Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM

Hike Report for May 29, 2025

Hi there dear readers; hot enough for you? (assuming you are in the area).  Today was a hike we have missed for years and years: Price Canyon !  This is an absolutely beautiful canyon with huge Cypress, Apache pines, great Madrones, bedrock pools and fabulous rock formations.  Also home to a trail that was destroyed by fallen trees and flooding following the 2011 Horseshoe 2 fire. 

 

 

We are very grateful to the Chiricahua Wilderness Trail Crew (lead by John Sumner), the Sierra Club Trail Crew (lead by Howard Kellogg) and members of the Portal/Rodeo Hiking group - for cutting the fallen trees, clearing brush and starting to repair the tread up the Canyon.  The volunteer groups have really pulled it off!

We got an early start because it’s getting hot and it is a longish drive to Price Canyon (time-wise not miles).  It is only 11 miles from Highway 80 to the trail head but the road is rough and we love our tires, shocks and oil pans.  Six of us made the drive.  Many of the oak trees have dropped their leaves to save moisture (dry season deciduous) and the grasses have gone dormant so it was a bleak drive out to Price.  However, at the trail head the morning air was cool and clean, pines and oaks shaded the the parking area and we were ready to get going.  I really like this trail because the first part is almost level and I don’t have a lot of energy early in the day so it’s easy to drop back until the caffeine kicks in. 

After the first mile we got to where the trail crews had cleared the fallen trees and rebuilt the creek crossing.  What a difference skilled and dedicated people make!  Freshly cut tree trunks that had fallen across the trail now were rolled to the side.  Thickets of cypress saplings or ceanothus have been cut and tossed aside and the trail has reappeared on the terrace.

   

The old trail had disappeared into impenetrable thickets or fallen dead trees before, and now we just hiked on through … 

     

                            

We got to the junction with Baker Canyon (about 3 miles) in time for lunch.  Bill’s lost car keys were discussed to keep the memory of the old historian alive :)

 

 

 

The Sierra Club group had gotten a little further up Price Canyon but eventually stopped short of the shrine.  We did find some of the lost trail and flagged the route to help the next group get started.  We got within a 1/4 mile of the Shrine, but there were too many down trees and ten-year-old brush thickets in our way.  We’ll get there next time for sure.

Next week we will do a hike that is close to Portal and isn’t so rough.  We’ll meet at 8 AM AZ time 9 AM NM at the berm in South Fork of Cave Creek and hike upstream.  Remember to bring water, lunch, hat, sunscreen and good hiking boots. The grade is generally gentle and the route not brushy. This is an “up and back” hike so people can turn around at any time.

Hike report from Al, photos from Elly & Elaine