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| Hiking | 14.10 Miles |
3,200 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.10 Miles | 8 Hrs 12 Mns | | 2.06 mph |
| 3,200 ft AEG | 1 Hour 21 Mns Break | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | This trail was hard. The "rolling hills" I read about included more elevation gain and loss than I had anticipated. It was really humid out, so I was covered in sweat right from the get-go. We brought out frozen strips of t-shirts to help keep cool at about 4 miles into the trip. We climbed, climbed, climbed to some incredible views that I took photos of, though I don't think there's any way to capture the views with my camera phone.
Then we went down, down, down to the creek. Much of the descent was very steep and covered in loose rocks, making for pretty slow going. And though I Wasn't surprised, it was still a little disappointing that Tonto Creek was as brown as chocolate milk. After the 7 mile journey, I was hoping to jump into the cool clear waters. But, a little dirt never hurt anyone, so it still didn't keep me from soaking my feet. The gate was seriously impressive! The other two people I Was with wanted to explore the creek and the gate a bit, but didn't get far from shore before realizing that the water got higher than waist level pretty quick, so they made a quick retreat to dry ground.
We made a half-attempt to go downstream to the confluence, but some seriously dark monsoon clouds started rolling and to get to the confluence, we'd have been creek hiking, which is incredibly slow going in a brown creek. We retreated and started making the climb back up, up, up. The monsoon clouds skirted us, and left us exposed in the sun for a good portion of the climb back out. It kind of felt like hiking in a sauna between the heat and humidity. Again, the incredible views amazed us, particularly because we were able to see a lot of monsoonal activity in the distance (and in the not-so distant area).
Thankfully, more clouds came in and gave us some relief, eventually dropping a little bit of rain as well. I was very happy to see the car and to have a comfortable seat. About one miles from the TH on our way back, we saw a deer cross the trail about 50 feet in front of us. It gave me a much needed energy perk!
We saw only one other group all day, and otherwise had the trail to ourselves. I'd love to go back to see Tonto Creek when it's clear sometime. This is a beautiful part of the state that I hadn't hiked before. All of my previous rim hikes have been on the north side of Hwy 260. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Which explained a LOT. Good hike not far from the valley of the sun, and the scramble to the summit was fun. 
We stopped briefly for a snack, then checked out the spring, which is tucked away behind a tree. A small group of people were there at the same time and lucky for me, a youngster was able to point out to me the frogs that were at the spring. 
At that point, we started discussing the best course of action (continue on or return to the car). The storm was quick moving, so we kept moving. A few minutes later, the rain came in and poured on us, while we continued to hear thunder and see occasional lightning strikes, but nothing as close as the first one.
. The trail starts climbing pretty much right away, then levels out a bit from mile 1-2. After the 2-mile mark, more climbing to the top.
. WHY do people do this??? This is one of my biggest hiking pet peeves.
