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| Hiking | 8.11 Miles |
963 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.11 Miles | | | |
| 963 ft AEG | | 34 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | This long-winded trip report is about a 4-day backpacking trip I made into the Galiuro Mountains with my dog, two friends, and a friend's dog in early February 2013. This trip marks our 2nd visit to the Galiuros; to hear about our first trip to the range in March 2012, you must hike to the cabin at Powers Garden and read the log book yourself. For our first trip, we hiked into Powers Garden via the Deer Creek trailhead. This time, we decided to try hiking in from the North via Rattlesnake Canyon. If this trip report is too long or I have posted too many photos, someone let me know and I can trip it all down.
Day 0: Our trip began on a Thursday night. I drove down to Tucson to pick up my friends, and after a slight delay, we began the 4 hour drive. We stopped at Willcox, the last real city we'd see before arriving at the trailhead, for some gas and some food. Between trips to the Gila and the Galiuros, I'm amazed at how many times we've eaten at the Salsa Fiesta and McDonalds in Willcox now. A short while later and we were on Bonita Aravaipa Rd, which seemed smoother than it was last year; we'd see no other cars the rest of the night. After turning onto Rattlesnake Road, we signed in for a ranch pass and continue our drive in the dark. Up until Rattlesnake Hill, my friend's truck handled Rattlesnake Road just fine. I think that with some care, a small SUV could make it; a car would have some difficulty in a few spots and might come away damaged. Once we arrived at Rattlesnake Hill, we decided to see if his truck could make it all the way to the Powers Garden trailhead, 2.5 miles away. This idea quickly disintegrated after the first turn when the truck's headlights revealed several mighty obstacles. We decided that only a modified truck or ATV should attempt the final 2.5 miles of Rattlesnake Road, and made camp at Rattlesnake Hill. Here we would eat dinner #2 while listening to nearby cows moo-ing. Strangely, we were eating steak and lots of garlic and squash.
Day 1: Friday morning began early. After a windy night, I woke to a great AZ sunrise and some stormy looking clouds. After having breakfast and packing up, we secured everything else in my friend's truck which now smelled strongly like garlic. Hoping that cows are not attracted to the smell of garlic, we left his truck and began our hike along Rattlesnake Road, which would prove to be some of the best "road" hiking I've ever done. The road is quite hilly and really more of a wide trail in many parts; along it, you are constantly bombarded with panoramic views of the Pinalenos and Santa Teresas. Propelled by the excitement of the first day, we quickly reached the end of the road at Powers Hill. We took a quick snack break and then made the short but steep descent into Rattlesnake Canyon via Powers Garden trail #96.
Upon reaching the canyon floor, we were greeted with an entirely different world - pines and sycamores surrounded by tall rock formations - and delighted to find flowing water. Our hike through Rattlesnake Canyon was pleasant and pretty easy (substantially different than our hike from the Deer Creek trailhead last year). The abundance of leaves, crisp air, and barely overcast sky made it feel like October. I was constantly reminded of the Middle Fork of the Gila River (which you should hike if you haven't), along which I've spent a total of 7 days and have many good memories of. As we carried on, we continued to find the occasional pool and short section of flowing water; a couple pools were probably 4 or 5 feet and quite clear. At some point, we got passed by some day hikers who surprised us. As I said earlier, most of the water was clear and perfectly drinkable, but one section of water had a foul smell (almost like sulfur) and was oddly colored; it wasn't warm. Somewhere around the turn off for Pipestem Canyon, we saw our last bit of water.
With lunch and a mid-day nap under our belts, we arrived at Powers Garden at about 3 pm. It would be dark in a few hours, so we quickly began setting up camp. Instead of staying in the cabin, we chose to pitch our tents just south of the corral. Last time we were in the Galiuros, we never really found Powers Spring and got our water from natural rock tanks. This time, however, we found Powers Spring without issue (a special thank you to RedRoxx44 is in order here - she gave me some helpful directions). To find Powers Spring, you basically walk South to the corrals and make a left onto the obvious trail, from which you follow along the wash until you find water (provided that water is actually there to be found - I understand it may be dry some parts of the year). We found Powers Spring to have fairly good water. It was stagnant and there was some algae, but the water came up clear! After fetching water, two other backpackers walked by our site; they were out for an overnighter and were staying in the cabin. With our tents pitched and water secured, we had a nice evening with a fire. We enjoyed some Hottie Totties, my new favorite backpacking drink. All it takes is 1 cup of hot water, 1 packet of cider mix, a little cinnamon, and some whiskey and you have a delicious and warm drink.
The Galiuros have some of the darkest skies I've ever seen. When I'm out there, I can see the Milky Way and stars I never knew existed. When we went to bed that night, the sky was particularly clear and there was only a light breeze. Given these conditions, I left the door to my Tarptent Rainbow wide open and my friend left the fly off his tent. And this is why I was particularly surprised to awake in the middle of the night to wet snow falling on my face through the mesh. I wasn't really sure what was going on at first so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. A short while later around 4 AM, I decided I'd have to get up and pitch the door; my friend managed to get his fly on a little earlier. Lesson learned: weather changes. The weather report stated there was a 0-10% chance of precipitation for Tucson for the next 10 days when we left.
Day 2: It continued snowing the remainder of the night, and pretty soon my tent was covered and I could see that a couple inches had piled up outside. Just after 7 AM, I began banging the walls of my tent to knock the snow off. At this point, one of the backpackers we had met the previous night came by our camp site and kindly invited us into the cabin where they had the wood stove going. How could we resist?! Within minutes we packed some stuff up and walked over to the cabin. We only saw a low of about 27 F that night, but we were quite happy to enter the warm cabin where temps were in the upper-40s. Upon exiting my tent, I saw that Powers Garden and all of the surrounding mountains were covered in a beautiful layer of fresh snow. It was a great surprise and I feel lucky to have seen the area in rare form.
After having breakfast and sending off the other 2 backpackers (the last people we would see that weekend), we took down our tents and moved into the cabin. We decided that with the snow and cold temps, it would be nice to have a dry and warm place to spend our next 2 nights in, a decision that would prove to be quite wise. For our second day, we planned to do a day hike. We planned to hike the Tent Lookout Trail, take the West Divide Trail North for a mile, and then return via the South Field Canyon Trail. So at about 10 AM, we finally hit the trail. By this time, it had stopped snowing where we were; however, it looked like places to the North, South, and West of us were still getting some.
It's always a great feeling when hiking along a trail with fresh snow. The cold air feels great and you're propelled forward if for no other reason than to keep your hands and feet warm. The first mile or so of the Tent Lookout trail was well maintained and relatively free of brush. After the first mile, we were frequently plowing our way through catclaw and Manzanita. The trail would be clear for 50 feet, then have 5 feet of thick brush (this was, however, somewhat made up for by expansive views of the Galiuros we were treated to along the trail). It was like this all the way until we met up with West Divide trail. Upon reaching the West Divide trail, we realized we were able to see the Catalinas (which were also getting a good snow). From here, we headed North for about 50 feet until we lost the trail to brush. After several minutes of scouting, we were unable to determine where the trail went - it simply seemed to fade away. We decided to try hiking South along the West Divide trail instead. This proved to be a good decision and yielded us better trail, but after about a 1/4 mile, we decided to turn around and return to camp via the Tent Lookout trail.
With our shoes soaked and hands cold from the melting snow, we arrived back at the cabin at Powers Garden around 3 PM. A friend and I decided to go fetch us a bunch of water from Powers Spring while my other friend would gather and chop firewood for the night. We all tried our hand at using one of the axes at the cabin to chop some wood; it was fun but hard work. My friend had spent some time chopping wood in Germany so he was able to instruct us (and do most of the work). By 5 PM, the sky had filled with gray clouds. It looked like we were about to get another round of snow/rain/sleet/hail, so we settled into the cabin for the night and got the wood stove started up.
We spent a great evening in the cabin waiting for the storm to come, but it never did. My friends propped their shoes near the stove to dry them off, but I used the plastic bag technique which has worked quite well for me: I put on my thick and dry sleeping socks, slip a plastic bag over each foot, and then stuff them in my trail runners. This keeps my feet warm and dry for very little weight/bulk, and it'll dry off my shoes in just a few hours. I prefer to use those plastic veggie bags, but I just used some Ziplocs this time. It was nice having the wood stove to cook on (and by cook, I mean boil water). We loaded it before retiring for the night; we would see a low of about 47 F in the cabin that night, with a low of 17 F outside.
Day 3: Staying in the cabin and not having to pack up snow-covered tents, we got a much quicker start this morning. Our plan was to day-hike to Powers Cabin and Powers Mine, a little over 10 miles round trip. We tried making it to Powers Mine last year but ran out of daylight and had to turn back just half a mile shy. The morning's hike through Rattlesnake Canyon was awesome. We walked along the trail, covered in about 1-2 inches of untouched snow, and were able to see many animal tracks including some from a mountain lion. Rattlesnake Canyon is like the highway of the Galiuros in my mind, providing a fairly easy path through part of the range. We saw some spots of lightly flowing water from the melting snow, as well as the usual assortment of odd cabins and mining equipment along side the trail. How on earth did they get that giant ball mill out there?? I really need to read up on my history as I'd be interested in learning more.
We reached Powers Mine in about 3 hours. Two of us decided to venture in while the other stayed outside with the dogs. After passing through a heavy section of flies, we found a deep hole and some cart tracks. Why they decided to mine at this particular location is beyond me, but it is sure an eerie place to visit. Unsure of how far back the mine goes, we turned back not very far from the entrance. We then visited Powers Cabin. I am amazed they managed to eek out an existence in this place and it makes me wonder what the water situation was like then. My life seems easy in comparison. I am not sure if I'd have the courage to head into an unknown mountain range and make the place my home.
Glad that we were finally able to see the mine and the cabin, we decided to head back. The small layer of snow had melted significantly that afternoon, particularly where we hiked along the trail. Our loss of snow cushioning and the "warm" temperatures (maybe in the 50s), made our afternoon hike back seem a little more difficult than the hike in. Regardless, we still made it back to camp around mid-afternoon. After gathering and chopping some more wood, we went into the cabin for our final night. We expected it to be a cold one, seeing as how it was already below 30 F by 5 PM. Another round of hottie totties was enjoyed and we went to bed. Outside, it would get down to 17 F that night, and only about 44 F in the cabin.
Day 4: A little sad to leave but excited to return to civilization (as is the case with all my backpacking trips), we packed up quickly, tidied up the cabin, said our farewells, and began the hike out. Due to the cool temperatures, we kept a fairly brisk pace for the first hour through Rattlesnake Canyon. Again, the trail was great and even had little spots of snow still left. In one patch of snow, we found some large footprints. I think they were from a bear, but they could have been from a mountain lion. We also noticed that the water levels at several of the crossings were higher than on our way in. Before we knew it, we reached the spot where we have to hike up to Powers Hill.
Once at the top of Powers Hill and out of Rattlesnake Canyon, it became apparent that a big storm was headed our way. There were dark gray clouds East, South, and West of us. The approaching spurred us on and we ended up hiking the remaining 2.5 miles back to the car in just over an hour. We did stop at least once to look at a cow and change layers. Once we got back to the car (which smelled a little less like garlic now), we changed clothes and took some celebration photos. At this point, it began snowing on us and we decided it would be a good time to start the drive back to Tucson.
While we were on Rattlesnake Road, the storm caught up with us and we saw snow blowing around us on all sides. We eventually made our way out of the snow and got to Bonita Aravaipa Rd just fine. Hungry for food, we stopped by Salsa Fiesta in Willcox before continuing on. Surprisingly, we also ended up driving through snow on the I-10 near Vail. Regardless, we all made it back home safely, marking the end of our adventure.
My 4 day trip was awesome; however, 4 days is simply not enough time to explore the Galiuros. The Galiuros are a challenging range: water can be hard to find and trails can be overgrown or hard to find. They are also incredibly remote and should not be tackled by the lighthearted. Still, I find myself drawn to them. I hope to make it back to the range again next year as there are many trails I still wish to hike and areas I still wish to explore. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Every little creek/drainage had a strong flow of water in it. Very cool - I've never seen these flowing before.
). Plan on getting everything covered in sand. The river water was actually very clear. We brought one Sawyer filter and used it to filter water for 3 people and 2 dogs without ever needing to backflush it.
