DESTINATION Peak 7571 - Mazatzal Mountains 1 Photoset
2022-04-15 | |
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| Hiking | 12.14 Miles |
4,315 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.14 Miles | 8 Hrs 52 Mns | | 1.57 mph |
| 4,315 ft AEG | 1 Hour 7 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Peak 7571 has been on my hike list, and I figured that I'd best get out there and hike it before the temperatures got too hot.
I started and finished at the Rock Creek TH. I took Rock Creek Trail #42 for about 5 miles to the saddle at about 7,000 feet, then went off-trail for a mile to the summit. I returned the way that I came.
The road to the TH is in good shape. There are a couple of creek/wash crossings with a few inches of water in them, but 4WD is not necessary.
Rock Creek Trail is overgrown, and I was glad to have long pants and a long sleeve shirt. For the most part it wasn't all THAT bad up to Rock Creek Falls, and I had no trouble following the trail to that point. There was a little bit of water going over the falls, along with a pool of water above and below the falls -- so this was a nice place to stop and take a break.
Once past the falls, the trail got more overgrown and the tread got a lot worse with a lot of ankle busting rock to deal with. The trail traverses a hillside on the way to the saddle at about 7,000 feet; in this stretch I lost the trail a couple of times, although with some effort I could follow it most of the way. I was glad to have a GPS track of the trail. This was not a pleasant part of the hike.
Once at the saddle I went off-trail, first skirting around the summit of Peak 7559, and then going over to Peak 7571. The off-trail portion was actually better than the last 1.5 miles that I was on the Rock Springs Trail because it was easy to walk around the manzanita and other bushes that got in my way. There was still a lot of ankle busting rock though.
There were no trees or bushes on the summit, and the views were great.
I enjoyed the hike up to the waterfalls -- the views were great along the way and there was some interesting geology. The stretch of the trail from the falls to the saddle was not very enjoyable though, and I am not in any hurry to hike this portion of the trail again unless some trail maintenance is done. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Gooding's verbena once again won the wildflower derby, but there was some nice lupine along the first part of the trail. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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