51 New Hikes: Hike #18 Pine Creek Loop to Ballantine Trail, Sunflower AZ

Hike #18

Date: April 4th
Hikers: Me & Jim

Location: SunFlower AZ
Distance: 4 miles
Rating: Easy/Moderate (North loop easy, South loop moderate)
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

History Link:http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/tonto/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=35447&actid=50

I have had Ballantine Trail on my list for two years. I read about it in Arizona Highways. Great for spring flower hike. This is so easy to get to. There are several more trails in this area. Will find the others for future hikes.

Headed to Fountain Hills from Shea and hit AZ87. Head North on AZ87 to mile marker 210.7. It is 8 miles south of SunFlower. The trailhead parking is marked from the road. The area is small. No water or facilities.

Jim and I are alone on our hike today. Looking forward to the hike. It was breezy in Fountain Hills where we met but no breeze at all at the Trailhead. My research told me that Pine Creek is a loop and at the mid point you can pick up Ballantine. We chose the North route because the other route was noted as a butt buster. We chose the easier way.

Beautiful Cactus on the North side of this hike.

The view to the North is beautiful!

Lots of wild flowers. There was water in the wash below us as we climbed up the hill. The foliage was overgrown on the trail. We passed three people on the way up. We saw two more people on the loop back and that was it. Great hike with NO people. :)

Half way point on the Pine Creek Loop. 1.5 miles. We headed on the Ballantine trail. Our plan was to go up the Boulder Flat as far as we wanted and then turn around. We went about another .5 mile and then stopped. The terrain quickly changed to boulders. It was awesome!