Photos of a hike on the Two Bar Ridge Trail in the Superstition Mountain Wilderness

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The Two Bar Ridge Trail is a remote trail in the Superstition Wilderness that sees little traffic. It's 17 miles round trip and took about 14 hours of hiking carrying 5 liters of water for two days in late November. The hiking is slow due to dodging Prickly Pear and other plants growing into the trail. Several times it took 10 minutes of circling the last known cairn to find the next one which turned out to be hidden by new growth. (And this was before the very wet spring of 2005.) This hike is part of the Arizona Trail. Access to the trailhead requires 4WD and High Clearance.

I picked the cool weather of late November to reduce the amount of water that I needed to carry--just 5 liters. The trade-off was that it sleeted on me on the way out. During a wet fall or spring, you should be able to count on water at Walnut Spring.

The starting and ending elevation is 4540 feet. The low is 3970 feet. The high is= 4965 feet. The round trip has lots of ups and downs!

The trip is noted for it's long distance views but mostly just for the fun of traveling through a remote and rarely visted area. There are two spots next to the trail with low remnants of stone walls from prehistoric dwellings. There is one spring along the route: Walnut spring. It had water during my November trip but was somewhat fouled by animal scat. Based soley on plant growth in the area and the adjacent prehistoric walls, it probably has water most years during the hiking season but it may not be much more than damp mud in the summer heat.

The Tule Canyon Trail drops down from the Two Bar Ridge trail about 1/3 of the way south. The southern end of the Two Bar Ridge trail is at the junction with the Reavis Gap Trail. Either could be used as emergency exits. There's an active ranch near the bottom of the Tule trail and Reevis Mountain School and Sanctuary is at the bottom of the Reavis Gap Trail.

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