This weekend we decide to revisit a section of the Black Canyon Trail starting at the Black Canyon City Trailhead. The weather promises to be great, we expect the river to be crossable and we still have quite a few caches in the area to find. The parking lot is not that full as we expected and soon we are on the connector trail that runs from the parking lot to the Black Canyon Trail.
Interestingly the first section of the trail has probably the best saguaros overall and we enjoy this stretch of the trail as we climb towards the ridge from where we can assess if the river is crossable.
At the top of the ridge is a bench where you can rest and enjoy the great views. This is the area from where we judge if the Agua Fria River can be crossed before descending to it. It seems fine today so we continue on while admiring the new trail signs that appeared since the last time we were on the trail.
The crossing is much better marked than we remember and it even has stones set in the river so we can skip over it, quite an improvement. We also enjoy the Christmas display nearby built from stones by an unknown author.
As we climb on the other side of the valley we have an interesting meeting with another hiker that doesn’t carry any obvious water and asks us where the trail is going. We explain that it is a long trail and the only way to do it from this trailhead is as an out and back hike. He then explains he does youtube videos of his hikes and lives for now in a jeep we saw in the parking lot while visiting the area, quite interesting.
After climbing on the other side of the canyon and finding a couple of caches we stop at a nice viewpoint and eat lunch. While eating we notice cows at the water far below us in the valley as well as a mining operation in the distance, a lot of action during that brief rest.
The most challenging cache is on the top of a ridge paralleling the trail. We make it in the end and rest for a while enjoying the great views before starting on the way to the parking lot.
We have one more stop planned on the way back to get at a cache that we couldn’t get at while going in the opposite direction. The reason is an obstinate donkey that threatened to attack us and made us retreat back to the relative safety of the trail. It was a bit funny as we were hearing indignant huffing noises and had no idea what was making it before finally noticing the donkey.
This time no donkey in sight so we make a dash for the cache before hearing the telltale huffing noise. We look carefully, still no donkey so we get the cache while being ready to run at any moment. Then we notice the donkey on the other side of a valley so more relaxed we retreat to the trail and watch him for quite some time as he sits like a sentinel on the top of the ridge ensuring we leave this time.
When we get at the car it is already dark but we see the full moon rise from behind the mountains, it is a beautiful sight and a great end of our 10 mile hike.