No kids with us in Greer doesn’t mean we sit on the porch all day. No sir.
We were going to get a little hike in, even if we had to drive to another state to do it. Cathie found what she thought could be a fun little hike and adventure on Pinterest. Her husband Don, has been hiking for years and it’s become one of their favorite empty nest activities. She was excited to give it a try and it sure looked like fun.
It was a bit of a drive, about 90 minutes. We had plenty of water and snacks to sustain us for the long and arduous trek. I kid, the drive was an easy one through pine covered forest from eastern Arizona into western New Mexico.
We had the place practically to ourselves.
The parking lot is big enough to accommodate the largest RV. We fought our way through the crowd of two other cars for a space and headed toward the trail.
As with many parts of the Southwest, this area was discovered and originally used for mining and milling. The Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt the catwalk in the 1930’s and it was rebuilt again after being washed out after a wildfire. The latest rebuild made the catwalk accessible to all. The trail goes back 1.1 miles into the canyon with the catwalk portion totaling about a half mile. From there it continues back to pools and waterfalls.
The beginning portion is a well maintained dirt path where an amazing tree will greet you. I was struck by its beauty in this “walls and water” environment. I wonder how many photo albums contain pictures of this very tree with a family standing under it. Can’t you just picture a wise old owl sitting in the giant hole where a branch used to be? Or maybe a squirrel eyeing you suspiciously while he clutches freshly harvested acorns.
We walked along the catwalk as it hung snug along the side of the narrow canyon while water cascaded beneath us. The water was a murky brown from thunderstorms and a nearby fire. I would love to see it crystal clear. There was so much beauty around every bend. I could have stopped every few feet for another round of pictures.
Along the way we could see where the original anchors had been shoved into the canyon walls. The contrast between the 1800’s and today are remarkable. Kind of awesome as well to see right in front of us how tough men were back then. No computers, no calculators, just their brains and brawn getting the job done.
We weaved our way to the end of the catwalk portion getting a little wet in the process with off and on sprinkles. Cathie was at the tail end of recovering from a badly sprained ankle so she decided to stop there while Mark, Don and I continued on. We didn’t get very far though.
The stream was a little wider now and the dirty brown water hid mean rocks ready to turn your ankle. We ventured around the next bend then heard loud cracks of thunder. We couldn’t see the lightning strikes but that thunder wasn’t too far away. This slot canyon is not a good place to be in a thunderstorm and flash flood. That could get really dangerous, really fast. The pictures we’d taken were going to be good enough and we headed back.
At the point where the catwalk crosses the canyon lay another path back. We walked along a decent dirt path on the other side of the canyon back to the trailhead. It was neat to see the catwalk from the other side. It may not be that big of an engineering feat, but it sure looked like it to me.
We hit rain on the road going back about 30 minutes after we got in the truck. Lunch in Alpine was up next. We had good rain off and on much of the way to Alpine. If you’re ever in teeny tiny Alpine, Arizona you need to stop at the Bear Wallow Cafe. It’s probably been there for 100 years with quirky additions along the way and good food to fill your tummy.
We arrived back at their cabin in between thunderstorms ready for some quality front porch sitting time, beer in hand, with another cool adventure to talk about. I’m so glad Cathie found this gem. I hope you go find it, too.