Hike #7 - Spur Cross Ranch - Elephant Mountain Cave Creek AZ

Hike #7

Date: November 30, 2013 

Location:  Cave Creek AZ

Hikers: Tina, Linda & Jim

Directions: From Phoenix get to Cave Creek Road head North. Take all the way into the town of Cave Creek. Turn Left on Spur Cross Road. Stay Right at the Curve.  Follow 4 miles to trailhead. Parking cost $3 per car.  Not sure about Water. Restrooms available.  

http://www.maricopa.gov/parks/spur_cross/

Our plan today is to do Elephant Mountain at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area.  We were planning to do this last week but it was raining.  Good thing we did not because there are a lot of washes that we would have been hiking thru water.  It was a cool Arizona morning mid 50s. 

Elephant Mountain looks like the side view of an Elephant Head.  From Carefree you can see the profile.  Use your imagination from left to right is his head with ears, eyes shut and then his trunk. There are better profile pictures but driving and trying to get a shot is not the easiest.

There is a fee of $3 to park.  You must fill out an envelop at the trailhead.  (Remember your license plate # - we didn't).                  Trail maps are available also. Take one you will need it! 

WARNING!! Always be aware of your surroundings.  There are strange animals in the wilderness.  We saw this crazy animal at the trail head. LOL!!

We are doing the Elephant Mountain Loop which is about 6.6 miles.  We chose to start at Spur Crossing Trail and head to the left (west). There is a very gradual up at first.  The terrain is the loose rocks.  Not my favorite but just wait it will change as you go higher in elevation. 

 This part of the trail is very well marked with the trail markers you see.  As we get into Elephant Mountain it gets less marked and a little confusing.  We were no longer cold at this point.  The sun was a welcome treat.

 We walked up hill for a while and then down into a wash.  The markers stopped at this point but thanks to the Rock Stacker Men (that is what Tina calls them) we were able to see where to walk to eventually pick up the trail but know we were heading in the right direction.

The wash walking did not last long.  We picked up the trail and now we were heading UP to Elephant Mountain. This part of the trail is rated two diamonds. Extreme.  It is now all up.  The summit of the Elephants nose is where we are heading.  The Elevation is 3342 so we did a pretty good climb.

 This spot is where we were a little confused.  We thought we were going around the elephants head vs over the nose.  We continued up vs to the right.  We believe the right would have been how we came up if we took the East trail at the beginning of the hike
We took the right path. We were at the top of Elephant Mountain.  We could see Black Mountain and the McDowells directly south. We could see Pinnacle Peak and Toms Thumb.  Great Hike. Now to head down!

Heading down there are lots of Saguaro Cactus. It is pretty cool how the terrain quickly changes.

Jim catching up after a pit stop! 

Dead Cactus that looks like a scary ghost!

We had a great hike. Enjoy some fun conversation.  Disclaimer: Nothing discussed can be used on the blog! Although I think I am missing something now watching Once Upon a Time! Something about Captain Hook. :)

We met up with a couple people heading up on this side. Other than that we saw only one person up the beginning of the hike.  There are not a lot of people using this trail.  It does state that it is primitive. Honestly, it is not that bad or primitive. The down was easier.  If you are looking to do this hike and you do not like to do up, you may want to do this the opposite route that we did.                        

        

Merging onto Spur Crossing. My Elephant Impersonation

Tina loves having her picture taking!

This was a post Thanksgiving weekend Hike.  It was a challenge and different from the others.  I think we could do this again and take a different route.  This was a 6.6 mile hike. (my GPS was off).  us little less than 3 hours with stop and snack. 

I am thankful for my hiking buddies on this adventure. As always, we had fun!  I am thankful for my health to be able to do this and the nature in this great state of AZ! 

Lucky 7 Done! 

Happy Thanksgiving!