Miller Canyon

Today's romp turned out to be longer and more adventurous than planned.  I had originally gone to this canyon to check out the creek in the afternoon. It was 3:20pm when we started walking.  I took all four dogs, but there were plenty of cars and people in the lower canyon celebrating Easter.  That meant I could not have my dogs offleash around other people, and had to go into stealth mode.  This meant I stayed in little-used parts of the canyon, meandered off trail, and did a lot of bushwhacking.  I'm not normally a fan of bushwhacking, but I discovered plenty of social trails ("illegal trails" made by border crossers coming over at night).

I had never been in parts of Miller Canyon before.  Miller Creek Trail, which one can get via the upper parking area by Beatty's Orchard, goes as far east as the Foothills estate with its homes.  I didn't go quite that far, but I did explore the creek and let the dogs play in the water.  Minnie loves this part of being outside most.  We could see the homes in the housing area.  We don't normally get this far east.  The ones bordering the national forest are actually smaller cabins nestles among the pinyon pines andFro oaks.  The more stately ones are closer to the state road and clear of foliage so that they can be admired by passers-by.

From the creek I decided to get more remote and crossed Miller Canyon Road to head to the overlook along the Perimeter trail to gaze down into the San Pedro Valley.  We crossed two drainages with water, rather unusual at this time, before reaching the rise.  The tall grass hides the rocky terrain here, and I was aware to watch for snakes.  The dogs were oblivious to any dangers.  A faint game trail revealed that wildlife does come up this way to drink some water.

Sadie stayed by my side during this entire walk.  Minnie was close by.  Today it was Zeke's turn to run amok with Sweetie.  Once we got to the overlook, Sweetie disappeared again, making me fear I'd find her days later at the notorious kill-shelter of Huachuca City.  Perhaps this new area to her required her to smell everything and explore longer than my patience allowed.

I sat at this overlook for a while.  How many times have I sat here to watch the moon rise, to watch hawks overhead, to gaze back over the mountains and admire the view?  To the east are homes, vehicular traffic, and the vast valley.  To the west are the towering peaks. All this beauty is just three miles by car from my house!

I saw a waterfall near the upper Perimeter trail, cascading down boulders.  Is that Clark Falls?  I steered toward that direction, hiking a short section of the Perimeter trail to get to a social trail off the main trail.  The falls apparently are popular enough to create a trail to.

Getting injured here is not good, and I was aware of my footing.  It's now warm enough for snakes.  I'll come back here after a heavy rain.  Once I made it this far up the falls, I realized I was a good mile from where I had parked.  I took the dogs over the closest hill, then took Miller Canyon road back down to where I was parked.  In my 14 years here, this is the first time I really explored the canyon.  We had hiked 3.5 miles.