Arizona Trail, Passage 23: Mazatzal Divide
AZT Backpacking Day 52
Trans-Arizona/Utah Day 69
Welcome back to Aspen’s Tracks, thruhiking the Arizona Trail southbound from Utah to Mexico. Today’s route covers backpacking the stretch of Passage 23 from Barnhardt Canyon to the passage highpont south of Bear Spring. You can find today’s hiking logistics below the photo documentation and trail journal of the route.
If you missed my last entry covering my side trip on the Barnhardt Canyon trail from the Mazatzal Divide, 5 from FR 194 to Polk Spring, that can be found here. The next entry will cover the continued traverse on the Mazatzal Divide to the Mt Peeley Trailhead at the end of the passage. traverse along the Red Hills ridgeline to the Red Hills Trail junction in The Park and start of the Mazatzal Divide passage. If you enjoy these accounts, please do subscribe to follow along to make sure that you don’t miss out on here or any future accounts to come!
In the land of Arizona
Through desert heat or snow
Winds a trail for folks to follow
From Utah to Old Mexico
It’s the Arizona Trail
A pathway through the great Southwest
A diverse track through wood and stone
Your spirit it will test
Oh, sure you’ll sweat and blister
You’ll feel the miles every day
You’ll shiver at the loneliness
Your feet and seat will pay
But you’ll see moonlight on the borderlands
You’ll see stars on the Mogollon
You’ll feel the warmth of winter sun
And be thrilled straight through to bone
The aches and pains will fade away
You’ll feel renewed and whole
You’ll never be the same again
With Arizona in your soul
Along the Arizona Trail
A reverence and peace you’ll know
Through deserts, canyons, and mountains
From Utah to Old Mexico
-“The Arizona Trail,” Dale R. Shewalter
Mazatzal Peak to Bear Spring
The trail wraps precipitously around the west flank of Mazatzal Peak, with 1700 foot cliffs rising above the trail. Portions are slightly overgrown with manzanita and finding places to rest is difficult. Patches of old growth ponderosas are found among the burned out groves left from the Willow and Sunflower Fires of 2004 and 2012. Most has still been replaced by chaparral, at least for now.
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Arizona Trail: Bear Spring to Camp
Reaching Bear Spring, I fill up with a couple liters of water and encounter Ash (Voodoo) as I am leaving. Turns out she’s also from NOVA and we talk for several hours. I make it about 1.5 miles further to camp for the night. The alpenglow on Mazatzal Mountain is magnificent as I top out on my highest elevation along Passage 23. It looks like the mountaintop is on fire! Hopefully will get a nice sunrise tomorrow and another early start – this time with no detour.
Arizona Trail: Sunset at Camp
Arizona Trail, Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide)
Mazatzal Wilderness
Tonto National Forest
Passage 23 Logistics & Ecology
Passage Map: Mazatzal Divide (Passage 23) Map
| Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide) | |
| AZTA Passage Information | Passage 23 (Mazatzal Divide) |
| AZTA Passage Map | Mazatzal Divide (Passage 23) |
| AZTA Elevation Profile | Mazatzal Divide Elevation Profile |
| Trail Surface | Dirt trail |
| Length (Mi) | 24.3 |
| Season | All year, but snow can make sections impassable in winter. |
| Potential Water Sources | Horse Camp Seep Hopi Spring Chilson Spring Bear Spring |
| Trailheads | North: Red Hills Trail Junction South: Mount Peeley Trailhead |
| Trailhead Access | North: Foot only. 5.75 mi from City Creek Trailhead South: Foot & 0.5 mi hike on Cornucopia Trail from trailhead. |
| Wilderness | Most |
| Possible resupply points | None |
| ATA-Rated Difficulty | Moderate |
| Potential campsites (mileages S to N) | 6.7, 9.4, 19.4, 22 |
| Ecosystems Traversed | Interior Chaparral Great Basin Conifer Woodland Rocky Mountain Montane Conifer Woodland Relict Conifer Woodland |
| Highlights | Mazatzal Mountains Geology Extensive views Diverse ecology Dramatic, rugged terrain Mazatzal Peak |
| Interior Chaparral | Great Basin Conifer Woodland | Rocky Mountain Montane Conifer Woodland | |
| Common Trees/Shrubs | * Birchleaf Mahogany * Ceanothus * Holly-leaf buckthorn * Manzanita * Shrub live oak * Silktassels * Stansbury cliffrose | * Arizona alder * Holly-leaf buckthorn * Junipers * Oaks, including Arizona oak, canyon live oak, Emory oak, Gambel oak, scrub-live oak * Piñon pine * Red barberry * Serviceberry * Silktassels * Skunkbush * sugar sumac | * Ponderosa Pine * Southwestern white pine * Subalpine fir * White fir * Rocky Mountain maple * Bigtooth maple * Grey alder * Red birch * Red osier dogwood * Cliffbush * Mallow ninebark * New Mexican locust * huckleberry * bilberries |
| Common herbaceous plants | * Buckwheats * Globemallows * Lupines * Penstemons * Sego-lily * Wormwood | * fringed brome * Geyer’s sedge/elk sedge * Ross’ sedge * Bronze sedge/dry land sedge/hillside sedge/hay sedge/Fernald’s hay sedge * screwleaf muhly * bluebunch wheatgrass * Spruce-fir fleabane * wild strawberry/Virginia strawberry * Small-flowered woodrush * mountain sweet Cicely * bittercress ragwort * western meadow-rue * Fendler’s meadow-rue | |
| Common succulents | * Agaves – golden flowered, Parry’s, Toumey’s * Banana & soap tree yucca * Barrel cactus * beargrass * beehive cactus * buckhorn cholla * Cane Cholla * hedgehog cacti * prickly pear cacti * Rock echeveria * Sotol * Whipple’s cholla | * beehive cactus * Claret cup hedgehog cacti * Golden-flowered agave * Parry’s agave * Prickly pear cacti * Whipple cholla * Tonto Basin agave |
Jyothi
Nice post, thanks for sharing!