| when | Sunday, January 1, 2023 | ||||||||
| where | Tonto National Forest outside Carefree | ||||||||
| the hike |
We will kick off the new hiking year with a day hike and celebration of the
new year.
Camp Creek and Blue Wash are part of the Verde River watershed, and which eventually drains into Bartlett Reservoir on the Verde River north of where it merges with the Salt River. From the trailhead, we will get a nice panorama of Four Peaks and the Superstitions. We drop into Blue Wash. The trail heads south past snags, large granite rock formations, lining the wash and the remains of a car (the bumper looks like an old Cadillac). At the ½ mile mark there is a large rock hollow where we will take our group photos. At ¾ miles we find another enormous rock with a “Hidden Mickey” (400 miles from Disneyland). After a mile, Blue Wash converges with Camp Creek. If you look up, you will see a flag marking the location of a mine. We head to our left up the Creek for about ½ mile to Camp Creek Falls. We will break here and spend time climbing around the rock playground above the falls. Last year we toasted the New Year in style with Champagne and Sparkling Apple Cider and buried a time capsule with New Year’s resolutions from the hike participants. The group will return to the trailhead and drive a mile down Cave Creek Rd. and visit the Sears-Kay Ruins. Anna Rago volunteered to be our docent for the Sears-Kay Ruins. The desert foothills in the area surrounding the town of Carefree, Arizona, were home to the Hohokam culture. The Hohokam may have been the ancestors of the modern Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham peoples in Southern Arizona. The Prehistoric Hohokam built the Sears-Kay Fort around 1050 AD and abandoned it around 1200 AD. In 1867, 5th Cavalry Regiment soldiers discovered the fort on the Sears-Kay Ranch (visible to the south). |
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| distance | Short Hike Camp Creek Falls 3.2 Miles / Sears-Kay Ruins 1.0 miles. | ||||||||
| time | 4 hours on trail | ||||||||
| EC | Short Hike Camp Creek Falls 456' / Sears-Kay Ruins 200' elevation change | ||||||||
| elevations | Blue Wash Trailhead 3242' | ||||||||
| type | round trip | ||||||||
| starting at | Blue Wash Trailhead | ||||||||
| on trail | Short Hike Blue Wash 50%, Camp Creek 25%, Sears-Kay 25% | ||||||||
| rating | "C" Rate yourself as a hiker. | ||||||||
| dogs allowed | no | ||||||||
| cost | Sharing gas expenses with the driver. The club also allows voluntary contributions of $5 per non-member. |
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| weather | Carefree | ||||||||
| leader |
Email the leader to confirm. Please provide
your cell phone number when you sign up in case, we need to contact you
on the day of the hike. Sears Kay Ruin Docent Anna Rago. |
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| meet | Blue Wash Trailhead at 8:00 AM. | ||||||||
| drive |
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| Schedule of Events | Arizona Trailblazers Home Page |
| updated November 1, 2022 | © Copyright 2022, Arizona Trailblazers. All rights reserved. |