Black Canyon Trail

On 27 March 2010, ten members of the Skyliner's group (Lila Wright, Anita Jackson, Virginia Driscoll, Dolly Yapp, Marvin Alt, Daisy Williams, Donna Goodman, Jim Manning, Ellis Price and one other) hiked on Black Canyon Trail. From Cottonwood we took Camino Real (and then Old Hwy 279) through Verde Village to Ogden Ranch Road at Montezuma School. We turned toward the mountain on Ogden Ranch Road and traveled three miles to the end of the road at the Black Canyon Trailhead.

Shown below are three members of the group as we prepare to start the hike. Look carefully and you will the snow-covered San Francisco Peaks on the horizon.

Virginia, Marvin and Lila with the Mogollon Rim and the San Francisco Peaks in the background

One enters the trail from the trailhead by passing through a barrier erected to block all-terrain vehicles and then walks alongside a wash for just less than one-tenth of a mile before dipping into and crossing the wash. The turn into the wash is not obvious and the trail appears to continue along the bank of the wash. I have temporarily lost the trail at this point more than once and others have told me of having the same experience. After crossing the wash, the trail follows along a hillside for something like one-third of a mile and then dips down to cross another wash. After that it passes through two wire gates fairly close together and continues a steady, but rather gentle climb up the mountain. We paused frequently along the way to look at flowers and take in the view back across Verde Valley to the Mogollon Rim and the San Francisco Peaks beyond. The only clouds in the sky were hovering just above the rim, clustered mostly around the peaks.

Clouds clustered around the San Francisco Peaks – zoom shot

Although the height of the flower season was yet to arrive, we did find Primroses, Deer Vetch, Filaree, Desert Hyacinths, Indian Paint Brush and Ceanothus along the way.

Primrose                                                                                Deer Vetch

In the left photograph the primrose has two current blossoms, three buds can be seen (middle top to center) waiting their turn for glory and two old, shriveled blossoms are visible (upper right and bottom center). A couple of stray filaree blossoms (reddish purple color) are faintly visible in the lower right. The Deer Vetch shown in the right photograph appears again in the left photograph below

Filaree plant                                                                                Desert Hyacinth

In the left photograph above, the reddish purple at bottom center is new growth Filaree. Deer Vetch is visible to the upper right the upper right in the photograph (See single yellow blossom just above/behind the Filaree).

Indian Paint Brush hiding in the grass                                     Ceanothus

Around one and a-third miles from the trailhead we came upon a faint trail leading down toward what appeared to be an overlook near the bottom of the canyon and decided to explore.

The faint trail descended some 250 feet in a distance of about a third of a mile to a point overlooking the bottom of the canyon just opposite a side canyon with a small waterfall.

Looking across Black Canyon from the overlook to a barely discernible waterfall (center) in a side canyon

We climbed back up to the main trail and, after a pause to rest from the effort, continued on our way toward the halfway point on Black Canyon Trail where we planned to eat lunch and turn back. After hiking about another 1.45 miles on up the trail, we arrived at a wash leading down the mountain to drain into Black Canyon. I have previously determined that this spot is at about the halfway point on Black Canyon Trail. Just after crossing the wash on the way up the mountain, the trail enters a Manzanita forest. There are actually two separate washes that run together at this spot and continue on down to the canyon below. The trail crosses both of them just upstream from the juncture, passing through first one then, less than 50 yards further on, the other. We stopped for lunch at the first wash. It is always a most pleasant place to pause, with sunny exposures for the cooler months, plenty of trees for shade during hot weather and, for a large part of the year, the pleasant trickle of running water.

Manzanita forest through which Black Canyon Trail runs

This is a view up the wash from where we ate lunch. The rippling, greenish-white cascade directly below center in this shot is a small waterfall.

On the way back down the trail, just below where we ate lunch, a couple of very attractive cacti caught my attention.

Large Prickly Pear Cactus                                                            Hedgehog Cactus

Mexican Gold Poppies, barely open on our way up the trail, were now showing in all their glory and we noted several more examples of Indian Paint Brush.

California Or Mexican Gold Poppy                                       Indian Paint Brush

(Eschscholzia california or mexicana)

In places the trail was lined with flowers, primarily Indian Paintbrush and Mexican Gold Poppy.

Indian Paint Brush lining the trail

Mexican Gold Poppies strewn along the trail

The total hiking distance was, according to my GPS, 8.5 miles. That includes the side trip (about six-tenths of a mile down and back) on the faint trail to the overlook near the canyon floor. Without the side trip, the hike to the spot where we ate lunch would have been about 3.25 miles. A rough estimate of the distance from our lunch stop to the upper trailhead is 3.3 miles. The elevation gain for this hike was about 1325 feet from the trailhead to where we turned back. The total ascent with the extra climbing of our side trip and climbing up and down to cross washes was just over 1900 feet according to my GPS.

Our track is shown in red on the included map (below)