Gila National Forest - Hidden Springs, Cox Canyon

The dike

The dike

Behind the dam

Collins Park

West side

The dam

Oak growing out of the rock

Dam and dike

I look at Google Earth a lot. One of the fun things to do is look at the satellite images  going back through the years Not every area has an image every year or even every  two or three and as you go back in time the resolution gets significantly less sharp and zooming in for detail is pointless. However, photos from about 2010 on, there can be seen many small changes in the landscape. In one instance I believe I was able to bracket when the bulldozing of an archaeological site occurred to four months.  I have also been able to pinpoint hidden areas of deciduous trees ( aspens, oaks and maples) especially with the rare pictures taken in October (most of the images are taken in early spring or winter it seems for the greater chance of cloudless skies), or at the right moment in April or May when they are at their most electric green.

So while looking through this particular area of the Gila National Forest (part of my new stomping ground: a circle with a radius of 50 miles with the center point being our cabin on Horse Mountain) at least 2 photos showed quite clearly a waterfall in a rocky passage just downstream from Hidden Springs in Cox Canyon. Now the very straight line at the top of falls gave me reason to believe that it was not a natural one, but rather water flowing over a now filled in dam site. Still, one can always have hope.

 Well, on an overcast early October day that threatened rain, we went out on the very long drive using FR 94 out of Apache Creek. The road is mostly good, although very narrow as it approaches a couple of passes. It also contains enough typically pleasant Gila scenery (especially the section along Cox Canyon, which had many nice oaks in Fall color, and the entrance into Collins Park) that it could qualify as a worthwhile diversion just for the drive.

 We did the short hike westward through a landscape that been burned (I'm not sure if from a natural fire or prescribed fire) fairly recently and was now an unappealing mix of slash, black stumps, weeds and juvenile junipers. Hopefully grasses will reassert themselves in the long run. On the low rise a short ways in, it was bit nicer as we approached the precipice of Cox Canyon (a major tributary to the North Fork Negrito Creek).

Looking across Cox Canyon

Elk Mountain

Collins Park

Elk Mountain

Somewhere near the spring

Behind the dam

Elk Mountain

From there I made my way very steeply (although with the aid of a sometimes livestock trail) down to the bottom to discover with only small amount of disappointment that it was indeed an old, but very stoutly built dam that was wedged in among the crags and weathered humps of a natural dike across the canyon. I easily crossed over to the upstream side where weeds flourished in the now filled in completely pond that. once backed up behind the dam. 

Top of the dam

Behind the dam

I walked on in search of any flow from Hidden Springs on the west side of the canyon There was a fence, perhaps built at one time to keep livestock out of the spring area, but I neither saw nor heard any water anywhere (even though I'm sure I was at the location of the spring) save for a puddle beneath dam. Going back over to the other side of the dike, I used an odd improvised "gate" of sticks and wire to get a look at the dam. 

Near Hidden Springs

Gate

The continuation of the canyon downstream looked nicely lush and scenic, but  my time was limited, and shortly thereafter I made the short, lung-tester of a hike back up to the mesa where Andrea and Nessie had been waiting for me. 

Collins Park, Elk Mountain

Back at the 4Runner we decided to make the drive to see the impressive expanse of treeless grassland known as Collins Park. The hulking, mass of Elk Mountain loomed large with the orange of scrubby oaks growing in the burn scars stained the upper ridges.

Gila National Forest - Sand Flat Canyon

 

Technically this hike begins in the Gila National Forest and then continues into the Apache National Forest, but nobody seems to care (and rightly so) about that distinction anymore except maybe mapmakers. The whole vast area of the Apache NF in New Mexico has been administered by the Gila NF for a very long time. Also it's not completely clear whether the first mile or so from the NM 12 bridge up to the first fork is  Cañon del Buey or Sand Flat Canyon. We continued  northwest in what is definitely Sand Flat Canyon for the rest of our hike so that's what I'm calling this here blog.

We parked off of NM 12 at the Sand Flat Rd. then crossed the highway and walked down to the canyon using a couple long forgotten roads that now serve as pleasant  paths through the pines. There is a barbed wire fencing across the canyon both up and downstream where the bridge passes overhead.  I'm getting more and more tired of getting under or through fencing as I get older. Beneath the bridge was an unexpected eyesore: a years in the making collection of junk and trash, plus a few fresh animal carcasses thrown in to boot. Why?

We were more than glad to get past that brief but disgusting interlude and on with our hike up the deep and rocky canyon. We admired the cliffs, and the oaks (and even a few aspens) that clung to the talus slopes beneath them. In the canyon bottom were tall and sometimes truly massive ponderosa pines and many, many boulders. There were only intermittent pathways, and the walking was slow through this  first section of rough box canyon.

 It opened wide at the above-mentioned fork. The right branch was a wide nearly level valley. To the left we followed along in the shade of the larger trees that clung to either side of the water course. We crossed a road (FR 4034W) and then continued on into a second (much lower) little box section, when that began to peter out we headed back the way we came. It looks like the right branch also has brief box section which could make for an alternate route or a lollipop loop if one were to connect the two.

It was beautiful sunny day in the first week of October, and the only day of its kind for my week of Fall Break. Rain and clouds were the theme for the rest of the time.