Amazing Arizona Trail Thruhiking: Spectacular Horse Camp Seep-Barnhardt Junction

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, the Mazatzal Divide, between Horse Camp Seep and the Barnhardt Trail junction. You can find today’s hiking logistics below the photo documentation and trail journal of the route.

If you missed my last entry covering the first segment of the Mazatzal Divide passage, that can be found here. The next entry will cover the stretch of the Divide between the Barnhardt Trail and the Divide passage highpoint. 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

Horse Camp Seep-Rocky Ridge

Delayed departure this morning due to job applications and an interview with Shawnee NF in Illinois. One of the interviewers did a detail here on the Tonto National Forest so when I describe my current experience he’s very familiar with it. I soak in the majestic Rocky Ridge view one final time then ultimately hike back down to camp and get packed by mid afternoon.

Arizona Trail: Rocky Ridge-Chilson Spring

Unfortunately, yesterday’s backpacking solitude is disrupted today. I ran into four NOBO section hikers first, which contributed to some degree but also provided an enjoyable conversation. The primary disruptive event was the F-16 that flew over while I was packing. It flew extremely low and around a mountain – possibly North Peak. Made me think very seriously about why that would be allowed over a designated wilderness area. Something to look into, perhaps. I manage to knock out a few miles to Chilson Spring before dark, with spectacular views of Deadman’s Canyon, the Verde Valley, and the western Mazatzal foothills along the way.

Arizona Trail: Chilson Spring-Barnhardt Canyon

The mountains are jagged and rugged and the trail traces steep slopes nearly the whole way across precipitous terrain. At Chilson, where I encounter and end up having dinner with an American Conservation Experience (ACE) crew working on area trails. Something I’ve always thought about participating in. As they are curious about my work too, so we pick each other’s brains over food. With camp all set up near the upper end of Barnhardt Canyon, and after a chance encounter with two other potential thru-hikers it’s time to rest for a hopefully early start tomorrow.

The Mazatzal Mountains

This stretch of the Arizona Trail lies within the Mazatzal Wilderness in the Tonto National Forest. The origin of the name “Mazatzal” is unclear, though one possible meaning is a Nahuatl term meaning “place of the deer.” The Wilderness, which the trail will remain within now until just shy of Sunflower in the central Mazatzals, is about 390 square miles in size and surrounds the Mazatzal Mountains. It was one of the original Wilderness Areas designated upon the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.

The Mazatzal Mountains themselves are an incredible place. Formed during an orogeny (a term referring to the process that creates mountains) when Arizona was a coastal region on the margin of what became North America, the Mazatzals gained their rugged nature as tectonic collisions compressed rock, lifting it and thrusting it above other rocks (overthrust). We’ll see the resulting folding in the entry of a short side hike on the Barnhardt Trail. Mazatzal Peak, the highest point of the Northern Mazatzals, towers 1700 ft above the trail with a jagged west face that makes it appear as though half the mountain was simply cut away. This passage passes through the northern half of the full range.

Unfortunately the area was greatly impacted by the Willow & Sunflower Fires, which burned much (though not all, as we will see) of the old ponderosa forest that had made the mountains one of the most popular long-distance stretches of the Arizona Trail.

Yet the incredible geology, solitude, sunsets, and views remain for the hardy and prepared souls who venture into this special place. Bagworms spin magnificent webs here, and temperatures are relatively tolerable outside of winter, when snow can make stretches impassable for those without adequate preparation.

Passage 23 Logistics