sabino dam

The Box Spring Trail appears on many maps – but it is fading back into the mountain. The sign that used to mark the junction with the Box Camp Trail is gone, the start of the trail has been obscured and the original track no longer exists.

1405 Obscured start of the Box Spring Trail — The start of the Box Camp Trail – obscured – and with good reason, this ‘trail’ is now at best a rugged off-trail adventure. May 2014.

The first part of the Box Spring trail is very overgrown, but it is still somewhat reasonable up to a small (rather nice) saddle (where you leave the trail for Brinkley Point) – below the saddle you can follow a path and cairns, but the trail quickly becomes much more aggressively overgrown, the footing loose and the route obscure. Eventually the route starts to follow a rugged drainage.

1405 Alison working down the drainage — Working down the drainage that takes you down to Sabino Canyon – not the original path of the trail, but now probably the best option… May 2014.

Sections of the drainage are filled with debris, part very overgrown and occasionally it is filled with Poison Ivy – barely a route except for the cairns I suppose… but the reward…

1405 Looking up Sabino Canyon — Clear water flowing in Sabino Canyon! May 2014.

Sabino Canyon! The Arizona Daily Star reported today that Sabino Creek stops flowing 3 weeks earlier than last 2 years at Sabino Dam – but here, high in Sabino Canyon, there is clear water, pools and flow…

1405 Pools and Cliffs in Sabino Canyon below Box Spring — Pools and cliffs below the junction of the Sabino Canyon and the Box Spring route. May 2014.