September 22, 2023

Sweetwater Spring and Dam - 0.6 miles - 5766 feet

The Spring itself is no scenic treasure, but it is interesting. It in particular interesting, because it is labeled on the USGS map. You can drive right to it. It is in the middle of one of the big overused campsites along FSR-92 about 0.7 miles before the road ends.

We pulled off the road into a parking area and hiked across the stream to the campsite and spring, which only took a few minutes and satisfied our curiousity. The water in the spring was by no means tempting. There was still some water running in Cave Creek, and had I needed water, the creek would most definitely had been my choice.

Sweetwater Spring

Sweetwater Spring

Tomasi talk about this spring on page 123 to 125 of his guidebook and suggests hiking beyond the campsite on the road about 0.6 miles to reach what he calls the biggest concrete dam in the Santa Rita mountains. The dam was constructed to establish a cattle pond along a tributary stream northwest of Cave Creek.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org