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| Hiking | 4.10 Miles |
540 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.10 Miles | 2 Hrs 15 Mns | | 1.82 mph |
| 540 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | | We parked near intersection of AZ trail and Gardner canyon road. Tim T. joined me on this hike after bagging the Empire Mountains high point. We would have driven down Gardner Canyon road further West but we noticed that Cave Creek was flowing pretty strong and it appeared to be over 1 foot deep in some places. Not knowing how soft the river bed was, I felt unsure if my capable 4x4 high clearance truck could make it through, so we decided to play it safe and park near the AZ trail. We started off hiking on the AZ trail going South and within about 2 minutes we reached Cave Creek. The water was moving quite fast and appeared to be at least 1 foot high in some places. Checking a few hundred feet down the stream we didn't see any better places to cross, so we forged across keeping our boots and socks dry. The water felt about 40 degrees and we didn't want to stay in for very long. We continued up the well-maintained AZ trail until we were due North of what we thought was the Young Benchmark. At this point the AZ trail continued West and we wanted to travel South. We did the easy bushwhack South to Santa Rita Rd and walked that going West for about 1/4 mile. Then we noticed the road was washed out by another stream to the South which we later realized was also Cave Creek. This creek does some twisting and turning and apparently even goes uphill for a bit. We noticed a sign somewhere that explained how this was possible which was quite hard to believe. After traveling East a few hundred feet, we found a rocky area where it was possible to cross the stream without getting wet. After crossing, we bushwhacked the rest of the way up the hill and to the top of the Young Benchmark. At the top we found a few survey markers from 1936, a rock pile with a registry and the intersection of a few dirt roads. From this location, we could see some of the snow covered peak in the distance including Mt Wrightson, and further out, Mt Lemmon, and Mt Graham. On the way down, we decided to minimize the bushwhack and stay on Santa Rita road for a longer time. At the place where the creek crossed the road, we had to bushwhack about 500 feet East to get to the rocky crossing where we were able to stay dry. After crossing, we followed the road for roughly 1/3 mile until we reached the junction of the Arizona trail. Then, we took the AZ trail back to the trailhead, forging across the cold fast moving creek one more time near the very end of the hike. The water was quite cold but it was a bit refreshing for the 10-15 seconds it took to cross the creek. |
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Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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