Monday Mesa Regal Hike - Black Cross Mesa

We have great memories of Monday hikes with the group from Mesa Regal (our RV resort)from years past and are happy to go on this first hike of the season for us. We meet at 7:45 on Monday, December 3 and car pool together about an hour's drive to Tortilla Flat. This is an old time saloon at the end of the paved road going into the Tonto National Wildernesss. It has a real old west feel has good coffee and toilets - essential for beginning our hike. We drive about 20 more minutes on a gravel road to the traihead. The road continues 3 more miles of zig-zagging down into the canyon of the Salt River to the Horse Mesa Dam. But the road is only for dam workers so we park and start our hike from here. Bruce is an experienced hiker and is the leader of our group of 16 today. We will hike up to and around that yellow cliff face

At the lower left hand corner we can still see the parked cars. Our elevation gain will be 780' by the time we get to the top of the mesa.

One of the first "creatures" we see on our hike is this large tarantula. As our leader, Bruce knows what to look for on the trail - especially at the base of bushes and rocks along the trail. The call goes out from our leader and a sudden stop -"Rattlesnake by the trail!" Sure enough, there is a good sized rattler with at least 14 rattles on his tail, curled up sunning himself on a rock by the side of the path. We all halt - but pass our cameras to Bruce so we can get photos of the snake. We do not often see rattlers when we are hiking because it is often too cool in the winter months for these cold blooded creatures to be out - they are semi hibernating through the winter months but November has been unseasonably warm so they are still active. We all quietly walk around him - not easy to do as the path is at the edge of the canyon.

We gain the top of the mesa and have a wonderful view of Four peaks in the distance

We're going to hike over to that cave to have our lunch.

See that mesa ahead? that's Black Mesa and we'll hike to the top and walk around the flat grassy area. Jack and 3 others decide to stay back and wait for us.

From the top of the mesa, we have wonderful views of the surrounding area - canyons that rival the Grand Canyon. The Salt River winds through the deep cut canyon and we can just see Horse Mesa Dam - one of the several dams that help to control the water flow for the Phoenix area.

    The mesa top it flat and easy to walk around - mostly grassy with differnt kinds of cacti. We find the black cross that gives this mesa it's name - we don't know why it is here or what it means.

    After climbing down from the mesa to the saddle and picking up the four left behind, we begin our trek down to the trail head. It has been a 4.5 mile hike but over lots of rough terrain and quite a bit of climbing. We had a great time!