Seventeen sure-footed Trailblazers start from Willow Springs Trailhead on a perfect Arizona winter day, to seek their fortunes on a Goldfield arch hike. “Stay with me,” Ted advises, “We’re off trail.”

From Willow Springs Canyon we leave all roads and trails behind as we make our way up to the pass at 2264. Evidence of mining is nearby, but we stick to our hiking.

From the pass we have a distant view of the arch, up on a rocky ridgeline across the valley. The view doesn’t last.

Ted chooses a roundabout route that involves more walking than climbing — until we get across the valley, that is. We climb up to an arch we can’t see. Somebody seems to have marked the route, which is rocky and steep in places. “Not me,” our leader assures us.

Finally we can see the arch, and it’s close by.

People take turns standing beside it for photo-ops.

Is it really an arch? Rangers at the Arches National Park insist that an arch be fully enclosed in rock and big enough for a ball 3 feet in diameter to pass through without touching.

The IQ Arch certainly meets the size criterion.

We have a panoramic view from here, with the Four Peaks dominating the distant skyline. Helmet Rock, visible to the north, is our next destination. But between us and Helmet Rock is a steep descent to a valley and then a streambed to traverse.

Our route down has a lot of switchbacks. Soon we are walking in the streambed, easy at first but then boulder-strewn and full of prickly brush. Fortunately it doesn’t last. We leave the streambed and climb the slope from Prevention Gap, only to find another route that has been marked.

Lichens and sugar-frosted rocks cheer us on our way to Helmet Rock. The slickrock is volcanic tuff from eruptions which formed the Superstitions and Goldfields in the Miocene epoch 18 million years ago. Sugar frosting on the rocks is quartz. With a lower melting point than the other minerals, quartz remains liquid after they have solidified. It flows into the cracks, hardens, and reappears as frosting when the boulders split apart.

From here it looks as if you could just walk over and climb to the top, but not so fast. Instead we find ourselves looking over the crevice, a deep gap in the rocks with nearly vertical sides.

We walk down on the east, hoping to look back on the crevice and see a pair of windows in the rock that were discovered on a previous hike.

No such luck. We start down.

Just as we leave the crevice and begin looking for another arch, someone turns around and spots the pair of roguish eyes looking down on us.

At the top of the next slope we find a little window in the rock. Not big enough to be an arch, but cute nonetheless.

By now it’s lunch time. Everyone finds a comfortable rock to sit on as we enjoy our picnic in a spectacular mountain setting.

Our walk down to Willow Springs Canyon is by way of the Willow Springs Basin Tank and Forest Road 12.

We leave the road to enter the canyon, only to find the usual route full of water. Hikers help each other up and over some steep boulders, and we walk on back to the trailhead.

It was an adventurous off-trail hike on a gorgeous Arizona winter’s day!