Horton Springs
For those of you who don’t know, my dream car is the dark grey 4Runner. I have dreamt of and drooled over these cars for years and THIS WEEK I FINALLY GOT ONE! Best day of my life honestly. Obviously I wanted, nope needed, to take the 4Runner somewhere for the weekend but camping doesn’t really make sense since Casey’s Tacoma has all the essentials we would need. We decided that backpacking would be the best weekend adventure so we could take the 4Runner out but not be missing the Blue Cow. I took to google and with my ~amazing~ research skills I came upon Horton’s creek. Look no further I had found the perfect place. Water and a trip we could do in one night? Sold!
We texted Kevin and Sarah about our plans during the week because they had mentioned that they were backpacking fans and they quickly said they were in. We packed our bags late Friday night and woke up Saturday morning around 6am to head up to the trail head. The trail head is easy to get to from the Phoenix/Scottsdale area as it is just an hour and a half drive into Payson. To everyone's disbelief we had left the house on time, and were set to arrive at the trail head at 9:06, only 6 minutes late! But per usual, when we were 7 minutes away I remembered that we had forgotten our backpacking spork/utensils. Quickly we turned around and bee lined for the closest circle K for some plastic spoons. Thankfully they had waited for us at the trail head and weren’t too mad.
Our original plan was to just take Horton Creek Trail in and out but Sarah and Kevin had looked into the hike and found an alternative entrance in through Derrick Trail. We headed up the trail and it was a beautiful day, 70s and sunny. The hike in through Derrick Trail is 6 miles long and does a total of 1800 in elevation change. The hike is on the harder side I would say. The first 4 miles are a gradual climb but the ground is relatively even with decent footing. Things level out for a little before one last push of switchbacks. After that you drop down quickly back to the creek. The views along the hike are amazing and make the hike well worth it. There are plenty of spots with shade cover that make for perfect places to stop and catch your breath and have a snack. The trail is pretty empty and we only passed 3 or 4 other groups of people. That is a huge plus for us. Backpacking is always better the more isolated you are.
The hike took us about 3.5 hours to complete. Once we arrived at the creek we followed the path up to where the spring comes out of the mountain and went left through the wire fence. There were plenty of camp sites up at the top of the spring. The sites had logs / stumps for sitting and cooking and built up fire rings, but unfortunately there was a fire ban when we were there. We all picked our sites and set up camp. Its always the best feeling when you take your pack off and can relax. We grabbed some snacks and headed down to the creek to replenish our water. The water in the spring coming out of the mountain is said to be clean but we all filtered it just to be sure.
We had dinner and Casey and I called it a night pretty early (like the sun not down yet early, lol). Sleeping weather was beautiful, but as it usually goes with backpacking, our nights sleep was terrible. Benci couldn’t figure out how to relax and sleep, and every time Casey rolled over I woke up.
We woke up early the next day, which is shocking for me as I always sleep in. We had breakfast and packed up camp and were ready to head out by 9am. All things considered we are happy that we were up and out so early. We were able to beat the heat, but more importantly the crowds. We had read that the trail was heavily trafficked, but we didn’t realize just how crowded it would get until we passed everyone on our way out.
It was a great weekend and a lot of fun. I highly recommend this backpacking trip to anyone who wants to escape the heat and get away for a night.
