May 23, 2025

To Gila R Alternate mile 49.7

Hiked today: 19 miles / 30.6 km

It was quite cold when we started hiking this morning. We soon encountered river crossings and our feet and hands were numb with the cold. Rather ironic since the daytime temperatures are in the high 30s (92 F today). After about 7.5 miles, the last 2 along the road, we reached Doc Campbell’s store.

We had sent a food package here, and they were holding it for us on the store. The shop here was very well stocked,  and,  had we known this we could easily have bought all we needed without sending a parcel. While sorting out supplies and cleaning our dishes, we were caught up yet again by a group of 3 hikers that we have seen at each town stop.

On from Doc Campbell’s was initially a couple of miles along the road to a visitor centre and from there we decided to take a side trip to see the amazing cliff dwellings. People have lived in the cave for between 2 and 3 thousand years. The actual adobe house ruins in the caves are about 750 yrs old.

It was a hot walk back to where we had left our packs at the trailhead. We took water from a faucet there and headed up a well graded path up to a ridge overlooking Little Bear Canyon. We then followed the trail as it wound down into a beautiful narrow gorge, with just a trickle of water at the bottom.

After a few hours, we reached the junction with the Gila River where a group of 40 people (mostly children) were setting up camp.

Not wanting to be close to such a big group, we moved on by the river, back to crossings and wet feet! We found a flat spot to set up camp and Rob has hung our food from a tree some distance from our tent.