Round Trip Distance: 2.8 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 3535 - 3743 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hrs. 45 mins.
Trailhead: 9610/FR 610 MM 4.3
Fee: none
Attractions: ruins
The Lousy Canyon Fort, located in the Agua Fria National Monument, sits on a narrow ridge between 2 forks of Lousy Canyon. The commanding position of the fort would have provided an almost impregnable refuge to its occupants.
To get there take I-17 Exit 259 and follow the Bloody Basin Road east for 11.3 miles turning right onto Agua Fria 9014. Continue as 9014 crosses into the Tonto National Forest and becomes FR 14. As the road reaches the turn to the Brooklyn Complex of ruins keeping to the right will transition you onto FR 610 where you will pass through a gate. About 0.4 miles beyond the gate stay to the right to remain on FR 610.
After 2 more miles FR 610 passes through a gate and enters the Agua Fria National Monument where it becomes 9610.
For the next 2.3 miles the road varies between being smooth to bouncing over rocks that require at least medium ground clearance to pass over.
At the 2.3 mile point there is a primitive campsite that serves well as a trailhead. From here it is about 1.4 miles further to Lousy Fort and 1.2 miles to Lousy Pueblo.
A person could continue driving although the road is pretty rough in places. We began hiking because we had a couple of waypoints for ruins in this area that turned out to be fictitious.
About 4 tenths of a mile from the primitive campsite there is a fork where going to the right leads around the base of the hill passing an unnamed tank.
The intermittent road continues to Lousy Tank but you can save a little hiking by looking for a spot where you can cut across the shallow end of the wash on the left of the road.
After crossing the wash and heading in the direction of the fort there is a barbwire fence that you can scramble around the end of on the left.
Once across the fence the easiest thing to do is to hike toward the end of the point along the south side of the ridge. We hiked along the line of the ridge heading out thinking that we might find a lookout but came back down along the side.
We made our observations of Lousy Fort from a nearby point of the ridge. The route past that was a little exposed.
This is a view of the fort from across the canon at the Lousy Pueblo.
