Art's Desert Exploration Blog: Mesquite Flat

As you travel west on Apache Trail towards Tortilla Flat, you can see a dirt road going up the side of a mesa just north of Tortilla Flat. For years I've wondered where that road goes. Once or twice I had tried to follow it, but it can't be seen when you get down to where it joins Apache Trail, and I couldn't figure out how to get the truck across Mesquite Creek (because of cliffs, not water). I finally figured out how to get to that road, though. I hiked up it, though I think I could have driven it. I finally know where it goes. And I'm not going to make you skip ahead to the end of the blog to find out. It goes up a hill and stops. I didn't stop, though. I continued on to the top of the mesa and spent the afternoon wandering around up there.

Crossing Mesquite Creek

For once I had left the house early enough that I had plenty of time to do what I wanted to do. I brought lots of water so I wouldn't have to turn back when I ran low. I brought snacks for when I got hungry. Wow, for once I did it right. Maybe.

The road on the way up.

It was easy to get to the top. No climbing required. No tiptoeing along cliff edges. There was a slightly worn trail all the way up, with the occasional cairn. The trail looked like about 15 people had used it on one day, and some of them had shoes that didn't have very good traction. The scree gave me a little trouble on the way down.

The trail beyond the end of the road.

The route to the top follows a "gentle" slope to the base of some cliffs, then goes left almost horizontally to get to a spot where it's easy to get to the top. That little jog to the left is important.

I stopped here to rest and take in the view for a while.

I was sitting at a high point along the cliffs when some people camping down at Mesquite Flat started shooting a gun. They could have been shooting at a target, or a saguaro, or a cliff. I have seen bullet marks on cliff faces and found flattened bullets at the base of cliffs. I couldn't tell exactly where the shots were coming from and didn't hear them hitting nearby. It made me a little nervous though. I've seen people shooting in the desert, and some of them spray bullets in all directions. So I decided to say something. I yelled, "HEY!", which was immediately followed by another shot. Well, that shot was probably fired before I yelled. We were probably more than half a mile apart. Then there were two more shots fired in quick succession. Was that their way of saying "hey" back? Were they trying to tell me to take cover? I was a little annoyed, then I heard someone yell, "Sorry". Not another shot was fired the rest of the afternoon. That was nice.

Were the shots coming from there?

I found a skull.

I enjoyed being able to take my time exploring up there. I went from one end of the mesa to the other. I took over 300 pictures of mountains, flowers, cacti, and Tortilla Flat. According to my i-gotU I covered less than 4 miles, but it felt like more.

Tortilla Flat from above.

Zoomed in on Tortilla Flat.

The ground up there was covered with fist sized rocks. They made it difficult to walk. After a couple of hours I felt like I needed boots with stiffer soles.

After almost 4 hours up there I decided it was time to head down. My feet hurt and the snacks were not very filling. I walked back to the place where the hill came up the side. Remember that comment earlier about the path taking a jog to the left? Well, I had been up there for so long, I had forgotten about that. When I got to the spot that I thought I needed to be, I saw cliffs. I was standing there trying to remember how I had gotten up there when I looked to my right and saw light from the setting sun on a slope away from the mesa. For there to be sunshine there, there had to be a break in the cliff face there. Woohoo! I went back to the sunny spot and easily found my way down. I'm going to have to pay more attention to where I'm going in the future. It would be really embarrassing to have to push the 911 button on my SPOT.