Running through the watery mid-section of the Black Canyon Trail, the K-Mine Segment appeals to those who enjoy rock hopping over creeks and drainages. The circuit begin with an 0.8-mile walk on the Horseshoe Bend Connector trail that leads directly to the K-Mine segment junction. The K-Mine veers north from the junction, heading uphill.
The well-maintained and signed trail is lined with snowy-white quartz, ancient metamorphic rock slabs and massive outcroppings of crumbling stone that decorate an ever-changing roller coaster ride of twists, turns, dips and climbs. Once over a crest, jaw-dropping views of the Agua Fria River and its scoured floodplain rolling out hundreds of feet below. Here the trail begins its descent along tight hairpin switchbacks carved from the cliff face. At the bottom of the canyon, the trail meets the boulder strewn sandy shores of the river where the path is swallowed up in a riparian corridor of Gooding willows, reeds and salt cedar. Trail signs posted on the opposite bank of the river give clues about how best to navigate the quagmire. Beyond the water, the trail jogs up-and-down through the bluffs surrounding Slate Creek, where water sometimes flows, then follows an old Jeep road to segment’s end where the Soap Creek Segment takes over.
- LENGTH: 12 miles out-and-back
- RATING: moderate
- FACILITIES: restroom
- ELEVATION: 1,930- 2,266 feet
GETTING THERE:
- Black Canyon City Trailhead. 34580 Old Black Canyon Hwy., Black Canyon City.
- From Interstate 17 take the Black Canyon City-Rock Springs exit 242.
- Go west (left) and continue to the stop sign, turn north (right) onto the frontage road and continue a few hundred feet to Warner Road (the first road on the left where there’s also a BCT sign) and follow the road to the trailhead.
FACILITIES: restroom
HOURS: n/a
FEE: none
