Day Four:
Today’s walk promises to be the last of the open, low desert for a while (it ends at the start of Aravaipa Canyon, said to be one of the prettiest hikes in Arizona). We begin from the campground, directly onto paved Aravaipa Road (it’s pronounced by locals: “era-vipe-ah”). We walked along this for two miles:
The next “trail” section is two miles of lightly-used dirt roads on state property:
Brandenberg Peak is visible the whole day. The hike will end under its south side:
Antelope Peak from yesterday:
Eventually we leave the old roads and enter a wash. It’s a pretty narrow wash, but it was also clearly used for driving at one time:
Temperatures climb:
The Grand Enchantment Trail follows an old road up this wash and then out of it. The old road then crosses several sub-washes as it works up to a shoulder of Brandenberg Peak. And maybe a better phrase is faint remnants of an ancient road, since whatever was here (in the 1940s or 50s??) is long, long gone now.
Here’s the first exit from the wash onto the ancient road - there’s a five foot(!!) difference in elevation now between the bottom of the wash and the remnant of road bed:
At least these scars of old roads make for brush-free passages:
The girls find water puddles just about anywhere. They then get wet and (why?) try to shake off all the water:
In and out of washes, all with massively eroded old remnants of road:
Lots of old ranching equipment near Carrico Spring tell us that someone, some time, tried to make this cattle country. It’s hard to understand though how a person could make a living in such marginal conditions while spending money on huge steel water-traps, piping and road construction (and obviously, eventually someone was not able to make a living - it's all abandoned now):
More semi roads in and out of washes:
This large tortoise shell is now completely hollow:
We’re soon able to see the last of the old road, where it climbs steeply onto a shoulder of Brandenberg:
Looking back down, over the ascent wash:
Now on the highest ridge of the hike:
What seems like a rare “built” section of Grand Enchantment Trail followed. This linked the ridge to the small wash below it:
Big cliffs lined the southwest side of the peak:
A rare and really horrible incident occurred while the four of us were making our way down the section of trail. Digby had the worst cholla incident I’ve ever seen. As happens once in a while, she got a big clump stuck on her leg. But before Jon or I could get to her, she’d bitten it to try to get it off and now had a table grape-size clump of very spiny cholla imbedded inside her mouth, under her tongue and in her lips. Jon and I spent more than 20 minutes holding and fighting her while I tweezered the shit out spine by goddamn spine.
None of us enjoyed this and for obvious reasons we have no photos to share.
The built trail led to a very pleasant, easy-walking wash:
And this led shortly to Aravaipa Road:
The G.E.T. then passes up this road, getting into increasingly beautiful country for an additional three miles:
Both of us humans were captivated by this paving-block section of road:
The girls had one chance to get into the creek:
Soon, Vicki came up on us on her drive to the end of the road and the trailhead. Both girls had had it with the hot-on-the-feet dirt road by this point and accepted a ride immediately when offered:
We passed under this rock formation, seemingly untouched and waiting for a climber with Pinnacles or Pinnacles-like experience to do its first ascent:
The road, and this trip, ended then at the Aravaipa Canyon Trailhead. The next 12 miles of “trail” are walking the distance up that canyon, along a wonderful creek, between massive cliffs; again, reputedly one of the prettiest hikes in the state. This is a hike that is so popular that entry is by a very strictly enforced permit system - 20 entries from the east and 30 from the west each day. And while we had a permit, it was for February, and not March, meant for the trip that we cut short when I got whacked when a hold broke in Joshua Tree:
Here’s the official BLM web site for Aravaipa Canyon(with example photos):
https://www.blm.gov/visit/aravaipa-canyon-wildernessSo, for next year: Aravaipa Canyon here we come.
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