Black Canyon Trail is a long linear trail of almost 80 mile starting near Phoenix and continuing north past New River, and Black Canyon City and almost reaching Mayer. Today we plan to do a short portion of the trail and also to visit a fortress like Native American ruin near the trail. Right after exiting the highway at Bumblebee exit we stop for a short walk in the mountains near the highway and to take a look at the nice views of the area.
Quite unusually it is overcast so while the pictures come out muted the hiking temperature is much more comfortable. As we stop also along Maggie Road on the way to the trailhead we notice that Black Canyon River where we hiked just a few weeks ago is now full of water and flowing due to the heavy rains in the last week.
We stop on the side of the dirt road which is not in as good shape as we would have liked and start hiking up a side road towards the Black Canyon Trail (BCT) and then towards the ruins. There are quite a few impressive cholla areas near the road that we stop and admire. Then we notice the hole in the middle of the road and check it out – it is a former telephone pole that has been ripped out of the ground. Later on our hike we find other remains of this old phone line through the area including cut logs from the former poles.
As we start the climb we are impeded not as much by the rate of ascent which is acceptable but by the cholla which are everywhere and difficult to avoid.
However what brings us to a stop is a deer that passes in front of us wary but not necessarily scared of us, of course we have to stop to take lots of pictures. Continuing the climb we notice some movement near a rock. Investigating more closely we discover that it is a Harris antelope squirrel who is eating undisturbed by our approach. After finishing eating he then proceeds moving towards us but then disappears, quite unusual.
After a few more minutes of climbing and avoiding to the best of our abilities the cholla cacti that are everywhere we arrive at the top mesa. The views are quite good in all directions but it is marred a bit by the pipeline destruction when we look westward.
Soon we notice some specks on the fields and zooming in we identify them as cows, we haven’t seen any cows in this area before. They are also watching us for a while warily before continuing with their daily routine.
Even on the top of the mesa the going is slow due to the high number of cholla but the views are great on both sides of the ridge. Looking at the Bumblebee exit we see a police car parked right at the exit waiting for a speeding car but unfortunately none pass as we look.
After a few hundred feet we notice our goal, the Native American ruins. Surprisingly the ruins are quite extensive with multiple rooms and the walls are well defined and relatively high. It is quite special to walk into a ruin that is rarely visited and we enjoy it a lot. It is surrounded by steep cliffs on three sides with only one side with easy access – likely for protection against attacks.
We explore them for a while and walk through all of them and even identify a likely kiva. Unfortunately there are no visible pottery shards but we find a possible quartz arrowhead or worked stone. But it might be also natural, who knows.
After our visit to the interesting ruins we return to the main BCT trail and hike it for about 1 mile until it reaches again the Maggie Main Road and then return back to the car on the road. Due to the rains many washes are full of water and are interesting and fun to explore. Unfortunately it is getting dark and it even starts sprinkling so we return as fast as we can to the dry and warm car. Overall it was a great area to explore especially with no one else around and the ruin was the highlight of the day.
