Spur Cross Trail

Today we drove to the Spur Cross Ranch near Cave Creek to hike the Spur Cross Trail out to Chalk Canyon, about 8.5 miles round trip with 800 ft of gain. 

It was drizzly when we started and there were lots of clouds around the nearby peaks.

It soon began to rain hard enough that I put on my raincoat. When we reached the trail crossing of Cave Creek, there was enough water in it, that we decided to hike further up creek looking for a better crossing.

We went a ways away from the creek and through some woods.

We saw a few wildflowers starting to blossom, including these rattlesnake eyes

We saw this beautiful pond on our off the trail walk.

water in the desert

We were able to cross Cave Creek further up stream, just beyond this spot. So pretty.

We ended up crossing Cave Creek on rocks several times on our way up the trail.

The sun came out, giving us better distant views.

More water crossings

We ended up seeing 5 cows near the trail today.

So nice to be on regular trail before we bushwhacked up a butte near Chalk Canyon.

View from part way up the butte, looking back down to Cave Creek and the way we hiked in.

Up on the butte are some ancient ruins,

pottery shards (which we left in place), 

and many rocks with petroglyphs on them:

view across the top of the butte:

Nice blue sky as we hiked back to the trailhead, better view of the nearby peaks:

Elephant Mountain