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| Hiking | 5.00 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 5.00 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | I went out to Mesquite Creek hoping to see the area where Joe took those great photos. My best estimate is that I never got closer than one hiking mile away. I kept running into 'swimmers' (my definition: water at crotch level or higher) with zero go-around options. The water was cold enough to numb you in seconds, so knee high wading had to be VERY brief.
Water was flowing over the road at Tortilla Flat 15' wide and several inches deep. Not impassable for any vehicle, though. I parked a mile and a quarter past that on the north side of the road where there is a large, flat area dotted with campfire circles. There was easy access down to the creek and I headed upstream in search of photo ops.
The first obstacle is where the creek goes under the road. There is a concrete underpass for the water flow and one side was shallow enough that I walked through (going up over the road and back down was not an option). I didn't walk far before I came to another under-the-road situation. This time it was a large corrugated steel tube about 8 feet in diameter and about 100' long with water flowing through. Again, up and over not an option so I walked through stradling the water. On the other side, the canyon was narrow and steep walled with a waterfall and a beautiful natural pool. It looked to be about 4' deep and there was no way around. Bummer. Turned around and went all the way back to where I started.
Then tried to go up one of the feeder drainages parallel to Mesquite Creek, but after half a mile I reached a long section of wade/swim so I climbed up the ridge on one side and walked around. Options for getting back down looked limited and daylight was fading so I took the high road back to the truck and called it a day.
Warmer temps would have made this a lot of fun, but warmer temps usually mean less water. |
| _____________________
I'm at home in the wilderness... it's civilization I have problems with! ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") |
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