Mazatzal Wilderness

Some eons ago, about the 2 of February, I went on a twelve mile hike up in the Mazatzal Wilderness North of Phoenix in the Tronto area. I found a hiking group that was hosting this event. Only four of us were present to do the hike.

I am going to do my best to describe this hike. It is hard because of the vast changes in scenery. We were already fairly high up altitude wise when we got to our destination at the Barnhardt trailhead. The trail takes you through the canyon gradually making your way up the switchbacks and along the side of the canyon to the top showing the vista of all around.

This is what it was like in the first part of the hike. We arrived at the trailhead at 0850 hours and got started promptly. As with the rains in the valley, Northern Arizona had been getting snow. How lucky! It is dark just because the sun still has a way to go to reach the sky up above and the canyon walls so tall that I realized that many portions of the canyon does not even get sunlight during any part of the day. So it stays colder with snow and ice.

This is how far the sun is able to reach it's sunrays during the day. I do not know if you can tell but "white lines" on the rocks are actually waterfalls that had become frozen.
Here is a close up of one still life waterfall. I think it is a wonder of nature. I never really thought to see anything like this before. Water that had finally froze in motion? One of the hardest parts of the hike was that there was frozen water everywhere including on the trail. It made it very tricky to get across some parts. Try walking on pure ice with only the canyon wall on one side and the drop off on the other side of forty or more feet. And the trail in some places was only wide enough for my feet to step in front of another step. No missteps or else! No joke.

I named this the bonsai ice garden. The picture does not serve justice. It warmed up to 38 degrees ... oh yes, did I forget to mention that the average temperatures in the morning hours were around 28 degrees according to the thermostat we had with us? It changed of course when we got out of the canyon to more sun. But we were marveling this bonsai ice garden. Droplets of water trickled down the ice. The cactus all frozen in.

The scenery changed when we got higher. Less snow and the vegetation changed a bit. This was an area that was ravaged by the wildfires some years ago. So the vegetation is quite shrubby.

The giant aloe species were abundant. I loved seeing them. So different from the valley where the Saguaros are the primary giants.

Yes, I was here. Proof I did the hike. :)

It certainly was a very magical hike. It seems like a dream. Does a place like this exist just about over an hour from Phoenix? The hidden secrets.