Ten adventurous Trailblazers met in Superior at the new Circle K and formed a caravan of cars into the Pinto Mine. We drove on the maze of roads leading to the Haunted Canyon 203 Trailhead (sort of, since the official trail starts after a 1.5 mile walk along a road past a gate at that spot). We immediately noted less water in the creek and less water crossings along the road than in previous trips.

Although it was a brisk 38 degrees when we started, we started to shed layers of clothing at the old corral before the official start of the trail, as we anticipated a climb in the sun for the next part of the hike. After getting hearts a-racing, we descended to the creek bed and began the first of many creek crossings. In contrast to our last trip in April of 2019, where there were 50 water crossings on this hike, the creek bed was mostly dry. The 2 water crossings we did were barely moist.

The lack of needing to rock hop across water multiple times sped up our trip and made the trail even easier than usual to follow. We crunched in fallen sycamore leaves and pondered how full of orange Fall color this area must have been a few weeks ago. Still, the carpet of leaves and abundance of creekside trees made the hike hauntingly beautiful.

Before we knew it, we arrived at the Toney ranch. It looked much emptier than in past years. Were the corrals and farm equipment removed since our last visit? We walked the last part of the journey on a side trail to the Toney Cabin and took a break. We had seen only one other group on the trail all morning, but a few other hikers came in while we were there. Fortunately there was plenty of room for all.

After a brief rest and group photo, we turned around and headed back. The canyon looked different going the other way and was still satisfyingly pretty, although we seemed to keep such a steady pace that only Bruce was documenting our adventure. The final slog up the side of the canyon was a bit tiring in the afternoon heat, but the end of the trail still came upon us surprisingly quickly.

When we returned to our cars, we learned that we had done the 12 mile trail an hour faster than the last time. Those water crossings take time! Sufficiently tired, we piled back in our many cars and made the trip back down to Maricopa County, having enjoyed some of the last vestiges of Fall color 2020.