The last stop for today is another possible access road to Highline Trail passing near Roberts Mesa. In fact we have to leave the Control Road on a different road, Roberts Mesa Road, to drive to the side road that may give us access to the Highline Trail. We are not sure if the road is through to the trail and that is what we want to explore. In fact after parking the first part is on a good road, our car could have made it even further up the road.
The road is following a canyon which also has a hiking trail as far as we know but we are walking on the rim this way as we were not sure if the trail climbs out of the canyon in the end. There are also a few birds which is great even though they are mostly robins and other common birds.
And after about a mile we reach the end of the road and no trail going forward. We were hoping for a trail for the last few hundred feet to Highline Trail but nothing is visible so we decide to sit down eat some snacks and then do a more thorough search.
We even see a few interesting birds, grosbeaks specifically while searching for the trail and the we find it, it is following the fence and that is why we missed it.
And then we reach the trail right where the fence is crossing it and to our surprise there is an impressive gate protecting our area from the burned area right across the fence. We are not sure what happened there but it is not good for certain.
However even with the burned area we find a few interesting birds and even a beautiful desert cottontail as we start walking on the trail to find a few caches before returning.
The caches were placed quite some time ago and the trail has been rerouted since so finding the old trail and following it is quite a challenge. However we enjoy the cooler temperatures after the hot day, it is actually getting cold here.
Some sections of the old trail are intentionally hidden for a reason or other and we understand why some sections are decomissioned as the trail is a bit iffy especially when passing over river beds or climbing in and out ravines.
After finding a few caches we return to the burned area and decide to explore it a bit, it is quite otherworldly especially with the sunset in the distance.
In fact the closest comparison we have is like a nuke has exploded here and flattened all the trees. We are quite humbled to see this and then return back to the road and to our car. As there are way too many people out to be camping we decide to change our plans and return to Phoenix today and then return some other time to camp when there are fewer people.
