Riding cross country to Trail Spring proved more challenging than one would think, considering it was only a round trip distance of 3 miles from our Brush Corral trailhead.
The first part was an easy trek along an abandoned two-track.
Then the going got steep and rocky.
And even more so.
Finally, we gave the horses a break and continued on foot.
Steve went all the way down to the pools of water. Unfortunately, he didn't have the camera and provided no photos. But he did say there's no way he'd bring a horse down there, for fear someone, horse or person, would get killed. Although we've heard tell of horsemen riding to the spring, we won't be among them.
Here are some pics from our hike back up:
The light wasn't great for detail, but maybe you can see the indentation and scraped rock indicating decades, perhaps centuries, of travel along this steep trail. The burros are almost certainly using it, and perhaps some cattle make it down to the spring. Deer and antelope could get down easily enough. Smaller creatures, such as a coyote we saw in the area, must be watering there, too.
That wasn't the only steep section.
We had been in Trail Spring Canyon just the day before and could have approached the spring itself that way, which would have been a lot easier.
No doubt the horses were glad to skip the whole spring thing. After all, why bother? They had plenty of water back at the trailer.
