Hike report for May 25, 2023

Five of us met to hike up to the beautiful North Fork of Cave Creek waterfall.  We start at the Welch Seep/Basin Trail parking lot on FS 42, then head upstream instead of crossing the creek.  

There is no trail (except what bear and deer have provided), but the first part of the hike is easy enough - through some nice oak woodland eventually giving way to tall conifers, etc.  The diversity of trees and other plants in this canyon is remarkable!  Eventually, we reached pools where there are still descendants of rainbow trout stocked decades ago.  We spotted some that were 6 - 8 inches.

The canyon narrows, and you have to navigate through creek crossings and fallen logs (and huge patches of nettle) but then are rewarded with tall cliffs and a glimpse of the falls.

        

One goal on this hike was to re-visit a Blue-throated Mountain Gem (hummingbird) nest site.  We have found nests here with an incubating bird or chicks being fed over the years.  

Some hikers turned back after lunch, but two of us stayed and finally found the nest behind a curtain of the waterfall.  We thought we would stay a while to see if the female (that all of us saw earlier) would come back to it.  We sat for a long time and did not see her, so I thought to go over to find a place high enough to look in for eggs, and lo-and-behold - there she was, sitting on the nest.  How did she sneak in there behind the waterfall, and we missed her?  I will have to go up with a better camera, but here are some photos if you use your imagination: 

    

            

             approximate location of nest                      Mountain Gem on nest

Next week, we’d like to go over to the Chiricahua National Monument and hike on a real trail.  It takes about 1 hour, 15 minutes to drive over the top at Onion Saddle (and back) so it will be a longer day.  We’ll still meet at the Silver Peak trailhead at 8 AM AZ; 9 AM NM to carpool - if people want to do a local, shorter hike they can get together then.  The weather is getting hot so remember water, lunch, hat and sunscreen.

Hike report from Elaine

Photos from Elaine & Peter

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