles as it traversed more-or-less west along the hillside. We then started off-trail to to the Salome Canyon Rim at the point where the track to the tank turned south down hill towards the tank. We had to thrash through thick brush as we hiked up to the canyon rim to find open rock ledges with views to the north and west. Arriving at the first rim viewpoint, GH once again discovered he had lost an important possession while scrambling through brush. This time it was one of his trekking poles. He back tracked to find the missing pole while I enjoyed the views and finally returned about 40 minutes later muttering something about not believing how far he had to go to find it.

There were were some good views of distant places we had explored on several previous trips to Redmond Mesa but were disappointed that we couldn't see all the way down into the canyon. I had also hoped to get a good view of the JR Ranch but it was hidden behind a hill covered with trees. We then scrambled down hill to cross a saddle between the viewpoint and Peak 5612. The saddle was covered with oak trees and was open under the cover of the trees. This appeared to be a favorite destination for the range cattle, perhaps to rest in the shade of the oak trees on hot days. The climb to the top of the peak was short and we were able to avoid most of the thickets of brush. The top of the peak was fairly flat and open.

Peak 5612 was ringed with a rock ledge near its top for approximately half of its circumference. We found a couple of initials spelled out in small rocks on the ledge so we weren't the first ones to be there. The ledge provided some great views and ended up providing an easy route back to where we could descend down to the saddle. With all the evidence that the saddle was a favorite range cattle hangout, we looked for a cow trail leading back to Thoroughbred Pasture which would avoid all the brush encountered on our way to the canyon viewpoint. The cows once again came through with an easy-to-follow trail on a gentle grade leading back to the track to the tank. From there it was an easy hike back to camp early enough for GH to cook his delicious linguini with tomato based meat sauce. [ [ photo ] ]

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Sunset

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Oct 17 2022

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Salome Cyn Overlook Peak 5612, AZ

Hiking		Oct 17 2022
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	4.81 Miles	631 AEG

Hiking	4.81 Miles	5 Hrs 54 Mns	1.14 mph
	631 ft AEG	1 Hour 41 Mns Break

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[ checklist ] Greenback Peak Peak 5612 - Copper Mtn 7.5 Topo Redman Mesa Thoroughbred Canyon Creek Thoroughbred Pasture Tank

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Oregon_Hiker

My last full day and 5th day hike on an eight-day "Camp Grasshopper" trip to this first-time visited, remote, rugged, and very scenic new area of our Sierra Ancha / Salome Wilderness.

This was a great last hike choice with always good company, very scenic, rugged off-trail, first time visited destinations with beautiful sunny, blue skies + puffy clouds, to add to the near and distant enjoyment of capturing this seldom hiker visited area in pics. Yes, it was!

My posted Gps Route with all key waypoints listed along with my posted and geocoded photoset with tag notes and detailed captions confirms the rest of the enjoyable story

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Manzanita

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] HAZ - Hike HAZard

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

Thoroughbred Pasture Tank

76-100% full

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

Oct 16 2022

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Hike FR2752 Past Park Tank, AZ

Hiking		Oct 16 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	5.61 Miles	433 AEG

Hiking	5.61 Miles	4 Hrs 33 Mns	1.50 mph
	433 ft AEG	48 Mns Break

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Park McFadden Trail #55

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Grasshopper

This hike follows an old unmaintained road bed that extends southeast past Park Tank from the present day end of FR2752 at Park Tank. Part of this road is shown on old maps but not on newer topo maps. I was curious about what, if anything, was at the end of this road. We found that there was a fork in the road about 0.3 miles past the gate at park tank. One fork continues straight southeast about 0.6 miles further to where it ends at Trail 55 coming from its Circle Ranch trailhead. The other fork of the road turns to the southwest to cross upper Park Creek, then northwest and then south more-or-less going up a drainage ending after 1.3 miles in a forest with nothing much of interest to anyone except maybe hunters and the usual range cattle. So no exciting finds or views, just dense forest. However the connection with Trail 55 could be of interest but it could confuse anyone trying to follow that trail without a gps track because there are no signs, just GH's beloved cairns to mark where the trail enters and leaves the road.

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Cairn

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

_____________________

Oct 16 2022

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Hike FR2752 Plus EXT Rd Past Park Tank, AZ

Hiking		Oct 16 2022
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	5.60 Miles	404 AEG

Hiking	5.60 Miles	4 Hrs 31 Mns	1.47 mph
	404 ft AEG	42 Mns Break

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Oregon_Hiker

This was my fourth of five-day hikes in this first time visit, remote area of the Salome Wilderness Boundary area (six full days available to off-trail hike/explore this interesting area with a total of eight days stay.. two of which were driving to/from and setup/take down/pack camp).

It pays "big time" to have the flexibility to vehicle camp for multiple days in a new (to us) remote, difficult to get to, Wilderness Area like this one to off-trail hike explore! :yes:

and I am very humbled having the opportunity to do so.

Due to serious winds, rain, (with some needed cleanup around camp) this prior 10/15 early evening and overnight into this 10/16 morning, we started our planned day hike at 11:15am to survey all the old two track roads "past" the Park Tank Ranching Gate on FR2752. Hiking past this FR2752 ranching gate at Park Tank included us hiking the extension of FR2752 to its road end where continuing Circle Ranch TR #55 leaves the road and starts its route to the Circle Ranch TH off of Hwy 288.

Prior-to hiking this FR2752 extension to its end, we first hiked a short section of it to a Right Turn X with another, un-numbered 1.3ml one way two track that first headed South, then WNW, then South again to dead end at a very remote, heavy forested area with an interesting campsite location..most likely better suited for seasonal hunters who may desire to be away from everything.

Today's hike was an awesome choice for a rainy, muddy day after, and a great way for us to have a better understanding of what went where in this very remote, less visited & less hiked area of our Tonto National Forest.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

3 archives

Oct 15 2022

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

South Side Park Canyon - Sierra Ancha, AZ

Hiking		Oct 15 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	3.38 Miles	359 AEG

Hiking	3.38 Miles	4 Hrs 55 Mns	0.92 mph
	359 ft AEG	1 Hour 15 Mns Break

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Grasshopper

The primary objective of this hike was to explore along the south rim of Park Creek Canyon where we would have views of the south facing cliffs on the northside to check for possible cliff dwellings. It ended up being a short hike out of our camp a half mile northwest of Park Tank due to getting a late start and wanting to get back to camp before the forecasted afternoon rains started. This off-trail hike involved some bushwhacking between exposed viewpoints along the rim. But we had learned our lesson on the previous day's hike - follow the cow trails. As on all our off-trail hikes during our week long stay, we encountered cow trails with fresh evidence that the local herd had recently been there in their search for that perfect patch of grass. Despite the fresh evidence we never saw cows on any of our hikes and only caught brief glimpses of these wily range cattle on three days when they passed camp late in the afternoon.

There were some great views on this hike but we saw no evidence of cliff dwellings. We got back to camp just as sprinkles from the predicted rains started. GH whipped up a hearty delicious concoction of vegetables and beef sausage in a tomato based broth just as the rain really started to pour down and brought it over to the protection of the tarp covered kitchen at my camp to share.

Our frequent late afternoon camp visitors, the range cows, didn't make an appearance. However a bull passed by out of sight in the rain making these angry sounding growling-like roars. I was happy he chose not to come through our camp. Several years ago I witnessed a large bull making these same sounds as it marched the length of a meadow in the South Kaibab forest near Williams. A large solitary pine tree with a branch hanging down to the ground was in his path and he butted the branch out of the way in what seemed like an angry rage rather than just walking around it.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Park Canyon Creek Salome Canyon Creek

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1 archive

Oct 15 2022

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

South Side Park Canyon - Sierra Ancha, AZ

Hiking		Oct 15 2022
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	3.23 Miles	340 AEG

Hiking	3.23 Miles	4 Hrs 31 Mns	0.90 mph
	340 ft AEG	56 Mns Break

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Oregon_Hiker

This was my third of five day hikes in this first time visit, remote area of the Salome Wilderness Boundary area (six full days available to off-trail hike/explore this interesting area with a total of eight days stay.. two of which were driving to/from and setup/take down/pack camp).

Two days prior on 10/13 Oregon_Hiker and I hike explored the rugged Upper Cliffs Rim West Side of "Park Canyon Creek" to locate the Main Falls viewpoint area and an additional Upper Falls area. We also hike/explored this West Side Cliffs Rim down canyon some before we turned around and headed back to our campsite.

This 10/15 hike was planned to explore this same Park Canyon Creek but do so from the rugged Upper Cliffs Rim South Side. This South Side was more difficult to route find with more vegetation to negotiate through, but this side of Park Canyon Creek with interesting views to the West Side Cliffs and sometime views down into the canyon drainage and distant views down canyon made for a better off-trail hike and pics experience than did exploring down the West Side, in my opinion.

We had high hopes of being able to follow this South Side Upper Cliffs Rim far enough down canyon to have views of the confluence of Park Canyon Creek with Salome Canyon Creek, but reality set in when we arrived at our necessary turn-around location [ photo ] at only 12:15pm

Oh well, our turn-around time and location ended up being a smart decision as we knew that there was serious rain forecasted to enter this area later this afternoon. We needed our rain gear prior-to arriving back at Camp Grasshopper. With winds, it rained in sheets after dark this Saturday evening and continued most of the night into the early morning of Sunday-10/16. In my older Kelty 7x8 tent, I was up at 10:30pm and 12:30pm thinking I was going to float away

but fortunately, after checking my tent inside corners for any leakage, all was good and at morning light all that rain, maybe 1.5", mostly soaked into the rocky ground with no puddles under my tent floor. I was lucky!

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Greenback Peak Park Canyon Creek

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

Oct 14 2022

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

SalomeWildCyn-ViewPt KNOB 5344ft, AZ

Hiking		Oct 14 2022
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	5.90 Miles	1,122 AEG

Hiking	5.90 Miles	8 Hrs	0.74 mph
	1,122 ft AEG

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[ checklist ] Greenback Peak McFadden Peak Park Canyon Creek Peak/Knob 5433ft Salome Canyon Creek Salome Wilderness Workman Canyon Creek

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Oregon_Hiker

Years earlier, Eric (HAZ- ssk44) had previously suggested that Oregon_Hiker and I strongly consider an off-trail hike to reach his Google Earth located and highly recommended Salome Wilderness ViewPt KNOB 5344ft. This Summit/Knob was located at a most amAZing view location above the confluence area of rugged and scenic Workman Canyon Creek and Salome Canyon Creek.

The years in waiting an agreed-to time for Oregon_Hiker and myself to finally plan a new Salome Wilderness vehicle camping and off-trail hike exploring multiday trip all came to life for us based on confirming in early Spring'21 from this one awesome scene taken on the summit of Greenback Peak [ photo ]

The planning wheels soon started turning when Oregon_Hiker and I were able to take-in all the scenic beauty and possible new (for us) hike explore options that existed in this vast wilderness area that we had yet to visit.

This 10/14/22 was our second planned off-trail day hike on an eight-day Camp Grasshopper stay. The TH Start is from the recommended campsite location. This wilderness area is a rugged, rocky area to hike into with lots of various vegetation to negotiate through but fortunately with a large hike segment on an active Cattle Path to follow out-n-back. This completely off-trail hike requires excellent hiker route-finding and navigation skills. To reach the destination of ViewPt KNOB 5344ft, one must start early and with time to explore and take in the scenic beauty of this destination, you will be returning late. If driving in from the PHX area, which includes a serious five mile 4WD one way in on FR2752 to reach Camp Grasshopper (see Camp G/H Hike Guide), I would suggest a planned minimum of a two nights stay at Camp Grasshopper and a recommended three nights stay.

Unfortunately on this 10/14 hike, Oregon_Hiker and I only made it to a scenic location of ViewPt KNOB 5344ft, which was prior-to reaching the actual summit. I would estimate we had an additional .3 mile one way vegetation bushwhack first a steep down and then a bushwhack back up to reach the Knob summit area at 5344ft [ photo ]

Another unfortunate on this 10/14 hike is that somewhere between ~1 mile in and ~1.4 miles in, I personally lost my one year old 5G Samsung Smartphone which had seven (7) years of my family, friends, camping-hiking pics, and etc.. on a MicroSD Card in this Smartphone with no backup

Anyone (2-4 hikers minimum recommended) who are qualified with a desire for a challenge, and has the necessary, capable 4WD vehicle to safely do this drive/hike and might also have the time to search for my 10/14/22 "lost" Smartphone, I would be most appreciative for the effort. I also commit to paying for your (the "1" driver's) total $gas$ cost for this out and back drive for this "1" driver who brings back my lost Smartphone for me.

If interested, all the necessary hike and search details are now available via my HAZ posted:
.. [ Camp Grasshopper - Salome Wild Boundary Area ]
.. Photoset with detail captions, tag notes, and geocoded--> [ photoset ]
.. Out-n-Back recommended hike Gps Route (to our 10/14 ending Viewpt Loc) with all "key" Waypoints included--> [ custom map :: map ]
Additional Information Notes for this Gps Route:
Note: This is the final edited 10-14-22 out/back hiking route with all key WPs included to hike to ViewPt for Salome Wild Knob 5344ft and if interested, to search for Grasshopper's LOST 10/14/22 Smartphone somewhere "between" posted WPs Pic Locations of 9:45am and 10:21am.

Note: Hike Start IN/Back Out would require downloading this 10/14 Track with All Key WPs to Closely Follow "and" to Start this Hike IN at WP labeled: "StartCattle RTE IN-PineTreeTAPED".

Also Note: When approaching Hike IN area of posted WP for Grasshopper 9:45am Picture "Start Search", one needs to connect over to this 9:45am WP Location and slowly search hike (at ~80ft Gps Interval Recommended), hiking IN on this original 10/14 Gps Track IN and can "End Search" hike at the approx posted WP for the 10:21am Picture Location;

Good luck!! It's a most awesome area to be. Oregon_Hiker and I did not see another human for our total eight (8) day stay :yes:

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Named place [ checklist ]

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

3 archives

Oct 14 2022

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

SalomeWildCyn-ViewPt KNOB 5344ft, AZ

Hiking		Oct 14 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	6.27 Miles	1,215 AEG

Hiking	6.27 Miles	8 Hrs 15 Mns	0.90 mph
	1,215 ft AEG	1 Hour 19 Mns Break

Linked

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[ checklist ] Greenback Peak Hells Hole Salome Canyon Creek Workman Canyon Creek

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partners

Grasshopper

Grasshopper has been pestering me for about 3 years to go on this hike. He seems to have an obsession with hiking to remote viewpoints of Salome Canyon in the Salome Wilderness. This is one of the few areas of the Sierra Ancha we have not explored so I was all in favor of this endeavor. We finally had an opportunity when someone, or a flash flood, removed some boulders blocking the 4WD track, FR2752, into Park Tank allowing us to set up our car camp close enough to his desired destination for a day's hike that would be within our limitations.

I had plotted a planning gps track on Google Earth attempting to avoid brush thickets and cliffs as much as possible. Unfortunately, the views on GE of much of the route up to the top of the ridge we would follow were obscured by trees and brush. The morning of the hike I decided to abandon part of the planning track for a route straight up to the top of the ridge from our campsite. This route had the advantage of using a gate in the barbed wire fence-from-H*** near camp. It also would give some views into Park Canyon. We soon discovered the error in this plan after dodging rock outcroppings and thrashing through thick brush to reach the ridgetop. We had hoped to find clearings along the top of the ridge but they were few and far between until we reached the point a mile later where the planning track arrived at the ridgetop. Our route along the ridge as it neared our destination did provide come good views into the confluence of Workman Creek with Salome Creek and passed through a number of small meadows covered with yellow flowers. After descending about 500 ft along the ridge we reached the top of a steep slope looking down on our final destination and discovered that we would have to climb back up an additional 500 ft on the return hike plus thrash through a lot more brush to get there and back. Deciding we didn't have the time or energy to do this, we made this "alternate" viewpoint our turn around point.

On the return hike back up to the top of the ridge we decided to abandon trying to backtrack on our incoming gps track and just follow the cow trails. We soon discovered the cows were expert at avoiding the brush and finding grass covered clearings hidden in the trees. The only negative about the cow trails were the low hanging branches they passed under at about head height for us humans. We, mainly GH, kept bonking our heads on these obstructions. The cows' path finding skills ended up leading us away from our in-coming track to a well worn cow trail descending at a gentle grade directly back to the fence gate near camp. The beginning of that trail was even marked with a ribbon tied around a tree, probably by the cattle rancher with the grazing lease for this area. This reduced our return time by about an hour getting us back to camp before GH turned into a pumpkin. Unfortunately we had to give up searching for GH's cell phone on the rough section of our incoming track where he had lost it that morning. However at this point neither of us were feeling lucky. And, GH had put a higher priority on getting back in time for his afternoon bath in camp and fixing a big supper while I was thinking about that cold beer waiting for me. Later, looking at my GPS topo I discovered that by pure coincidence my original planning track had followed that cow path, which wasn't visible on GE, up the hillside.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Sunset

_____________________

1 archive

Oct 13 2022

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Park Creek Falls Explore - Sierra Ancha, AZ

Hiking		Oct 13 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	3.29 Miles	294 AEG

Hiking	3.29 Miles	4 Hrs 44 Mns	0.82 mph
	294 ft AEG	43 Mns Break

Linked

linked

[ checklist ] Greenback Peak Park Canyon Creek Park Canyon Creek - Lower Falls Park Canyon Creek - Upper Falls Salome Wilderness

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Grasshopper

This was our first hike after arriving in the Park Tank area the day before. The plan was to follow an old unmaintained road, FR2747, west from camp for about 0.8 miles to a viewpoint above Park Creek Falls. GH couldn't decide whether to stay in camp to rest after an exhausting day setting up his huge campsite with complete kitchen the day before, or to go on this hike. So I started without him, first exploring the area across the road from camp . I found a fairly new barbed wire fence between the road and upper Park Creek that would be a real pain in the rear to climb over. Fortunately following the fence a short distance revealed a gate.

It came in handy for our hike the next day. All our hikes over 7 days were out of our campsite - never moved our vehicles. We also never saw another person or heard any other vehicles the entire 8 days we were there.

I then went through the gate and crossed the wide, dry, creek bottom to check out what looked like ruin walls from a distance among a forest of tall pines. The "ruins" were just a product of my over-active imagination so back to the road. There wasn't much to see along the road except trees for the next 0.3 miles. But then the road started to traverse the hillside above the creek as the creek gradually descended into the canyon. At the location marked on the map for the falls the creek drops off the edge of a cliff into a deep, cliff-sided portion of the canyon as it makes a sharp turn to the south. Views of that area were obscured by trees and brush so it took some bushwhacking to finally find a good viewpoint of the falls from the edge of the cliff. Unfortunately the falls only had a few drops of water dribbling over the edge. It would have been quite spectacular with a good flow of water going over it. I sat down on the cliff edge, took some photos, and was about to have a snack when I heard GH calling my name. I finally spotted him about 140 yds away standing on top of a cliff. He had followed what looked like a use trail from the road that led to what he said was another falls - I never saw it and am waiting to see his photos.

GH and I met up back on the road and decided to explore along the canyon rim on its west side. There were some great views from the open areas along the top of the cliffs. After following the rim for about a half mile we looped back to the road and headed back to camp. It was a short hike but we saw views of Park Canyon that were entirely new to us and were able to scout out from a distance areas we planned to hike in the following days.

Back at camp in the late afternoon we again had visitors from the day before. The first evidence of their presence was the sound of mooing from close by in several directions. I don't recall seeing them the afternoon before, just hearing them, but now they poked their heads around nearby trees to have a look at us. It appeared to be a group of cows passing by on their way to Park Tank a half mile away. They would make a similar appearance another day. We never saw them on our hikes during the day but there was plenty of fresh sign almost everywhere we went. Their cow trails came in quite handy for finding a way over and around difficult terrain and vegetation.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

_____________________

2 archives

Oct 13 2022

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Park Creek Falls Explore - Sierra Ancha, AZ

Hiking		Oct 13 2022
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	3.11 Miles	246 AEG

Hiking	3.11 Miles	3 Hrs 50 Mns	1.03 mph
	246 ft AEG	49 Mns Break

Linked

linked

[ checklist ] Park Canyon Creek Park Canyon Creek - Lower Falls Park Canyon Creek - Upper Falls Peak 5612 - Copper Mtn 7.5 Topo Thoroughbred Pasture Tank

Partners

partners

Oregon_Hiker

My first full day to hike on an eight-day "Camp Grasshopper" trip to this first-time visited, remote, rugged, and very scenic area of our Sierra Ancha / Salome Wilderness.

My posted Gps Route with all key waypoints listed along with my posted and geocoded photoset with tag notes and detailed captions tells the rest of the enjoyable story

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

Oct 12 2022

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Globe, AZ

Globe, AZ

Car Camping		Oct 12 2022
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Car Camping	4.90 Miles	875 AEG

Car Camping	4.90 Miles	8 Days
	875 ft AEG

Linked

none

no linked trail guides

Partners

partners

Oregon_Hiker

Patience, perseverance, and insistence are what best describes the years of waiting for Oregon_Hiker and myself to finally coordinate, and pull-off this originally planned remote, rugged 6 night - 7 day vehicle camping and off-trail exploring trip to day hike mostly within this less hiker visited area of The Tonto Natl Forest - Salome Wilderness.

In past years, having made two previous multi-day vehicle camping and off-trail hiking visits to the adjacent area of Redman Mesa, we both knew that there were many interesting and very scenic multi-canyon viewpoint opportunities (like Workman, Salome, Park, and Thoroughbred) to enjoy in this new (for us) area. From a previous hike, here are some of those vast viewpoint areas on the NE side of the Salome Creek Canyon Drainage that we were able to witness more of in person--> [ photo ] (see tag notes).

One of the limiting factors for visiting this area is safely navigating the 4.3 mile one way difficult, rocky, and high-clearance 4WD FR2752 to reach the active Park Tank Ranching Area [ photo ] at 5850ft elevation. In our heavy loaded, mostly stock, 4WD vehicles, it took Oregon_Hiker and me over an hour to drive it. We searched over an hour looking for a suitable private and off-road vehicle camping location for our multiday visit, and fortunately found a great location (somewhat sunny throughout the day) .6 miles down from Park Tank off unsigned FR2747. This location ended up being a perfect TH Start for all of our planned area off-trail day hikes.

We had a torrential rainstorm (with wind, raining in sheets) come in on our fourth early evening and continued unabated through that night into the next early morning. It woke me up at 10:30pm and 12:30am with a need to rise and check the four corners of my older, smaller backup Kelty tent to see if any water was seeping in or under the floor of my tent. Later this Sunday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all was still dry.. Prayer does work! and due to this rain we decided to extend our multiday visit to eight days instead of seven to give extra time for FR2752 to dry out.

I posted a new HAZ Hike Guide for this location which includes an "official" 4.9 mile Driving Gps Route from Hwy 288 / FR2752 to recommended Camp G/H, .6 miles in on unsigned FR2747.

This trip was worth the wait and I only had two disappointments: 1- I lost my one-year-old 5G Smartphone with 7 years of family/friends/camping/hiking pics all on a MicroSD Card with no backup. It was lost on one of our more difficult bushwhack, death march off-trail, longer day hikes and due to hike time constraints and a committed focus on the very high priority end point for this hike, when I discovered it was gone, I decided to bite-the bullet

with this loss and continue on; 2- To celebrate our successful trip, on our departure morning Wed-10/19, I talked Oregon_Hiker into meeting in Miami at [ image ] for lunch, but unfortunately they are closed on Wednesdays.. Why in the

on Wednesdays??

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Campsite HAZ Food

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Sunset

Park Tank

76-100% full

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

3 archives

Oct 12 2022

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Globe, AZ

Globe, AZ

Car Camping		Oct 12 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Car Camping	4.90 Miles	875 AEG

Car Camping	4.90 Miles	1 Hour 30 Mns	3.27 mph
	875 ft AEG

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no linked trail guides

Partners

partners

Grasshopper

Grasshopper and I have been wanting to explore the area around Park Tank in the Sierra Ancha Mountains and on into the northeast side of the Salome Wilderness for about 3 years. The only thing preventing us was the drive into Part Tank on the 4WD road, FR2752, which would get us close enough to that area to do day hikes out of camp. Checking out FR2752 in March, 2021, I found it blocked with boulders where the road follows the bottom of upper Turkey Creek. GH discovered this summer that those boulders had mysteriously disappeared and so we put together a plan to establish a Camp Grasshopper near Park Tank and spend 6 days doing day hikes to explore that area.

The drive on FR2752 was high clearance 4WD requiring a lot of careful maneuvering through the creek bed rocks driving in 1st gear low range to avoid damage to the undercarriage or puncturing the tires, even with 10-ply rated all-terrain tires. The maneuvering around large rocks gets some interference from the road side trees and bushes. My FJ had a fresh set of AZ pinstripes at the end of this drive. The road goes in and out of the creek bed several times over the first mile and then has a 1.5 mile climb up out of the canyon with some rough patches along the way.

After an hour of searching we found a campsite meeting the demands of our two car camps. It turned out to be a good location on the old unmaintained FR2747 a half mile northwest of Park Tank near the starting points for several of our planned hikes We would find a nearby gate in a sturdy barbed wire fence that made for easy access to the west side of Park Creek and a well worn cow trail that led to the top of the ridge to the southwest. It is an isolated spot - we didn't see anyone else including any vehicles the 8 days we were there. We did however have visitors to our camp. This is an active cattle ranching area and cows passed by late in the afternoon on three days presumably on their way to Park Tank. They were elusive and stayed mostly hidden in the forest surrounding camp as they passed by complaining of our presence with loud mooing.

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Campsite

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]