Brownstone Canyon

This hike has quite a bit to offer. Depending on your ability you can hike to a dam built for cattle, some of the areas best pictographs and some petroglyphs and you can even bag Gray Cap peak. The dam is behind a solitary red and blond sandstone outcropping. Hiking to the dam will make the hike about 8 miles round trip.

The hike starts at the Kraft Mountain parking lot in Calico Basin. Hiking to the petroglyphs and pictographs is about a 7 mile out and back hike. Hiking to the dam adds about a mile to the whole hile. Going to Gray Cap peak on the way back doesn't add much if any distance. There's jsut a lot more scrambling.

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Distance: 7-8 miles
Difficulty:

Route Map: GPX
Trailhead: Kraft Mountain Parking Lot

Use the trail on the north-west side of the parking lot and head to the left side of Kraft Mountain up Hell Hill.
Once you get to the top of Hell Hill, follow the trail to the left and eventually down into the wash that is Gateway Canyon.
Turn left in the wash and follow that up to where the canyon turns right. There's a small dry water fall you have to climb.
You will be in this wash for a bit. Watch for trails on the right to bypass some of the more difficult falls.
When it starts to turn to red standstone instead of the gray limestone, you are going to turn right. This will lead to a very large waterfall that almost always has water.
Start up the right side and cross over when you are level with the ramp looking part of the waterfall (see image).
Cross over and use the ramps to get to the top of the falls. Follow that straight back up another very small waterfall that leads to a narrow slot that goes about 100 yards and turns left.
Depending on the water level, you may have to stick to some really narrow edges along the right side of the slot. The walls on the right are easily climed for those so inclined.
Continue up the natural flow of water until it makes a sharp right turn. Climb over the wall that's on the left. It's usually cairned. Eventually you will reach a farily large pond on your left. During the summer months, it will likely be dry.
Go around the pond on the right but turning left toward a large sandstone feature a few hundred yards to the north. Head for that feature and stick to the right of it. Again, it's usually cairned.
As you get close you will step up and it will be farily narrow. There's a lot of beaver tail cactus in this area. About twenty yards to the left is a really huge tank.
Go past the tank and bear slighty to the right but your overall path is arching to the left. Follow the tops of a sandstone ridge.
That will start to descend as you turn toward the Spring Mountains. This will lead you to a notch to the right. This is a little bit of class three scrambling. Follow that down to the bottom and against the wall to your right are the pictographs.
To get to the cattle dam, turn left up the wash and follow that as you approach the red and tan sandstone outcropping that will be either in front of you or just to the right. Don't bother cutting through the brush. It's no fun. Just follow the wash and eventually it will turn to the right around the back side of the sandstone outcropping.
Continue up the wash sticking to the right and eventually, right about the time you are asking your self where is this dam, you will notice a cement trough. Turn right and you should see the dam right in front of you. There is a lot of great scrambling around this area so expore away.
To get to the petroglyphs you turn right, downstream, from the pictographs. About a quarter mile down the wash on the right, up on the rocks are the petroglyphs. You can actually get right up to them by turning right just before and climb up a bit of a scree slope. It's worth is because you can get right up to them instead of looking at them from below. This vantage point is not for those that don't like heights though.
You can return the way you came, unless you are going to do Gray Cap Peak. There are a few ways to do that so I'm not going to describe that here. I suggest you either follow the GPX route provided on this page or you go with someone that knows a route.

Brownstone Canyon

Guide

Devil Man

Pictographs

Petroglyphs

Looking back to where it changes from limestone to sandstone.

Waterfall — Start high to the right and cross to the left and up.

Pictographs

Happy Rock — Gray Fox Canyon (descent route)

Posted Notice — this site is quite undisturbed. Please keep it that way.

Edward Sissorhands

Pictographs

Petroglyphs

Spring Mountains — notice the tan and red standstone outcropping. Behind that is the dam.

Route

Tier 3 (strenuous)