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See Canyon Day Hike
Mogollon Rim
July 30, 2011
by Wendy Rennert
GPS Map
 by Wayne Shimata 
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Standing, back: Michael, Yanis
Standing, middle: Arturo, Monika, Brenda, Becky, Wendy K., Wendy R. Gary, Quy, Jim, Ajay
Seated: Rudy, Renata, Olga, Teresa, Wayne

The monsoon moisture was in the air, but 17 Trailblazers got an early start on the See Canyon Trail, hoping that the rains would not come until their typical time of mid-afternoon.

See Canyon was apparently named after Rim Country pioneers the See family, John, Annie and son Charlie. They had a ranch in this canyon on Christopher Creek. Tragedy struck in 1892, but the ranch was bought in the late 20's or early 30's by another couple, who tore down the original cabin and reused those logs to build their home. We didn’t spot this house anywhere along the trail, but we did enjoy the beauty of the Rim Country.

We started with sunny skies, and before too long, we crossed picturesque Christopher Creek, and would do so a few more times along the way.

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The soothing waters of Christopher Creek.
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Becky and Arturo show us their methods to navigate across the creek.

There are not really any sweeping distant views on this trail, but the heavily forested canyon provided plenty of smaller visual delights, as well as the sounds of the creek.

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The tall grasses tickle our legs
on this narrow, faint trail.
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A rare glimpse through the trees
of the top of the Rim.
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The waters and lush greenery at See Spring.

The many types of wildflowers, mushrooms, grasses, ferns, and mosses provided by the moist environment were welcome changes from the dry oven we left in Phoenix.

The ground was still moist from recent rains, but for the most part it was not a problem — only a couple of small soggy spots to navigate.

At the junction of the trail to See Spring, we decided to head to See Spring first, in case we got rained out later in the trip. This was probably a wise choice, because the See Spring trail gets extremely narrow in sections, with steep dropoffs, not a place you would want to be during a rainstorm: it would be too muddy and slick.

After taking our group picture along one of the only spots wide enough along the trail to accommodate all of us, we headed back to the junction, to continue up the See Canyon Trail towards the Rim road (FR 300). Though the sign says it is only 2 miles from the junction to the Rim road, it seems like a lot longer than that due to the steady and sometimes pretty steep ascent. “Go ahead and take your own pace up to the top of the Rim,” Wendy says, knowing that some are more comfortable taking more breaks to catch their breath, while others prefer to keep a slow steady pace with few if any stops to break their momentum.

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Various views of Golden Columbine (Aquilegia Chrysantha)
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A rainbow of floral color!
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Does this tree look like Florida, or Arizona?
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Yum! Wild Raspberries!

In addition to just about every color you can imagine of flowers and mushrooms, we also saw a few kinds of berries, including raspberries! Everyone of course heeded the warning not to taste any mushrooms, but a few folks did sample a couple of ripe raspberries right off the vine.

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Mysterious Mother Nature
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More berries.
How did these berries get so perfectly lined up on the central lines of their leaves?

Mushrooms (top two) and shelf fungus (others) in a magical spectrum of shapes and colors:
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The granddaddy of all shelf fungus — probably a good 8"-10" wide.
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How many butterflies can you find in the above photo?
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Up close and personal with one of our
many winged friends in See Canyon.
    The most delightful part of the trip was the amount of butterflies which were floating around us and enjoying the flowers they landed upon.

Some of the group opted not to go the entire way to the top and instead found a nice shady place along the way to eat lunch and relax for a while. The rest of the group trekked up the remaining 500 feet and enjoyed their lunch at the top of the Rim. During the lunch break, we noticed that the clouds were getting a little darker, so we decided it would be wise to start heading back down. Luckily no deluge, but it did softly rain for only about 15 minutes or so, though not even enough to warrant getting out our rain gear. It was a warm day, so the rain was quite refreshing, and because the trail was pretty grown over, we kept a little bit cooler as the wet leaves and grasses brushed up against our clothes and skin. We took our time on the steep parts going down, since the rocks were now just somewhat slippery at times, but it was not really a problem.

Back at the trailhead when the whole group met back together, we learned of Michael’s close call with a tree. Maybe the tree just didn’t want to stand another minute, or maybe a termite chewed off the last stable bit, or who knows, but he said all of a sudden he heard the tree just snap, and he got out of its way while it fell to the ground across the trail.

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About to enjoy some well-deserved calories! [photo by Ajay]

There were so many other trees already down that we had to climb over on our hike that we didn’t really notice which one he had his dance with. We’re just glad the tree didn’t crush Michael’s toes (or worse) during that dance!

We ended the day at the Buffalo Bar and Grill in Payson for steak and Buffalo burgers, and a wonderful dessert with an unfortunate name: the Buffalo Chip. Don’t let the name prevent you from trying this tasty treat!

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updated August 27, 2016