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| Wild Horse Canyon Trail |
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| Wild Horse Ridge Trail |
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| Entering Wild Horse Canyon at the Bottom |
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| Debbie & Karl in Wild Horse Canyon |
The Wild Horse Loop packs a lot into two little miles! Six hikers drove up through the dense smoke from California wildfires to the Cougar Ridge Trailhead located on Deer Creek Road near the North Loop Trailhead. The smoke has never been as thick in the high elevations as it was today. Luckily, our hike was a short one and we were up and down in less than 2 hours. From the trailhead, we crossed the pavement and walked a short way down part of the old Deer Creek Road to where Wild Horse Canyon spills out. Ducking into the trees and between rock walls, we started up the beautiful trail. The trail climbs up out of the walls and into a large ponderosa pine forest. The trail is very clear as it zigzags around fallen trees and up by the columbine plants.
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| Climbing through Ponderosas |
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| Hiking by Columbine Flowers |
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| The Wild Horse Canyon Spring |
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| Junctioning with Cactus Jack Trail |
The gradual slope eventually turns a little steeper but only for a short distance. Columbine plants cover the center of the canyon. They are fed by at least one spring that emerges among them. The canyon trail climbs about a mile before you reach a trail junction. If you turn to the left, the trail continues up small switchbacks and over to the North Loop meadow. We turned to the right. This is Cactus Jack Trail, a trail formulated by and named after an old timer hiker here in Las Vegas. The Cactus Jack Trail connects hikers between Wild Horse Canyon and Wild Horse Ridge. We climbed a little as we made our way over to the ridge. In the background, we could barely see Mummy's Nose through the smoke. At the top end of Wild Horse Ridge, we sat for our break and a smokey view!
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| Top of Wild Horse Ridge |
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| Smoke in the Spring Mountains |
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| Smokey Six |
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| Wild Horse Ridge |
After taking a photo of the group on a nearby fallen tree, we started down the half mile of rock ridge. There is a bit of exposure on the left side and a gentler slope down to the canyon on the right side. We hiked down the slope then dropped down off the end of the ridge. Turning to the right, we took the trail that connects down to the lower portion of Wild Horse Canyon. From there, we finished dropping back down to the trailhead. The smoke did not clear up at all while we were up on the mountain. Rita and I dropped by the Resort Hotel on the way down the mountain and attended an Arts & Crafts Fair in the parking lot. Very creative stuff here and they will be here tomorrow also.
Stats: 2 miles; 600' gain; 1.5 hours
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| Hiking down Wild Horse Ridge Trail |
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| Overlook to Deer Creek Road |
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| Exiting Wild Horse Canyon |
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