Bark Canyon

We drove to the Peralta Trailhead in the Superstition Wilderness to hike up to Bark Canyon and a bit beyond, 7 miles round trip with 1,550 ft of overall gain. We started out on the Bluff Spring Trail. Photo near the beginning of the trail with a nice reflection in the water.

Some views seen on the early portions going up the Bluff Springs Trail.

Looking over towards the Peralta Trail

There are some nice rock formations along the trail.

We saw many wildflowers in bloom today, including over 100 pea plants.

About 1.8 miles up the trail, the Bluff Springs Trail takes a sharp turn to the northeast, we found quite a bit of water on the trail here.

In this area, to the north is the entrance to Buck Canyon, the boot track is to the right of this creek.

We heard there were lots of hoodoos and rock formations in Buck Canyon, so we found lots of photo taking opportunities.

The boot track was easy to follow and there were cairns over the rocky areas where the trail was unclear.

The trail meanders through this beautiful area.

We went a short distance off trail in this area, to enjoy the views.

I spotted this "window" high up on one of the rock walls and took this zoom shot.

Heading back to the trail.

The trail headed up to a saddle between the rock wall on the left and a spire on the right, wide angle view.

Pano view to the right of the rock spire

We took a lunch break up on the saddle, side view of the rock spire.

pano view to the north of the saddle, where we continued to hike after our lunch break

We followed the trail that continued down the other side of the saddle, where we enjoyed more hoodoos and other rock formations.

The top of Weaver's Needle is the tall rock formation on the left.

The "trail" continued upland over to Peralta  Canyon Trail, which was not our destination today. We went off trail looking for another route to the Terrapin Trail which would connect back with the Buff Springs Trail. Although we did not find that route, we did enjoy exploring this area.

Another view of Weaver's Needle

We kept track of our route, and made sure we could return the way we had come.

Once we realized we did not feel safe continuing, we retraced our steps and returned the same way we hiked in. Back home, studying maps in a hiking book of the area, we saw where we could have made the connections by making a different turning on our route. 

Back on the Buff Springs Trail heading back to the trailhead.

a small round barrel cactus

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today: