Written: December 1, 2021

Trip report, Sawmill Spring from Melendrez Pass, November 9, 2021

It starts here
I am starting a quest to hike as many obscure trails in the Santa Rita mountains as possible. I have spent lots of time hiking the trails that start in Madera Canyon, and decided that it is time for some new adventures.

November 9, 2021 was a beautiful fall day. I got my traditional lazy start, leaving Tucson at 10:15 AM. I drove south on I-19, driving as if I was going to Madera Canyon.

Driving to the trailhead

Before reaching Madera Canyon, I turned left onto the "Box Canyon road". This is a decent dirt road, but will demand careful driving if you are not driving a truck. You will need a truck (or high clearance vehicle) later, so this comment is sort of moot.

Here is a sort of mileage log:

Truth be known, it is probably more efficient to drive I-10 east to Arizona 83, head south on 83 almost to Sonoita, then turn right onto the Box Canyon road and drive the few miles to the FS 229 junction. Whatever the case, turn onto FS 229 and then as follows: Older road descriptions have you drive through Greaterville. If you try that, you will only find strong gates and stern warnings on signs. Avoid that by turning onto FS 165 and following it to the end.

This is a decent dirt road, rough but not requiring 4 wheel drive. I say this, but on the drive out with my truck (not in 4 wheel drive) the wheels were slipping on one uphill section and some careful driving was required. Your mileage may vary.

Looking south to the Santa Rita high country

The Hike

I got on the trail at 12:30. Do you call noon AM or PM? It turns out this is a topic of controversy, debate, and confusion. I'll just note that the sun was well overhead when I started hiking.

There is a big sign announcing that this is the Greaterville trail. The hiking begins on what looks like the remnants of a road, and is soon contouring and climbing along the east side of a north south trending ridge. Elevation at the trailhead is 5700 feet. The trail climbs to about 6200 feet, passes over a saddle, then drops into a good sized basin. At 1.4 miles you encounter a wilderness boundary sign, and at 2.1 miles you get to a signed junction indicating that a 0.3 mile side trip will take you to Aliso Spring. I decide to save this for my return trip.

East Sawmill canyon is guarded by two rocky features. The trail bypasses the rightmost of these on the right, then contours along above east Sawmill canyon on an open sunny slope. At about 6400 feet elevation, the canyon turns to the west, the trail drops into the canyon and the character of the vegetation changes markedly. The canyon is now cool and shady with big sycamores and possibly even running water. The trail doesn't get much use, but is easy to follow. At 3.7 miles and 7000 feet elevation you find yourself at Sawmill Spring, which was running nicely at the time of my visit. There is a campsite about 0.2 miles below the spring. I got to the spring at 3:40 PM and though it was tempting to continue higher, I decided that this was far enough for one day.

On the return trip, I got to the Aliso Spring junction around dusk (5 PM). The 0.35 miles to Aliso Spring is an easy stroll, and to my surprise, there is a huge heavily used campsite here and clear evidence that it is possible to drive to this location. There was running water, but the spring proper is up the canyon someplace.

Grass on the trail

I got back to my truck at 6:35 PM using a headlamp for about an hour. Total miles for the day is 8.0 with the Aliso springs detour.

I would rather hike with a headlamp for an hour than get out of bed early and rush off in the morning. Beside that, I enjoy being out on the trail to watch the sunset, see the sky grow dark, hear the crickets, see the stars.

For the future

The observant reader will have noticed that it is 2.2 miles to the Aliso springs junction the way I hiked it, but only 0.35 miles from Aliso springs. So, if it is possible to drive to Aliso springs, as it appears to be, a person could shave about 1.8 miles off of the hike to Sawmill spring.

All of this is true, but there is more to it. See this trip report:

Return trip 9-15-2022

A friend and I did an overnight backpack, carrying 26 pound packs. We parked at the Melendrez Pass trailhead and hiked the 4.1 miles to the spring on the first day, camping at a nice spot below the spring. The next day we hiked out. It was immediately after the end of a good season of monsoon rain, so there were lots of wildflowers. The trail is quite overgrown throughout. The post monsoon conditions along with overgrown foliage also provided chiggers. As I write this the day after the trip I have many itchy places on my legs.

There was plenty of running water in Sawmill Creek and at the Spring. Almost no mosquitos. I expected lots of interesting wildflowers along the creek, but the flowers actually prefer more sunny slopes. I did not see any species that are not also present in Madera Canyon.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org