Gila National Forest - Upper Bull Trap Canyon

 

A stupidly steep and slippery section of trail
 my wife found particularly daunting.

In the summer ( 8/20 ) I had intended to carry out a plan to visit the upstream portion of Bull Trap Canyon that I had been thinking of ever since I hiked a couple of miles of the canyon downstream to the Silver Creek confluence back in 2017.  Accidentally, at first, I went in not on the more well-established trail I had used back then. Instead, I bushwhacked my over the ridge and ended up exploring the length of a separate branch of Bull Trap but not the main canyon itself. Since I've covered most of this hike already twice. There isn't too much new to report, except that the trail that begins in Lower Gallinas Campground ( still closed) appears to be getting some use now, by both foot travelers and folks on horseback. It also appears that they may be removing the vault toilets from the campground. Heavy machinery had been used to dig a trench around the one furthest from NM 152, exposing the huge concrete base it sits on.

 As I've mentioned before this once rustic camping area is slowly, but surely, be reclaimed by the forest since its closing in 2013 and is a lovely place to walk a couple of miles for a short outing. It is my hope now that they never re-open it, unless perhaps as some sort of hike-in, or ride( horses) in facility with very limited capacity.

 Upper Bull Trap was nice enough. Early on, after some easy walking in the widest section of the canyon, where widely spaced ponderosa pines grow on low banks, we had to climb a small hill to go around a narrow, rocky section with a concrete dam. 

 There was even bit of water oozing through the grass and onto the rocks below it. It was then easy walking again,  criss-crossing the grassy benches, weaving through the alligator junipers and the oaks for a short ways until the canyon constricted again at another bedrock section with a couple of potholes filled with water several feet deep.

  A mountain chickadee flitted from branch to branch above us as we enjoyed our picnic in this cool recess. Afterwards, my wife and dogs opted out of  scrambling through the pothole section ( there was no other way around), while I explored further upstream.  Above the narrow passage, the stream channel was much smaller,  only slightly bigger than the tributary I'd explored in the summer, although considerably  deeper with massive lichen crusted bedrock walls on the north facing canyon sides. On the steep hills above, leading up to the top of Haystack Mountain, low growing, but colorful oaks  grew beneath skinny pines.

 Along the stream there was an  abundance of willow growth, which told me this section holds water for long periods. I bounced along in the much rockier dry creek for little while, but the tight passage was requiring more maneuvering than I had expected and slowing me down. I had planned to walk quite a bit farther, but now with the rest of my crew waiting, and after perhaps only a half mile of solo scrambling, I turned around where a good sized side canyon comes in from the north.

 My new plan is now to get to the middle section of Silver Creek from Bull Trap lower down where the trail comes in, go upstream and then cross back over somewhere in the vicinity of the Mineral Mountain Mine.