Florida Mountains - Byers Spring Area, Florida Mountains Wilderness Study Area

Baldy Peak

Heading toward the spring

 Looking out to Three Little Hills and beyond to the West Potrillos

Box section

Huge dead piñon

The morning and perhaps much of the afternoon were supposed to be nice on Tuesday (10/4/22): a brief respite from the encore rainy season we've been having here in late September and early October. It didn't look like it was going to happen for me though as a dark cloud stretched over I-10 and I could see lightning striking Cookes Peak. The Floridas still looked clear, but later as I approached Rockhound State Park, rain began to splatter loudly on my windshield. It didn't last long, but now the same black, blanket of a cloud seemed stalled over my destination on the east side of the mountains. I pressed on, passing a man walking his airedales ( at least they looked like airedales) along the rough road that heads south toward Three Little Hills. I spied a tent and small trailer at Windmill Canyon as I drove on slowly. I was behind  jeep for awhile but they turned off on the road along Lobo Draw. I turned down  a barely there (sizable shrubs were growing in its center) side road shortly after. I drove less than a quarter mile and parked at green and white metal stake that marked the beginning of a section of private property. Initially I thought about walking south but then decided to stick with the " road " such as it was. It wasn't any good for driving  any sort of vehicle but for hiking it was fine.  Please heed my warning about this route: from this point on it was only "there" sporadically. Mostly it was just a sandy wash returning to a more natural state and should be left to do so. If I return, I wouldn't even drive the short part of it that I did. Also be advised that many of the roads that appear on maps or very distinctly on Google Earth or On-x are varying degrees of invisible after a summer season of decent rains, concealed by the grass, weeds and wildflowers.

When I had exited the car it was cool and cloudy, and I thought that this may be a very short outing. I had put on my rain jacket, but before long  as I realized it was becoming a sweat box, I looked up to see a blue sky day. My eyes had been on the ground, and here's why. Early on, I nearly stepped on perfectly coiled diamondback nestled in the sand right in the middle of road/ path.

 

From that point on when I wanted to check on On-X, I made sure that I stopped walking first. A second snake, definitely of the non-venomous variety, was encountered shortly afterwards disappearing into the brush.

The hiking was fairly easy for the Floridas through a pleasant oak, piñon and juniper woodland. There was even a walnut tree. However, after the traces of the old road ended it got more difficult as I now followed the old rubber pipe hoping to eventually get to the spring that appeared on the map.

 As I got closer there was a trickle of water running down the bare rocks through its own white and orange mineral staining. Further up the pipe was strung up above the canyon with an elaborate set of guy wiring. I got to the spring where a little collection tank had been built many years ago.

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do after leaving the spring area, but at first I followed a wildlife path off to the east. When that got a little too treacherous, I decided to make my way down to a little box section of solid brown rock that I had seen from above on my way up. I'm glad I did. It had little cascade flowing over the smooth bedrock and water collected in small scoured out pools. 

I made some moves to  go over and have a look at the canyon just to the west of the one I had been it, but then thought better of it and got started up the canyon just to the east. 

Second canyon

Eventually it took to me up to a beautiful saddle area with grassy meadows and widely spaced piñons and junipers. Large butterflies drifted about in the freshening breeze, and I thought this would the perfect spot to camp if one were backpacking in. This was very close to the area where Andrea, Seamus and I had turned back on a hike we had started from Three Little Hills about 10 years ago. 

 Now  I began descending Byers Spring Canyon. Almost right away I came upon a striped whipsnake that had to be close to six feet long, sunning himself on the gray bedrock. 

Because this canyon has the spring at the bottom, there has been less erosion and subsequently I had to scramble around a couple of dry waterfalls.

 I ate my lunch in a narrow shady section  and then stepped down a large expanse of bedrock to encounter the muddy spring where hundreds of butterflies, blue and black, poppy yellow, and white, flitted about at my approach.

Byers Spring canyon

Byers Spring

 All the so called " improvements" to this spring, concrete troughs, piping etc. were no longer working either and the cattle, of which I had only seen a few of earlier in the day, were now numerous under every conceivable shade that could be had. After investigating the old cabin ruin, I started off, now back in the desert, towards a second saddle between two lower hills where I found a beautiful bonsai-style but full sized juniper doing its best to split the boulder it was growing from. 

Heading down I caught sight of some red brick and found an odd-double walled circle and rectangle structure which had oven door openings at its front. 

 A small excavation was above. I thought it might be a lime kiln, but I'm really not sure. Passing by swelled barrel cactus, hearing but never seeing some vehicles on the road, I stomped my way back to the truck.

lush ocotillo

Old oak tree

Turpentine bush

Small spring in a more natural state

Baldy Peak

Ashe juniper

meadow at the saddle

Three Little Hills

Gym Peak

barrel cactus bloom

Only trash encountered was vintage.

Byers Spring Canyon

One of many big piñons

Gym Peak

Baldy Peak

mesquite beans