Millsite Canyon 3.0

A scenic Jeep trail from the Queen Valley golf course to the Woodbury trailhead on Montana Mountain.

The trail starts on the edge of the golf course in Queen Valley.  Be wary of errant balls.  It continues past a few hints of civilization until turning into a Jeep trail headed for Hardt Tank Hill.  

The Rough Riders Jeep Club out of Queen Valley brushed the lower portion of the trail in 2016.  The upper portion is still quite brushy.

​There is a GPS - gpx track at the bottom of the page.

Natural Bridge

This area was in the Woodbury Fire from 2019.  Here is the latest update from a friend of mine from 11-29-2019.

We did Mill Site yesterday and it is a whole new trail. After the fire which you saw, we got a big rain. The wash must have had a 4 ft + wall of water with debris. It move a lot of big boulders and mud slides. The off camber area to the north has a mud slide and is not passable at this time with a jeep. We dug for 2 hours but the soil is to loose, we then went to the wash and moved boulder with the winches and cut down a couple of burnt trees and made a by pass around the slide. We were the first to make it through after the rain . Some side by sides tried to make it through and one did but he slid sideways and almost ended up in the wash.  I think they will be using the by pass in the wash also.  We moved a lot rocks and cut trees out of the way, but we did make it . you will not believe it is the same trail. It was a 3 rated trail before, now I would call it a strong 3, but we did it north to the south which makes the trail easier. the other way may make it a 3.5 I did not use my lockers.

Beware!  This trail can change with every rain until the area becomes revegetated.
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The view from Hardt Tank Hill is great, and the trip down it can be interesting for stock Jeeps if there has been recent erosion.

​A short distance beyond Hardt Tank Hill is where you enter Millsite Canyon.

Hardt Tank Hill view

Entering Millsite Canyon

The southern portion of the trail has towering hills and expansive stands of saguaro.  Hackberry is a really nasty bush common in the area.

Part way through the canyon

Thorns and berries on a hackberry bush

There are two man-made rock walls spanning the canyon from side to side.  We do not know the history of them, but are guessing they were built to keep livestock out of the most rugged central part of the canyon.  Some people have seen only one of the walls and refer to it as the "Great Wall of the Superstitions".

Both walls are visible from the road but you have to look from very specific areas because of the heavy brush.

• Lower wall viewpoint is 50-100 feet south of a large rock that is part of the wall.  Look left of the road.
• Upper wall viewpoint is between two of the most difficult obstacles on the trail.  Also on the left.
• Waypoints are in the gpx file at the bottom of the page.

Lower wall as seen from hiking above the road

Upper wall as seen from the road

We think the best viewpoint for the natural bridge shown at the top of this page is about a quarter mile north of the upper wall.  There is a waypoint in the gpx file.  A hill blocks a view of the natural bridge immediately north of this spot, but a view reappears as you go north of the hill.

There is a very tippy spot about a mile north of the natural bridge.  This will test your tolerance for off-camber situations.

Near the north end of the canyon is a spur that ends on a high point at the edge of the Superstition Wilderness.  There is an old ore chute below the high point.

Tippy spot

Old ore chute

Updated 2016.

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