For many years I have wanted to ride some of the trails in the Superstition Mountains, near Phoenix, Arizona. Being an Arizona boy myself (currently living in Utah) I am very familiar with the area and the legends of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, from which an entire tourism industry arose in the area known as Apache Junction.

As the legends go, way back in the late 1800s a fellow came into town with a sack of gold to deposit in a bank, but he would never tell anyone where he got it. Eventually he died and nobody ever knew where his mine was located, except that he was believed to have been mining in the mountains now known as the Superstitions. Since then, that small, but very rough mountain range has been scoured by treasure hunters to the degree that it eventually became a favorite hiking area that sees very high foot traffic throughout the year.

Being a lover of difficult and challenging trails, I have long wished for an opportunity to ride in the Superstitions. Last week (the weekend of December 29-31, 2022) I finally got my chance. My good friend and riding buddy, Derek Habel, was looking at buying a horse in the Apache Junction area. He decided that he needed to combine a trip to look at that horse with a ride or two in Arizona, where the weather was much warmer and more hospitable than here at home in Utah. So, he called me and tossed out the idea of us heading south for a few days, combining a short visit to my parents in Eagar, AZ with a trip to the valley to check out that horse he was looking at. I, of course, jumped at the chance!

We decided to take a couple of Derek’s horses, as they are trail novices and need some work to make them good trail horses. Big John is a 12 year old Missouri Fox Trotter gelding, standing about 15-3HH, weighing in at around 1200 lbs. That’s the horse you’ll see me riding. Powder is a 6 year old (I think) registered MFT gelding, standing about 15-2HH and about 1000 lbs or so. Derek rode him. Both these horses are well saddle broke and have calm dispositions, but lack a little in good bridle and trail training.

HINT: click on photos for large version

We departed the Spanish Fork, Utah area on Wednesday, December 28 amid a serious snow storm and headed for Arizona. We drove nearly 8 hours through snow, sleet, ice, fog, and rain, finally breaking out into better weather for the last three hours to my folks’ place in Eagar, AZ.

We spent one night there, then headed the following morning toward Apache Junction, which is a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. I love that drive! It had been more than 30 years since I had driven it and I thoroughly enjoyed describing all my memories to Derek as we passed through Show Low, then the Salt River Canyon, Globe-Miami area, and down Devil’s Canyon, through Superior and on into the Valley of the Sun, by which the Phoenix area is sometimes known. Dangit! Amid all the talking, we forgot to get any photos of the drive!

We arrived at the stable where the horse Derek wanted to see was boarded at about 4pm. After evaluating this registered Missouri Fox Trotter, we were less than impressed, given the asking price, so Derek and the owner were unable to come to agreement. (Derek, being a large man, looks for large Missouri Fox Trotters that have a natural gait. I help him make them into excellent trail horses.) We grabbed a hotel room for the night and began to plan for a ride the following morning.

We decided to take the trail recommendation given us by the owner of the horse we had come to see, so we headed back toward Superior, to the Picket Post Trailhead, located about three miles west of Superior.

The Picket Post Trailhead offers several options for hiking and horseback riding. We selected the loop, which is designated as the Arizona Trail #222. This is a loop of 8.4 miles, much of which is also a section of the 700 mile long Arizona Trail, which stretches from the US/Mexico border all the way to the Utah/Arizona border.

We found the signage on the trail to be somewhat confusing, as apparently someone else did.

We followed the signs for the Arizona Trail, moving in a clockwise loop, which eventually led us through Telegraph Canyon, then along a two-track ranch road, and eventually back to a true trail bearing the Arizona Trail markers, returning to the Picket Post Trailhead. You can find our track on my page on the Ramblr ap @westerntrailrider.

The USFS has graciously provided an ample parking area at the trailhead, including an area specifically designated for trailers, however, as is usually the case, the hiker parking lot can fill up quickly on weekends, after which the trailer parking area begins to fill up. I have learned by sad experience to park with my rig pointing to the exit in such a way that nobody, not even a tiny little electric car, can park in front of me. The trailhead is a little farther off the highway than I expected. You will pass a set of corrals within sight of the highway, but this is not the trailhead. Continue on the dirt road, bearing left at the first intersection. This road will dead-end at the trailhead. There is a pit toilet at the trailhead and covered picnic tables, but no other services. Bring your own water.

The Arizona Trail #222 loop is an excellent desert trail for horseback riders and hikers. No motorized (including E-bikes) traffic is allowed on the portions which are part of the Arizona Trail (all but about a mile of the loop). You should expect to encounter numerous hikers, as this is a very popular hiking destination. This is USFS land, so dispersed primitive camping is allowed. The trail follows two streams, so water for the horses and humans (if filtered) is available most of the year. This is a fairly easy trail, however in Telegraph Canyon we found a couple places where a competent trail horse was called for. Some sites rate this trail as “moderately difficult”, but we thought that was a little higher on the difficulty chart than we would place it. The terrain is rocky, so while I would recommend shoes on horses, we rode it barefoot and our horses never got tender (If you are planning more rides in the area within a couple days, however, unshod horses will definitely get ouchy). Derek and I agreed that on a difficulty scale from 1-10, this trail was about 90% a level 2 (easy) and about 10% level 5.

One caution I will definitely mention is the cactus. There are numerous varieties of cactus in this area, including the mighty and beautiful Saguaro, prickly pear, barrel cactus, and several varieties of cholla, also known as “jumping cactus.” Cholla cactus is what you have to watch out for. It has unbelievably sharp spines, of which even the lightest touch can cause a nodule to attach itself to the victim (ergo the name “jumping cactus”). The horse and/or rider not acquainted with cholla cactus can quickly escalate a simple prick to an emergency 911 situation.

If you or your horse should brush a cholla cactus and get a nodule stuck to you or it, remove the nodule by grasping the spines with a tool, such as a multitool pliars. Grabbing the spines with your fingers usually results in the nodule sticking to your fingers in a never-ending cycle. After removing the nodule, check the area and remove any remaining spines. Infection does not normally occur unless part of the spine is left beneath the skin, like a splinter. Chaps for the riders is a good idea.

One last word about trails in the Phoenix area: These are trails best visited in the cooler months of the year. During the last weekend of 2022 the weather was damp and temperatures hovered around 60 degrees F during the day. During the summer months, this area is a veritable oven, with temperatures regularly rising above 115 degrees F. Also, during the hottest months, it is likely the streams will be dry, offering no water at all.

The following day, Saturday, December 31, 2022, Derek and I decided to give the Bluff Springs Trail – Dutchman’s Trail Loop a try. I had done a couple searches on the Internet for “Equestrian Trails Superstition Mountains Apache Junction, AZ” and come up with the Bluff Springs Trail as the #1 recommended equestrian trail in the area. The Trailhead is the Peralta Trailhead, located northeast of Apache Junction, within about a half-hour of town. The loop is about 9.6 miles long. Our trail track may be found on Ramblr.com @westerntrailrider.

The official trailhead offers inadequate parking for hiker traffic, however, just south about 100 yards or so before you arrive at the official trailhead, there is a designated RV and trailer parking area large enough for several fairly large rigs. However, as stated before, this area serves as overflow for the hiker parking. You can expect both parking areas to fill up during the weekends. There is a pit toilet at the trailhead, but no other services. There are a couple of streams that cross the trails, but I expect they will be dry much of the year. They were running quite well during our visit and offered plenty of water for our horses.

At the trailhead we found a USFS Ranger, who advised us against taking the Bluff Springs Trail on horses. He said that particular trail is “not recommended for equines”. He described some of the trail and allowed that horses are not prohibited, but the Bluff Springs Trail was not recommended for them. After talking with him for a few minutes, we decided to give it a try anyway. Derek and I are both very experienced on difficult trails and felt we are capable judges of a horse’s ability to negotiate any particular trail obstacle. We assured the ranger we would dismount and walk where necessary (and we did a couple times).

Departing the Peralta Trailhead by the regular trail, about 100 yards along, we came to a trail sign where the trail diverged in three directions.

Having read that a clockwise circuit of the loop was recommended (to put the hard climb at the beginning), we selected the Bluff Springs Trail for our start (the loop returns on the Dutchman’s Trail). The Bluff Springs Trail climbs steadily for about 1.5 miles and climbs and descends several times thereafter for another 3 miles or so.  In the first 1.5 miles, we decided we agree with the USFS’s position that this trail is not recommended for equines.

That is not to say that an experienced trail horse and rider team cannot negotiate this trail, but even an experienced team will find it very challenging. I will state emphatically that a horse/rider team that is not experienced in this terrain and is not in condition for a very challenging trail will not enjoy this ride in the least. It is a very difficult and challenging trail! Derek and I agreed that this trail rated about 7/8 on our difficulty scale. If you have followed any of the adventures Derek and I have had, you know our difficulty scale is a bit tougher than some other folks’ scales. Keep in mind that we did not photograph the most difficult spots, as we were busy keeping our horses upright and ourselves on top!

Having said all that, after about 3 miles, the most difficult of the obstacles were behind us and the trail was quite nice. Some of the views of this rocky and broken terrain were quite spectacular to me. Derek, on the other hand, doesn’t appreciate the desert as I do. I guess you love what you grew up with.

For the average trail horse/rider team (and that’s not meant to be derrogatory) a very enjoyable and moderately challenging ride can be made as an in-and-out of about 8-10 miles on the Dutchman’s Trail. Just go right instead of left at the first trail sign out of Peralta Trailhead. This ride will offer several moderately difficult, or as is commonly said, “technical”, spots, but most of the trail is easy, passing through some very scenic desert areas.

The same cautions apply to this area as to the Picket Post area, regarding water, cactus, and heat. This is a trail for the cooler months. Horse shoes are highly recommended for this trail, although Derek and I rode it barefoot. Our horses being barefoot offered them greater traction on the rock faces and boulders in some of the more difficult sections of trail.  Trail boots would help with traction, but it is likely some would be lost in the rocks.  Water will be available for the horses much of the year, but will likely be dry during the hotter months. Again, this area regularly reaches above 115 degrees F during the summer months, but is wonderful during the cooler months…like December and January ; )… During the late summer and fall months, monsoon storms can be spectacular to watch, but very dangerous to be caught out in due to flash floods and lightning and temps start to reach the 100s in April or May…just sayin’…

Due to winter storms threatening Utah, Derek and I headed north immediately after our ride in the Superstitions. We made it to Page, Arizona, within sight of [what’s left of] Lake Powell. On Sunday, we made our way past Kanab before hitting rain, then snow.

Luckily, the snow petered out just north of Panguitch and we made it home in the rain, encountering snow again just a few miles short of Spanish Fork, Utah. We were glad we headed home when we did, because it snowed most of that night and all the next day.

It’s good to be home, but what a nice couple of rides we had down in Arizona while the world was covered in snow here in Utah. Derek and I are talking about making this an annual trip. We’ll see.

TH

PS. I posted a lot of photos of the trails on my Ramblr track, which are correlated with their location on the trail.

I’m finally getting around to it.

Last May, Jeff Palmer and I completed another leg of the Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip my father and I started in the spring of 2015. Dad and I made two legs of the trip, starting about 19 miles west of Douglas, Arizona, with our horses actually tied to the border barriers between the United States and Mexico in April 2015, and ending at Flagstaff in May, 2016.

Dad and I stopped there at Flagstaff, at the home of a friend, Gwen Kahler, to resupply, get the horses re-shod, and to get fresh health certificates for the horses, in anticipation of a crossing of the Grand Canyon the following week.

However, Mother Nature is unpredictable and sometimes fickle, and as she would have it, northern Arizona was in the midst of a severe drought and wildfires were everywhere. In the last 20+ miles into the Flagstaff area only days before, Dad and I had come across not a single drop of water, no, not even a damp place in the earth. We had to call for help from Gwen and her husband to haul water to our camp, so we could water the horses. We had narrowly escaped one forest fire and had already been re-routed around another. We decided to call ourselves lucky and stop there at Flagstaff for a season.

The following year, my primary horse, Lizzy, was in-foal. That, along with several other unrelated factors, made it necessary to hold off another year for the next leg of the trip. During the intervening time, Dad, at age 84, was bucked off his horse and had sustained some pretty severe internal injuries. After his recovery, he let me know his horse riding days were done. He was ready to call it a great run and hang up his spurs. I have to admit that was a tough time for me. At the same time, I feel very blessed to have been able to ride the trails and mountains and valleys, and cross the streams we have crossed, horseback,  with my dad.

What a blessing it has been to me, and I hope to my dad as well. We have seen things and experienced things few fathers and sons will experience together.

So, as I started planning the next leg of the trip, I began to plan without Dad. Luckily, my good friend Jeff Palmer stepped up and said he wanted to give it a try with me. We began to plan for a trip of just over 100 miles, by my calculations, from Flagstaff to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.

The fact that the two of us would travel to Flagstaff separately made logistics simple. I went down a few days early, during which time I scouted out our route and was able to place jugs of water and sacks of feed at strategic spots along the trail, to ensure we had sufficient feed for the horses and sufficient water for ourselves. As I was traveling along the path we would follow, or as close to it as the ranch roads would take me, it started to rain. Solid dirt turned to deep mud and I found myself at risk for getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere with my horses back at camp near Flagstaff. I found that if I kept my speed up I could float right through the mires and bogs I encountered along the way. My main concern was just keeping the truck on the road as I powered through. To say the least, though, it was a lot of fun! Late in the afternoon I arrived at Tusayan, where we would finish our trip, having scouted the route and placed our feed and water along the way. My odometer read 86 miles.

While I was looking for a place to stash feed and water near the trail at the Grandview lookout tower, just outside the park boundary about 16 miles east of Tusayan, I came across a couple hikers who had been hiking the entire Arizona Trail. They identified themselves by pseudonyms, wisely, so I do not know their true names, but Southern Comfort (he) and Groceries (she) were making 25 miles per day and were just finishing their day, having passed some of the stretch I had just driven. They were out of water, so I shared my water with them, saving them a couple miles of hiking at the end of a long day to find water. A hearty and happy couple. Their story is enchanting. He is from North Carolina and she is from California. They met on a hike and were married a couple weeks later. They have been hiking together ever since.

The following day, I saddled up Apollo and, leading Calypso, went for a short ride through the trees north of Flagstaff. It was a very pleasant ride. Apollo required a little work to get him used to crossing water again. I’m not sure he had any appreciable experience outside an arena before he came to me, however he was progressing well. Calypso was fine on the trail.

In the past week or so I noticed Apollo was losing weight. I expected him to trim down, due to the mileage I had put on him over the past month and a half, but he was dropping weight too quickly. After our ride, I noticed he was acting like he had pain in the kidney area and was having trouble urinating. That concerned me. It was not colic, as he was passing manure normally. I decided a trip to the vet was in order.

Jeff arrived about 3pm that afternoon (Sunday). I explained the problem, so we put off our departure for the pack trip one day, so I could get Apollo in to see a vet. I was able to contact a vet and received a call-back. I was able to get him in to see the only large-animal vet in the area at 8am Monday morning. The vet’s assessment was that Apollo had a urinary tract infection, possibly occasioned by drinking brackish water on the wagon train expedition we had ridden a couple weeks before, north of Salt Lake City, Utah, for the commemoration of 150 years since the Golden Spike celebration of the joining of the railroads. He prescribed a regimen of antibiotics and a pre-biotic food supplement and sent us on our way. To save explanation later on, suffice it to say the antibiotics worked and Apollo made the trip in good health without pain.

On Monday afternoon, Jeff and I drove our vehicles to Tusayan to stage my truck and trailer at the end of our trail. We parked it about a mile east of Tusayan, along USFS Road 302, where primitive camping is permitted. That evening, Jeff treated me to a mouth-watering medium-rare bone-in ribeye steak in Flagstaff. Jeff is a great guy to have along on a horse pack trip!

We got our pack trip underway around noon on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, which was still within our planned travel dates. The first day of travel was in the foothills of the San Francisco Peaks on the north side of Flagstaff, at an elevation of just over 9,000′, heading northward. This was the most beautiful part of our trip and we took a lot of photos and truly enjoyed the ride. (Click on a photo to see larger versions)

The horses performed well and gave us no trouble. We moved right along and made nearly 21 miles before stopping for the evening.  Surprisingly, we found little water along our route. We made camp near Badger Spring, where we found a little water in the stock pond there.

Jeff and I became aware early on in the trip, that his horses and Calypso would waste no time in heading back toward our camp at Flagstaff at any opportunity, if left free, but Apollo would stay with Calypso, no matter where she was. That evening, while Jeff and I made camp and had our freeze-dried dinners, I let Apollo graze loose, while the rest of the horses were high-lined.  After dinner, I went to check on the horses and give Apollo his medicine and discovered that Calypso had slipped her halter and she and Apollo were nowhere to be found.

Jeff and I quickly saddled his horses, Cottontop and Tank, and headed back down the trail to try to head off my horses before they got too far. We found them less than a mile from camp, but they kept ahead of us and would not allow us to come up to them. Finally, about another mile down the trail, they came up to a cattle guard and fence line that stopped them in their progress. They turned and headed along the fence line. As it was long after dark and my horses are black, we could not see them and did not know how far they had gone along the fence line. I had been working on teaching Apollo and Calypso to come at my whistle prior to coming on this trip, so I decided to give that a try. I whistled as loud as I could. Within a few minutes, I heard them coming, with Apollo in the lead. They let me come up to them and seemed glad to see me. We led them back to camp without trouble. After that experience, I tightened Calypso’s halter and we were careful about making sure all four horses were tied securely at night.

The following day we made 24 miles, which included  a stop about 14 miles back, at a ranch where I had staged feed. We were now down out of the pines and into the cedars and junipers and sage. While our campsite had no water or grass, the horses had been fed and watered well around mid-day, so they were fine. We had planned to make it to Lockwood Tank that day, but the horses were tired and so were we. We made the wise choice to camp, rather than push further. This camp was not ideal, but it got us out of the breeze for the night.

The following morning, as we were packing up, we had our first wreck. It wasn’t much, but it added a little excitement to our trip. While Jeff was packing up Cottontop, the pack saddle slipped to the side before he got his second pack on and Cottontop went to bucking!  He finally got it all off and settled down. No harm done and no equipment broken. Those bear-resistant hard panniers, from Outfitters Supply, are tough! We picked up the gear and re-packed Cottontop and all went well from there.

We made Lockwood Tank that day around noon. I had cached feed there, so we took a lunch break and watered and fed the horses.

After Lockwood, our next waypoint was Moqui Station, where I had staged more feed and a jug of water for ourselves. Since we were making more miles per day than anticipated, my staging points were out of sync with our actual travel. We reached Moqui Station in the early afternoon. Our water jug had been turned over and leaked and was empty. We fed the horses again, but they weren’t much interested. We decided to keep going another 8 miles to Russell Tank, where we would find water for ourselves and another sack of feed for the horses.

My followers will recall that last year, my best trail buddy, Clancy, my Blue Heeler, passed away. Since I had no appropriate place to bury him, I had his body cremated and had planned to spread his ashes somewhere along the trail between Mexico and Canada. As I moved along the trail on a hilltop somewhere between Lockwood and Moqui Station, I decided the time and place were right.

There was a light breeze and the smell of sage was pleasant. I took out the small velvet bag that held Clancy’s ashes, said a small prayer of gratitude for having had Clancy in my life, and gently poured the ashes out along the trail. It was a spiritual experience for me…that is until the breeze picked the ashes out of the air and covered me and my horse in them! Ugh! Ashes in my nose, in my mouth, on my face, in my eyes, on my glasses, all over my saddle and my black horse!

I guess Clancy had the last laugh after all!  So long, buddy. See you on the other side.

Russell Tank is actually a small lake and a beautiful place. It is a place commonly visited for fishing and picnicking and camping. The USFS has built a nice restroom facility, which is where I had cached a sack of feed. We watered and fed our horses and settled down for a nice evening. We had again made 21 miles and we and the horses were tired. We decided a little rest in this place was needed, so we planned for a short day of travel for the following day.

We enjoyed our camp at Russell Tank. Jeff braved the very cold water and took a bath in the lake. I satisfied myself with a simple cowboy shower (spongebath). We relaxed and spent the morning just resting ourselves and the horses. We all needed it.

In the early afternoon, we packed up and headed on down the trail to Grandview Lookout, only about 12 miles away. That would be our planned travel for the day.

We made Grandview about 5pm and set up camp just off the USFS road. It was a good camp. We got sprinkled on a little, which was the first precipitation we had experienced since Flagstaff.

The following morning, we packed up and started out on the last leg of our pack trip. We knew it was only about 15 miles to the place where we had staged my truck and trailer and we were two days ahead of our planned travel schedule, so we were pleased with the way things had gone, but we were not in a hurry.

It was then, when we were most relaxed, that we had our big wreck.

It was Jeff’s turn to open the next gate and we soon came upon a cattle guard and gate we needed to pass through. Jeff dismounted from Tank and snubbed Cottontop’s lead rope to the saddle horn. Apparently, Cottontop decided to try to graze, which caused a pull on the saddle horn, which caused Tank to pull back, and soon both Tank and Cottontop were galloping away down our backtrail together. As Tank ran, Cottontop ran to keep up, which caused Tank to speed up all the more. I had also let Calypso follow loose along with our string. She joined in the excitement and headed off down the trail, following Tank and Cottontop.

I whistled for Calypso, at which she stopped and looked back, not knowing what to do. She didn’t immediately return to me, but stayed in the area. By this time Tank and Calypso were at a full run. Luckily, I was still mounted and Apollo, although excited, was handling the excitement well. I turned to follow the horses, but they kept well out ahead of me.

Eventually, they turned through the trees and Cottontop’s lead rope pulled loose from the Tank’s saddle horn. Tank then slowed down and turned back toward us, but Cottontop’s packsaddle was slipping by this time and things were flopping. The hard panniers banged loudly on trees as Cottontop ran.  Finally a strap broke as Cottontop ran past a pine tree and banged one of the hard panniers. Things began to unravel at that point.

Finally, both panniers came loose and Cottontop circled back to his human partners, looking for help. I had followed the horses on Apollo, while Jeff followed on foot. Cottontop came right to me and let me catch him, still huffing and puffing from his fright. I tied Apollo and held Cottontop, while Jeff caught up. Tank and Calypso also came back to us. I figure the horses ran nearly two miles in all, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it can’t be far off. We were lucky they circled back, rather than heading straight down the trail.

We checked Cottontop over and found he had a pretty ugly scrape on the backside of his left front leg, just below the knee, but it wasn’t serious. We were very relieved to find he had some bangs and bruises, but no serious injury.

We were also pretty amazed to find that the only damage to the pack saddle and panniers was that one pack ring in the side of a pannier had pulled out. We were able to make a quick repair for that and shortly thereafter had Cottontop repacked and ready to move on down the trail at a more reasonable pace.

We stopped at Grandview Lookout tower for a few minutes, but, after the excitement of the morning, neither of us had the gumption to climb the stairs of the tower for a look. We decided to just head on down the trail toward Tusayan. Grandview Lookout is, in fact, only a couple miles outside the Grand Canyon National Park boundary. We had thoughts to head down the USFS road to enter the park and maybe get a few photos of the canyon, but we decided to forego that and just finish our pack trip. We will get plenty of photos of the canyon in May 2020, when we plan to cross the canyon and make our way on up to the Arizona/Utah border.

Shortly after leaving Grandview Lookout, we came across the only significant wildlife of our trip. We surprised a fair sized herd of elk, grazing in a meadow. A little later we came upon another, smaller herd of elk. Other than the elk, on the entire trip we saw one coyote, a couple squirrels, a couple horned toads, and a snake. That was it! I have no explanation for it, but it was disappointing.

We made our endpoint near Tusayan at about 3:15pm on Saturday. In all, our GPS units generally agreed that we made approximately 94 miles, beginning to end.  After unloading and brushing the horses down, we loaded them and our gear into the trailer and headed for Flagstaff. We stopped at the McDonalds in Tusayan for a bit of refreshment and feel-good food to enjoy during the drive.

Back at our base camp at Flagstaff, we highlined the horses, separated our gear, and got ready for the trip back to Utah. We left the horses and drove into town, where Jeff rented a motel room. We each enjoyed a hot shower, after which Jeff again treated me to a steak dinner.

The following day, Sunday, Jeff and I said our goodbyes and separated. He headed back to Utah, while I headed for Eagar, Arizona to visit my parents for a few days.

So, another leg of my Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip has been completed. As I mentioned before, Jeff an I are planning the next leg for May 2020. We will begin at the Grand Canyon National Park, cross the canyon south-to-north on the Arizona Trail, and make our way up to the Utah/Arizona border…maybe even farther.

Many thanks to Jeff for being a great trail partner and friend.