Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you wish to avoid the campground, just keep heading east on the dirt road.
About 0.1 mile farther, you'll come to a metal sign on your left indicating that Bog
and Kent Springs are ahead. The narrow, unsigned trail to the right (south) goes
0.6 mile to the Nature Trail and Amphitheater Parking Area on Madera Canyon
Road—the third trailhead for this hike.
Beyond the metal sign, the going is much less complicated now that hikers from
all three trailheads are on the same rocky road, originally built to reach Kent Spring
but which hasn't seen a vehicle on it for years. The woodlands on either side of the
road are thin, and deer roam the area—I saw a pair. Soon Mount Wrightson looms on
the horizon to the southeast, and at some points it's dead ahead on the road.
About 0.5 mile beyond the last sign, you reach a signed fork where you can go
either way on the ensuing 4-mile loop. Left goes to Bog Springs, right to Kent Spring.
I prefer the clockwise loop: The section between Bog Springs and Kent Spring has
the narrowest, steepest trail, and I like to climb it rather than descend it.
The left trail is a narrow one, and after a few hundred yards of climbing, views
open to the left to the town of Green Valley to the northwest, 2,700 feet below and
12 miles away. Green areas around the town are pecan orchards, and the metallic-blue
lake behind it is part of a mining operation. If conditions are clear, you might see Kitt
and Baboquivari Peaks on the far distant horizon.
The trail enters thicker forest and, 0.8 mile from the beginning of the loop, a sign
indicates Bog Springs to the left on a 0.1 mile deadend trail that drops into and crosses
a minor ravine before arriving at the spring. The spring water is cached in a small,
rectangular concrete basin surrounded by a lovely glade of pines and whitish Arizona
sycamores, inviting further exploration. The water in the basin is greenish from fallen
leaves and would require a good filter or several minutes of boiling to make it pot-
able—typical for all the springs in these mountains. If you explore farther back, you'll
find more water caches, which is why “Bog Springs” is plural. Once you're done,
head back to the main trail.
