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Porcupine Ranch 151009

October 9, 2015 by Monica

Porcupine Ranch

Trail Run on October 9, 2015
Report and photos by Monica I., Trail Leader
View trail information for Porcupine Ranch

Monica I.
Red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
Roger R.
White 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon
Mike S.
Silver 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
Julie M.
Green 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

There are three trails named after the wall that is called Porcupine Rim. The Porcupine Rim trail is the most popular as it goes to the rim itself, at the top. The Porcupine 4x4 Trail next to Porcupine Rim is also popular, though it doesn't go to the rim itself. Porcupine Ranch is in the valley with Porcupine Rim towering over it. We were headed to this last one after doing Pinhook Valley, and we'd be intersecting with that trail again.

Porcupine Ranch starts next to a house and the road is graded and wide. It was easy and fast as we worked our way into the valley. Porcupine Rim looked massive ahead of us. It wasn't long at all before we found ourselves at an open gate with a "no trespassing" sign.

The road we wanted was on our GPS units, but it went through the gate. We stayed there for a bit trying to figure out what to do. There was a little-used trail that followed the fence next to us, and Mike took it for a bit to see if it was just for fence maintenance or if it was actually a trail. He found a forest service sign, so that was the way to go. We all followed.

It was a bit odd, following a trail with little use when we could see the trail we were expecting not too far away from us behind the fence. Luckily, it soon turned and we crossed a dry wash to find the intersection with the trail on the other side. There were signs on the fence to tell people to drive around. The trail had been rerouted around the property.

After that, the trail was pretty cool as it worked its way across the valley. It felt like we were so isolated, even though you could see us from Porcupine Rim very easily. We hoped that someone was watching us and wondering what we were doing driving across and open valley. There were bare trees around us, damaged from a fire years ago. It made it a bit creepy, even in the bright sunshine.

We connected with the Pinhook Valley trail and headed up to the top of the mesa. Then we turned away from that trail and headed off to explore the narrow strip of land. There was supposed to be a Pinhook Draw Historical Marker up there somewhere, so when the trail ended we all got out to look for it. Even though we really combed the area up there we couldn't find anything. Further research hasn't turned up anything, either. It's a mystery!

The trail continued, and we could see the La Sal Loop Road above us. How would we get up there? The trail weaved through some trees and we could see a final hill climb up to the pavement. We popped out at an unmarked break in the road to see people on bicycles headed down the hill. We turned right to go over to Sand Flats Road so we could see the whole area from above. This was a nice network of trails in the valley.

across_a_meadow
across_the_valley
blue_sky
bumpy
cactus
carsonite
distant_mountain
easy_but_scenic
enclosed
gate_at_private_property
graded
harpole_mesa_part_1
harpole_mesa_part_2
julie_and_mike
little_used
long_road
low_trees
near_the_hill
overlooks_above
porcupine_rim
scenic
start_of_the_trail
through_trees
to_the_highway
top
turn_at_the_gate
wash_part_1
wash_part_2
wavy
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