Upper Carr Falls (Huachuca Mountains)

Today was a mild winter day with overcast skies. This should have been a day to bag a peak. Instead, I took Sadie and Minnie (leaving a reluctant Zeke at home) to Carr Canyon, parked the car at the closed gate by the lower falls, and walked two miles up the road to the falls. I hadn't been here since I took Beth here 18 months ago. I always have enjoyed walking up this road when it's closed to vehicular traffic.

There was still ice in some of the more shaded parts of the falls. This surprised me, having had warmer-than-usual temperatures later. I also noticed more graffiti that wasn't there the last time I was here. The three memorial crosses along the fence line were also destroyed. At least we were alone and the dogs weren't bothering anyone. That is always my first concern.

I explored the mine above the falls. I had never been in the mine as I hate dark places. The rocks outside the mine were badly graffitied, and some white plastic bags lay in the entrance, but it was no where as bad as the Upper Bear Mine in Lutz Canyon where trash litters the floor. Both dogs followed me inside the abandoned mine, but the pitch darkness unnerved me and I turned around at a burned stake. The musky air also wasn't appealing. It seems to me that at one point there was an opening for air to circulate, as one branch of the mine looped upwards back to the surface. The opening seems to have been buried by landslides

I wasn't in the mood to turn around at this point. I wanted to explore the falls higher up, so I took the dogs and scrambled up rocks. And more rocks. And bigger and wider rocks. I had never been back here. I had heard about the old car wreck ( the "carcass" as I would call it), and came across parts of rusty metal pieces along the way. Surely years of summer monsoons had washed away or buried the original car.

Both dogs had no trouble climbing up the boulders. There was ice only in the shaded areas. Had there been snow or ice back there, climbing would have been more treacherous. I never had to give them water as there was plenty of it for them in crevices.

This was a very solitary area, although it's obvious that the place is a well-known party spot for locals. I picked up plenty of Budweiser cans along the route, but very little other trash like stuff abandoned by illegal border crossers that was more prevalent just a few years ago.

This is a place I would not want to be in a monsoon. If I had fallen and injured myself, who would hear me? Get to me? One enters the wilderness at one's own admission. When I came across the rusty carcass I had to wonder how long it had been there. By the time I made it to the end of the canyon, I was just below Reef Townsite and the yellow-lichen rocks at 7000'. There was no other place to go but nearly straight up, and I didn't want to endanger my dogs by going that route.

We went down the way we came, with gravity on our side. Minnie had fun fetching sticks and Sadie had fun trying to steal them from her. Zeke would have enjoyed this isolated paradise, but how was I to know? All the cars that were parked at the gate must have been for the lower falls, as the only person I saw was at the half-mile mark, and he told me he had seen a couple higher up (Reef Townsite) with five dogs.

We got back to the car around 3:30pm. I got home at the same time Eric did. Kevin had a turkey meal for us. What service! The two hiking dogs each got their own hotdog.