Chihuahua Gulch
We had spent the day on trails covered with snow, and we expected the same thing from Chihuahua Gulch. We were pleasantly surprised to find very little snow, with lots of fun to be had on the rocks. It was great!
We started up the trail without snow, and it was awhile before we saw any. We saw a Toyota FJ Cruiser coming out of the trail as we were going in, and it was the same one we had seen earlier on Cinnamon Gulch. We followed their tracks in the dirt all the way to the first creek crossing.
The creek didn't have any ice on it, but the turn and uphill climb on the other side had some snow. There weren't any tire tracks, but there were quite a few hiker tracks as well as animal tracks. When we got to the other side, we found that climbing the snowy hill was no problem at all.
The second creek crossing was still wide but not deep. There was a thin layer of ice on the top that we easily broke through. It was still pretty cool to cross this area, and the scenery was amazing. The view of the huge gulch (it's more like a valley) was breathtaking.
We climbed up and down the rocks, and found a light dusting of snow on the railroad ties in the trail. No one slid off of them, though, so it wasn't an issue.
It wasn't long at all before we made our way across the gulch and to the end of the 4x4 trail. We didn't get out of our Jeeps, choosing to enjoy the scenery from warm seats. It wasn't that cold, but we were feeling lazy.
We headed back, and soon we were on our way down to the trailhead after going through the final creek crossing. Don heard a noise and got out to check, and found that one of the end caps on his axle shaft u-joints was gone. Rather than risk it, we found a flat place to pull off of the trail and he got to work.
He had a few issues with a messed-up bolt, but he was happy to find some extras in his bag of spare bolts. We were soon on our way after enjoying some more time in the sun before it went down.
We aired up at the Peru Creek trailhead with plenty of daylight left. Most of us went to Dos Lobos for a fantastic dinner, where most of us also discovered that we had sunburned faces.
It was a fabulous day, and we headed for home at an unusually early hour. The 2007 season is almost over, and we were missing it already.
Reports from Other Days: 3
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Chihuahua Gulch. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
