Fish Creek Canyon AZ 2014-03-25

Getting to the trail head was half the fun.  We left in the late afternoon with the intent of camping near the trail head and then hiking in the morning.  It took us a little over two hours to get from Mesa to the trail head with some stops along the way.  The road turned to dirt the last few miles.  The last stretch, just before crossing Fish Creek, is a single lane road cut into the side of Fish Creek Hill with potholes, overhanging rocks and a guardrail that looks like a piece of thin sheet metal.  I went down at 5 to 10 MPH with periodic stops to make sure the brakes didn't get hot.  Later, I found it very interesting to see people pulling boat trailers up and down this road.  Here's a link to a good article on the Apache Trail Historic Road.  The trail head is at Fish Creek bridge which is where 'Hacksaw' Tom robbed travelers in the early days of the road after they had descended the hill.

After a false start on the wrong side of the bridge and having to help Sly get down the rock face he had climbed up but then wasn't so sure about going down, we crossed the bridge and saw the right trail.  A large part of the time on the hike was spent trying to figure out how to get around boulders, through thickets and around deep ponds surrounded by large boulders.

Last week's hike was on this same road.  It was in the desert, didn't have any shade and everything had something to poke you.  Fish Creek Canyon has shade, water and the vegetation is much "softer".  It was a very pleasant hike, less the rattlesnake incident. 

The canyon was too steep and deep for my GPS to provide an accurate track.  The track in the map is an approximation of our route.
Start: 7:50 AM
Turnaround: 11:15 AM
Finish: 1:30 PM
Miles: 3 to 4


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Fish Creek Hill road

 Look closely on the right side of the picture and you can see trailer wheel tracks that go through the washout.

Fish Creek bridge

The road on Fish Creek Hill.  After taking this picture I heard from another hiker that five vehicles, that went off the road, where still on the hill.  The red circle is one of them.

 Sunset at our camping spot, about a mile past the bridge.

 Plenty of water for the boys on this hike.

 Blue was so happy after he found something rub on himself.  Fortunately, with all the water around, I was able to wash it off before it dried.

I learned a very valuable lesson on this hike, rattlesnakes don't necessarily make a rattling sound.  I was crossing the creek in an area with some small trees and sticks and leaves on the ground.  I set my trekking pole into some leaves and heard a buzzing sound.  I thought it was a big bug.  I backed up a little and poked my pole in the leaves again, more buzzing.  Then I noticed the rattlesnake about 20 inches from my foot.  I stopped poking the leaves.  I think the snake was about two feet long.  

 Not sure what the attraction was for this specific location but these butterflies were there when we went out and where there when we came back a few hours later.  Note the "mean" looking design on the one on the left.

 One of the go around the boulders trails.  Just past this point is a spot I had to lift the dogs up on the way out.  Coming back Blue jumped down but I had to lift Sly down.

The passage way through the boulders.