Horse Canyon Miners' Highlights - 6/13/24

Macks Peak from Horse Peak

Ridge Route around to Horse Peak

View from old mining Road

Starting up Macks Canyon Road

If game trails and old miners' trails are your thing, this hike is for you. We have been exploring the Horse Canyon area for a few years now and this figure 8 loop represents three of its highlights; Camp 84, Horse Peak, and Nutans Road. It isn't a hike for beginners. The hike sometimes uses game trails, old mining trails, an unmaintained wash, and mild scramble routes. Brush is a constant. There is also a total of two very steep ascents and two very steep descents in scree. Fun? Well, then have at it! We did! Five of us parked at the Macks Canyon Road entrance on Lee Canyon Road. (By driving into Macks Canyon Road to the junction of Horse Canyon Road, you can knock off 1.2 miles.)

Camp 84

Ridge Route game Trail

Rocky Tor on Ridge Route

Desert below from Ridge Route

At the Horse Canyon Road, we turned left and hiked up  about a quarter mile where there is a small boulder on the left side of the road. We turned left to climb steeply up to the ridge while traversing south. The old miner's camp is still located on the ridge at the 8400' elevation. From there, we began a vaguely trailed, sometimes brushy traverse of the ridge to the south. This is probably the messiest section of the hike. We stayed as close to the ridge as possible as it curved south and west. A familiar trail appeared and we followed it all the way around to Horse Peak at around 8900'. There, we descended to the saddle below taking a deserved break in the shade on the side of the hill. The hike continued by dropping down the scree slope all the way down to the wash below to the left. I have called this Elks Club Wash due to the abundance of old elk scat found the first time we used the wash as a route.

Light trail on Ridge Route

Looking tired after Ridge Route

Horse Peak at Last!

Break in the Shade

At about 2.9 miles into the hike, we turned left up out of Elks Club to find the old mining road where you can find old mining equipment strewn over the area. These are the remains of the Ada & Edith Mine. We found Nutans Road and began following it on a traverse around the ridge to the east and the northwest, passed some more mining remains and took another small break in the shade. As Nutans Road took a last turn, we followed a use trail until we found ourselves climbing steeply up a scree slope to the ridge we had traversed earlier. It would have been better to head for a saddle on the ridge, however, as the brush would have it, we ended up on the highest peak of the ridge (!) only to start down the other side. Knowing this area helps as you cross the trail that you used before on the Ridge Route.

Old mine Site

Another mine Site

Gaining the Ridge

Heading down upper Horse Canyon

There is a somewhat open hillside to descend down into the upper part of Horse Canyon to find the upper regions of a trail that leads down to Horse Canyon Road. Thrilled that the hike was returning to a real trail, we happily arrived at the Horse Canyon Spring which is surrounded by a good amount of grass! Just after that, we sent a "puddle" of butterflies flurrying! There were Charleston blues and Painted ladies. On the way down the road, we passed a few other hikers and a ranger truck who stopped to ask if we had a good hike. Boy, did we ever! He had no idea! 😉 Yeah, just a little hike up the road and back! 😏

Stats: 5.2 miles; 1775' gain; 4.75 hours

Horse Canyon Spring

"Puddling" Butterflies

Horse Canyon Road