Santa Cruz Spring Canyon

By Denis & Sandi Inman

We wanted to finish the trails that we intended to complete on Wednesday, so Jim, Vic and I met at Horizon Market at Mesquite and the 160 at 7:30 this morning to begin our run. Shortly after we turned onto Powerline Road heading North, we ran into the first of several small herds of horses that we were to encounter today. After we made the turn heading Northeast towards Roadrunner, we came to a second group and just before entering the narrow canyon at Santa Cruz Spring, we spotted a third gathering.

The canyon trail is very narrow, particularly for a 4 door Jeep and even though I came close, I didn’t tear any fenders off this trip. We all made it to the very end without damage, but on the return trip, Vic hit a rock that knocked his steering out of whack. Jim smashed the plastic portion of his right front fender and later, I also hit an outcrop and bent something in my steering.

As we were exiting the canyon, the herd of horses we saw while going in, were anxious to get a drink and became very agitated that we were blocking their way. They were running back and forth across the trail, preventing us from clearing the opening for them to enter the canyon. Eventually they moved aside, we proceeded forward and they could get to the spring behind us.

Due to the carnage, we didn’t even try to get find Pah Rump Spring, so we have more exploring to do after a few reconstruction projects.