Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM

Barfoot hike, 8/20/26

For us in Portal… what a night!  A thunderstorm with ice cube sized hail stones pounded a section of town and up Cave Creek Canyon.  The 42 Road through the Visitor Center well past the SWRS was covered with leaves shredded from trees.  Enough rain was dropped to get the Creek flowing under the bridge at the Portal Cafe.  Most of the flow came from the middle and north forks; not the south fork.  With yesterday’s rain and threats for some on hike day we decided on a tamer destination.

Nine of us (and a nice dog) carpooled to Rustler Park.  Some additional flow was noted in Turkey Creek on the way up.  The monsoons have not improved the drive up the mountain but haven’t hurt it any either.

Rustler Park and the trail to Barfoot Lookout are green and yellow.  Green from the braken ferns and yellow from several species of composites.  We should mention the purple verbena and thistles that accentuate the yellows. 

The trail is a narrow strip between waist-high vegetation.  The dog had no view at all because of the trail-side vegetation was taller than he was, and he fortunately missed seeing a tiny whitetail deer fawn that was led away by its mom.  The first fawn of the year?  We had to move slowly because of the thick vegetation and and uncertain footing.  Another obstacle was the ripe black cherry fruit that along the trail, yum.

 

Most dead trees from Horseshoe 2 fire have already fallen but a couple smaller ones could be stepped over and one large tree was easy to walk around.  Only 4 of us hiked up to the old fire lookout site to enjoy the view. 

The others took a break then went downhill.

The trail down to Barfoot Park is getting overgrown and could use a crew to do lopping.  But the aspen stand was great, and the silver/white trunks and green canopy was refreshing to the spirit.  We had lunch at tables at the old Boy Scout camp.  A pool of water is still below the meadow for birds to drink and bird photographers to photograph the birds as they drink.

We hiked the road from Barfoot Park back around to Rustler Park.  After the first steep section the rest is as close to level as we ever get in these mountains.  During the drive back to Portal (and down into the valley heat) we noted an unusually large number of vehicles going uphill and wondered if archery deer season was starting this weekend (?)

 

Next week we decided to escape the heat and return to the mountain top and Crest Trail.  Probably most raspberries will be done and the aspen leaves won’t be turning color for another 2 months, but we don’t care.  Cool temperatures and green vegetation are good enough.  Meet at the Silver Peak parking lot at 8 AM AZ or 9 AM NM.  The hike will be on good trails but at 9000 ft.  Bring hat, sun protection, lunch, water and good boots.  Optimists can bring a container for raspberries or just eat them if you find any.

Hike report from Al, photos from Elly, Carol & Peter