Bear Canyon Lake Hike

 

As you can see, we were the only ones at the trailhead to Bear Canyon Lake yesterday. Although this is a busy area on weekends, during the week it is extremely quiet and we have rarely seen others on the trails.

This is a deep canyon lake, and there is no boat ramp or easy access, other than descending a fairly steep trail for about a quarter mile.

There is marked trail on the west side, and a sometimes hard to find fishing trail on the east side of the lake. We started out with the unmarked trail, and after about a half mile the trail became so rocky and close to the edge of the water, we just weren’t comfortable. Jim decided it wouldn’t be a fun place to get back out of with a broken ankle.

This was the easy part.

So we backtracked and took the real trail, although some of it was eroded,  rocky and on the edge. It’s a nice trail, though, and runs very close to the water.

This hike may have set the record for finding clothing along a trail. I guess people go for a swim and forget to put their clothes back on when they get out of the water.

We did see some unexpected wildlife. A cute family of ducks and an osprey nest.

We would have never looked up that high to see her but she was noisily warning us to stay away.

And that ends our stay on the Mogollon Rim. This area has a huge variety of camping and hiking opportunities. If mountain biking is more your thing, there are miles of dirt roads and trails for that, too.

And the scenery isn’t bad, either.