A two-hour hike in the Ape Cave Lava Tube is a tasty, bite-sized bit of adventure. It’s accessible, scenic, and a great example of how volcanoes shape the earth. Bring your flashlights, cameras and rain jackets!
caves
Feds Closing Dacite Cliffs Mine in Superstitions
The Superstition Mountains over on the east side of Phoenix is one of the most scenic and historic places near the city. And it’s still riddled with mine shafts and tunnels (not the same thing – shafts, or adits, are horizontal and shafts are vertical). One of the most-visited is Carney’s Mine in the Dacite Cliffs. It’s also sometimes called the Dacite Cliffs Mine.
Call it what you want – by any name, it’s a solid tunnel offering little danger aside from the overwhelming smell of bat guano. It’s bored into solid volcanic rock, and it’s a cool link to Arizona’s wild mining past. But the federal government has decided to bar it to further visitors. The reasons given?
1. Achieve visitor management in such a manner that preserves the wilderness character of the area, whatever the hell that means. I’m assuming the feds think putting metal bars on a mine shaft matches wilderness character, unlike rock climbers putting much-less obvious climbing bolts in the rock. Go figure.
2. Reduce risk of exposure to rabies, undetonated explosives (I call BS on this – clearing that mine of any undetonated explosives would be faster and cheaper than using metals bars to block the way), carbon monoxide poisoning (again, easier to check for the gas) and keeping people from bugging the bats, as if they’re endangered or something.
Closing tunnels is such a knee-jerk reaction. Shafts can truly be dangerous, and sometimes tunnels contain shafts. But still, why not evaluate them on a case-by-case basis and [...]
Creatures and Caves – Hiking Canyon Vista and Walnut Canyon
In July, I was off to Flagstaff for more a bit of fun. For my wife, it was hard work – she was competing in the Mountain Man Half-Ironman Triathlon around Upper Lake Mary.
I woke up at 4:30 a.m. right along with her after a fairly fitful night of sleep at the Travelodge on Butler Street (thanks, trains, for blaring those horns!). The Travelodge isn’t too bad if you can manage to get a room on the side of the hotel that doesn’t face the tracks.
Anyway, my plan was to get her on her way, cruise out somewhere for a hike, then return by the time she was switching from the bike portion to the running. I grabbed a ranger at Lake Mary, who told me to head to Canyon Vista Campground. I did as he said, including following the path to the back where there was parking for a trailhead. There was also a map, but it actually didn’t seem very up-to-date.
I stepped into my La Sportiva Trango Trek boots (just in case it was a rocky trail), fired up the GPS, double-checked my water and headed off. For those who wonder about such things, I was also carrying my Pentax K100D-Super, an assortment of lenses, some energy bars, a Leatherman and a sturdy knife. My mistake was not packing my headlamp. More on that later.
If you bear left, the path first goes past a cool rubble field (you can also veer right if you want to go rock [...]
