Parked at the start of the hike
Written: February 16, 2024
From Tucson, head east on I-10 to Highway 83, then south towards Sonoita. About 1 mile south of the current border patrol checkpoint, turn west onto Gardner Canyon road (FSR 92). Drive past Apache Springs Ranch and cross Cave Creek at the major crossing. Continue past the turn off to Aliso Springs and past the turn onto FSR 785, but start paying attention.
If you were smart enough to zero your odometer when you turned onto FSR 92, it is about 8 miles to where you want to park. My topo, as well as the Green trails map show a short road heading south. The road is just after FSR 92 crosses a drainage that is marked for both directions with vertical yellow signs with diagonal stripes. There are also two boulders just past the stream crossing and just before you reach the road. You can see the signs (and the boulders) in the following photo.
We did the hike as a 3.4 mile loop, returning to our car via the "link trail" and FSR 92. It was a nice sunny day in mid February. Temperatures reached 62 degrees in mid afternoon. Southern Arizona had recevied a lot of rain (and snow) the week before, and there was more water in Cave Creek than I think I have ever seen.
We began hiking south on what used to be a road. This road vanished almost immediately, but it is easy enough to just wnder along the stream. It did have water on our visit, but I am certain that most of the time it is a dry streambed. We continued until we say a mine dump on the left which we investigated. We investigated the adit, which was short and with little interesting mineralization. There is an interesting "shelter" (for lack of a better word) that can be reached by carefully going past a pit that drops down into the adit.
Beyond the mine, we continued up the canyon watching for the namesake crosses on the hillside on our left. We never saw them. I can't say if they have vanished (which seems unlikely) or if we just were not paying close enough attention. We made our way over and through a barbed wire fence, then just andled left and up to what looked like the lowest ground. We found ourself on the road (FSR 785).
We turned right and walked the road a short distance to where it now ends, being blocked by a gate. Here we ate lunch, then took the "link trail" down into Cave Creek. There was a lot of water in the creek! Stream crossings involved challenging boulder hopping and/or wet boots. We passed the trailhead in Cave Creek and hiked back along the road. Soon we were back at our vehicle after what can only be called an interesting but lazy day.
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org