Gradually the valley narrowed however, and we could see the first of the canyon walls ahead. The first couple of miles were in a wide shallow valley, good cow country which explains the abandoned cattle camp where we parked. There was a fairly generous flow of water, but in this stretch the streambed is flat and broad, so stream crossings were “feet dry” for the most part, jumping from rock to sandbar to rock, etc. There is a lot of ATV/OHV activity in this area, so the early part of the hike is on a 4-wheeler trail which criss-crosses the creek several times in the first couple of miles. We will head south out of here, downstream toward the Salt River. It still has a fair amount of snow remaining from last weeks storms. Lots of parking room here, and the camp lies right next to the creek, so makes a great trail head.Īlthough it’s still about 10-12 miles away, Four Peaks dominates the eastern horizon. You can identify this parking spot by the corral, and a huge old stone water tank. ![]() After a few miles on 143, hang a right on Forest Road 401 until it terminates in a valley at an old cattle station called “Cottonwood Camp”. To reach the creek we drove north on the BeeLine highway to Forest Road 143. This creek starts high to the east below Browns Peak, and is the major drainage of the entire western flank of Four Peaks. The trek he planned was the lower 5 miles of Cottonwood Creek (10 miles round trip). He planned to hike “about 10 miles over flat terrain” through a “gorgeous canyon” below Four Peaks north of the Salt River. But Monday afternoon I got an email and visit from George asking me if I wanted to try “a new one”. Probably would have done Siphon Draw, but frankly that one isn’t on my “top 5” list. ![]() The scheduled hike for this Wednesday was either a “challenger” trip up the Flatiron, or an intermediate trip to Siphon Draw.
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