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| Hiking | 11.20 Miles |
2,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.20 Miles | 6 Hrs 43 Mns | | 1.67 mph |
| 2,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Caution: The miles and elevation gain posted in the main article are not for the full Reavis Trail Canyon--but for a subset that doesn't include the climb west to the upper trailhead on Montana Mountain.
The official trail is 11.2 miles RT and climbs 2500 feet with an accumulated gain of 2800 feet.
The GPS track that I uploaded is for 12.0 miles and accumulated gain of 2900 feet. It includes a spur trail to the overlook SW of Montana Mountain--which is well worth the extra mileage.
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The drive to the trailhead always requires high clearance. FR 650 not only crosses creeks several times but for short segments the road is in the creekbed. After a rain, the sand ramps into and out of the creekbed crossings wash away. That can leave a 2-3 foot cliff until quads and offroad vehicles recreate the ramps. Some of the washes have very large flows during and after rains that will wash vehicles downstream--so stay out when water is flowing at more than a trickle.
There is little shade when hiking although there are large boulders and mesquite trees where you can take a break in the shade. If there's a little water in the creek, this hike has a neatness rating of 4--when the creek is dry, it's only a 2.
If I did this hike again, I'd do the outbound northern leg hiking in the creekbed as much as possible. As the creek narrows, it is partially blocked in spots by trees and bushes but it looked like it was mostly open with rocks and small boulders. On the way out, I'd use the bench trail that closely follows the creek. You can make good time on the bench trail but it's boring when hiked in both directions.
The lower third of the trail is wide, extremely well cairned, and mostly gravel that's easy on the feet.
The middle third has sufficient catclaw that I wished I hadn't worn shorts. There are fewer and smaller cairns and the trail is narrower and less well defined. There's one spot with tall grass. You'll have to pause and look for the trail half a dozen times in this area. Most of this portion of the trail is gravel but you cross the creek several times and there are short sections of creek bed hiking.
At this point, you've hiked 3.3 miles and only climbed 500 feet.
The upper third of the trail is very well defined--mostly by the worn trail bed but there are a some small cairns. The section of the trail stops heading north and tuns to the west. In the next 2.3 miles, you'll climb 2000 feet!
The views are interesting but not spectacular until you get to the road at the top. |
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