| Ten Ewe - Indian Canyon Hiker's Route Route |
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| Ten Ewe - Indian Canyon Hiker's Route   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Arizona, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 33.35900°N / 114.082°W Route Type: Almost all cross country. Rocky, brushy, lots of Time Required: Most of a day Difficulty: Class 2-3
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| Page By: surgent Created/Edited: Aug 23, 2003 / Sep 23, 2005 Object ID: 158594 Hits: 867 Loading... Page Score: 87.25% - 4 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
See the main page for driving directions.
Route Description
Hike into the canyon with Ten Ewe Peak at your 12 o'clock. See the photo for an idea. Hike in among wash bottoms for a short bit, but generally stay 'center' and start up the rocky slopes at some point (you'll need to use your instincts here). Reach a large rock cairn at: UTM 0772992/3695291 (NAD27 CONUS). Here, a use path winds very steeply past further cairns to a small flat knob. The trail continues past this knob, gaining steeply to achieve a more significant saddle (0772570/3694996). Along this portion you have to negotiate loose scree, bad trails, lots of brush, some rock scrambling (nothing too exposed), and a final steep push below a huge rock face to achieve this saddle.
From the saddle, peer across the bowl to your south and view some smooth-looking rocks. This is an occasional waterfall and your next destination. Leave the nice wide saddle and follow a poor trail as it dips slightly, heading somewhat east then south. Resist the temptation to follow the better-looking trail (read on for what to do if you do end up following this better path). The poorer-quality trail is hard to pick up but soon some cairns help. Just walk this bit and gain very steeply through big rocks to this waterfall section. Keep an eye for more cairns. You will walk in about 50 feet and leave this smooth rock on your right (west). (0772237/3694816)
From the waterfall area, you will follow a trail/cairn mix up a mostly rocky drainage. In some areas you will use hands and do some minor scrambling. This should lead you to another saddle (0771707/3694832) and from there, the summit is a short trail walk about 500 yards away.
One way mileage is only 2 miles, and about 2,000 feet of gain. But, if you are unfamiliar with these lower Sonoran conditions, you should allot a whole day for this. The log had many signatures of people saying stuff like "took me 3 tries", etc. Most of the time your common sense should prevail. There are no trees. Wear long pants, good boots, and bring gloves. In fact, bring pliers in case you should touch a cholla cactus. Their spines are barbed and they hurt like hell, and they are everywhere! I've done this peak twice and even on try #2, knowing the route, it still took 6 hours r/t.
Essential Gear
Long pants, good boots, GPS, map, poles, gloves. Lots of cactus.
Have I mentioned cactus?
You don't know annoying pain until you get a cholla ball attached to your skin.
Images
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Arizona County Highpoints
