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| Hiking | 6.40 Miles |
1,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.40 Miles | | | |
| 1,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | We did this as a three-day backpack from Fossil Springs Road, setting up basecamp near the cowboy line shack (since there was plenty of water in Towel Creek). The ruins are visible from the line shack - look in the white cliffs upstream from the shack. We hiked to the Towel Creek crossing upstream from the shack (just a hundred feet or so), then struck out along the stream towards the ruins, bushwhacking up a drainage near the ruins, and up a not-too-steep slope to the ruins. We explored along the cliff edge. The first cave has just the remains of an interior wall, the second an almost complete wall (this is visible from the shack). We continued upstream past a drainage to another ruin with a complete wall with a small doorway in it. We'd started our day with a hike down to the Verde River, and explored the ruins for a couple hours in the late afternoon.
It took us ~3.5 hours to get from the trailhead to the line shack, and around 1.5 hours to get from the line shack to the Verde River. The trail's a bit rocky and slippery in places. Towel Creek had plenty of water (wet winter). Poppies were blooming in large groups on the hillsides, and we also spotted an occasional paintbrush, lupine, and a few other wildflowers. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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