Hiked Sunday, November 7, 2021. Been thinking about doing this hike again for quite some time. I'm somewhat surprised to discover
I first hiked this over ten years ago. Hiked it
again about two years after that.
In the interim, there had been at least one major fire and at least one major flooding event, which resulted in a regrading of Black Mountain Road. For a while, I couldn't find the turnoff. The place I stopped the first time doesn't seem to exist, any more. But, being a crosscountry hike, that doesn't matter too much. I mainly just needed a wide spot to park my car.
About five miles past the turnoffs for Hole in the Wall visitor center/Black Canyon Equestrian and Group Campground, a jeep trail crosses Black Canyon Road. From the left (as you are heading north), the road comes up from the wash. To the right, it climbs steeply away from the road. I backed my Prius up, with its tail towards the wash and its nose pointed in my direction of travel.
Followed the jeep trail up out of the canyon, and continued forward for about a mile. (I'm ignoring my 45 minutes or so spent circling the boulders near the crest, as I climbed up towards them, removed my backpack as I scrambled, then couldn't find it for quite some time). Ran into a small herd of cows as I did this. Not wanting to tempt them into charging, and knowing I needed to go north, I left the jeep trail and turned left, up a sandy, slightly eroded seasonal waterway.
A quarter mile or so later, I reached the familiar water tank and windmill. Then I turned right, and walked along the boundary fence for the next two miles.
Slid under the fence near the "final" rocky outcropping before coming parallel to the west face of Table Top mountain, and headed up towards the ridge.
While the trail along the fence is pretty clear, there are numerous intermittant trails heading up and along the ridge, towards the west face of Table Top Mountain. Some are "ducked," and some are not. I probably take a different route each time. Somewhat steep in places, and very slippery on that final pitch towards the lava rocks that are the face of Table Top Mountain. I usually wind up heading near the boundary fence that runs along that ridge, crossing slightly over the line after the fence ends, and head towards an approachable notch that faces mostly west.
Those rocks are unstable, so you should take extreme care as you pick your way up. Also, try to avoid damaging the plants as you climb the slippery way towards that notch, and avoid damaging the lichen on the rocks near the top. Obviously, if this trail were more heavily used, this would quickly become an issue. But, in practice, this is a somewhat rarely-walked route, despite the prominence of the mountain, within sight of the campgrounds in this area of the Preserve.
Because of all that wasted energy around those boulders near the start, I was pretty tired making my way up to the summit. I had no appetite for continuing across the top of the mesa, as I had done, in the past. Instead, I took a number of photos right near the register, then scribbled my blog and handle name in one of the notebooks, there.
Drank and ate a bit, took a few more shots, then headed back down. Wound up taking a different route back than I had taken up, which is not unusual.
My Alltrails app says I walked 7.5 miles, so maybe 7 miles, if you subtrack my wandering. Add close to another mile, if you walk across the mesa and back. Thirteen hundred feet of elevation gain. Pretty rare to see anyone else on this hike.
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