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| | | Oak Spring Cattail Falls Trail, TX | | | |
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Oak Spring Cattail Falls Trail, TX
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| Hiking | 8.19 Miles |
1,562 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.19 Miles | 5 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.71 mph |
| 1,562 ft AEG | 43 Mns Break | | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Left Tucson at 8:00 at night and drove to Big Bend arriving 10 hours later at sunrise. Started the day off with a hike along the Oak Spring Trail and Cattail Falls trail. The Oak Spring Trail is a 1.8 mile hike to the window Trail on Oak Creek and the falls. The Cattail Trail is a 1.1 mile trail to Cattail Falls on Cattail Creek that is one canyon south of Oak Creek. Together these trails combine to a little over 5 miles but the road to the trails is closed 1.6 miles from the trails so it makes for an 8.5 mile day with about 1500 feet AEG. Not a bad days hike on no sleep.
The Oak Spring Trail is about .1 miles past the signed intersection of the Cattail Trail along the dirt road that has been closed to vehicles. The trail Head is signed and in good condition and looks like it is regularly maintained. The trail offers good views to the west over Cottonwood Creek that is the main stream that drains the northwest side of the Chisos Mountains. We hiked up to the peak of the trail which is about .3 miles from the Window Trail below. I had been on the other portion of the trail on my last trip. The Window Trail heads to the top of the 200 foot falls on Oak Creek but you can not see the falls from this trail, You can only speculate how big a drop there is. The best view of the falls is from the Oak Spring Trail, from this trail you can see the whole falls. At the time we were there there was no water flow over the falls (maybe a very light flow).
The Cattail Trail is also well maintained but is not listed on maps. I was told they closed the road and don't advertise the trail to protect the riparian area near the falls. There was a light flow in Cattail Creek not all from the falls, it appears most of the flow was coming from the many springs at the base of the falls. It is hard to get a good picture of the falls because of all the growth at the base. There is plenty of shade and a good place to take a lunch break. Watch out for the poison oak, its all over the place around the falls. Also watch out for the low hanging rock over the trail just before the falls, I banged my head on it and saw stars for a while.
The desert cactus were in bloom but the Agave and yucca need another week or two for their displays. The weather was excellent with a light breeze. It had been raining lightly during the night. I forgot to turn on my GPS during part of the hike so it only shows 8.2 miles but luckily my hiking partner had her route scout on and measured 8.5.
video [ youtube video ]
This is a copy from markthurman triplog and is used for training purposes. |
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. Big Bend is beautiful.
