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| Hiking | 13.00 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 13.00 Miles | 6 Hrs 11 Mns | | 2.10 mph |
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| no partners | | I was foolish enough not to read the hike description for La Milagrosa before starting this trek. My Green Trails map shows the trail head at the east end of Snyder Road, so I just headed there. Big mistake. Snyder becomes a private road with all sorts of No Trespassing signs. After much confusion and some driving around and some dirty looks from the neighbors, I decided I had better consult HikeAZ. Once I read up on where to find the parking/trail head - Avenida de Suzenu and Horsehead Road - things were back on track.
We left one car at Avn de Suzenu and Horsehead Rd and headed up Catalina Hwy to Soldier Trail in the other. We got out of the car and headed straight up. We took a pit stop at Prison Camp and then headed east on the Molino Basin Trail. At Molino, there was a rather giant and obnoxious group of car campers making an unholy racket, so we passed on by as fast as we could.
The Bellota Ranch Trail starts on the other side of the highway from Molino Basin. For me, this was uncharted territory beyond this point. After a quick hill, we popped up and over the ridge and into the Reddington Pass area. We paused here for some lunch and some scenery.
After heading back downhill, we came upon a tank and a mostly dried up pond. We stopped to chat with a trail runner who had come up behind us and was doing the same Soldier Trail to Milagrosa traverse that we were. He trotted off while I was still getting some rocks out of my shoe. Continuing east past that, we came to a fork in the trail. It is unsigned, but one fork continues in a more northerly direction while the other heads more south. Upon a quick consultation of our map for some reassurance, we headed south. For the remainder of the trip we were presented with lovely and alternating views of Milagrosa Canyon and Agua Caliente Canyon.
At almost the end of the hike, there is an old, abandoned house that is pretty cool looking. Distracted by that, we went more south when we should have stayed westbound. Instead of coming out at the gate near Avenida de Suzenu and Horsehead Road, we ended up back in that private area of Snyder Road. It was somewhat of a slog back to the car along the pavement. I think if we had done this trek in reverse, the whole trail head starting in a residential area, where do I park, where do I go thing would have been a lot easier to figure out.
Despite a few logistical issues, this was a great hike. I loved the views of Milagrosa and Agua Caliente Canyons. We were already planning another hike for the area before we even finished this one. |
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