Bear Trail above Jerome

On 11 December 2010, fifteen Skyliners (John McInerney, Linda Tovar, Jan Prefontaine, Anita Jackson, Dolly Yapp, George Everman, Jim Manning, Dona Goodman, Daisy Williams, Marvin Alt, Lila Wright, Miriam Sterling, the author and two others) hiked on an old road running from the Walnut Springs/Jerome Grande Shaft area on Hwy 89A to Perkinsville Road.

For lack of a better name, we call this route Bear Trail for the large number of rather large bear tracks (right) we saw during a scouting hike on the trail six weeks earlier.

For this hike we drove through Jerome on Hwy 89A and parked alongside the highway at Walnut Springs. The old road we hiked on leaves the highway at the bridge in the hairpin turn, leads a short way up the wash and then loops back to pass by the Jerome Grande Shaft. The following picture shows us straggling from where we parked up the road to the bridge where the old road leaves Hwy 89A. Walnut Springs is located to the left of the highway where we are parked, and Jerome Grande Shaft is located up slope to the right.

Left to right: John McInerney and Linda Tovar - The rest of the party
 is strung out ahead

At first the road climbs steeply, rising 700 feet in the first mile and a half. From there it slopes gently downhill most of the way until it intersects with Perkinsville Road (FR 318) about two and one-half miles from the start of that road at the Fire Station in Jerome. It does become a bit rocky and pretty steep as it nears Perkinsville Road.

NOTE: About one and three-tenths of a mile from Hwy 89A, and almost to the top of the ridge, we came to a fork in the road. Our route for this hike led us to the right. However, Jim Manning had researched the road leading to the left and determined that it is FR 503A and that it comes out after about four miles on Hwy 89A at a hairpin turn just above the exit at Mescal Tank. We are scheduling FR 503A for a scouting hike to determine its suitability for a future Skyliner hike.

The elevation at the end of today’s hike was almost exactly the same as at the beginning. In other words we climbed and descended 700 feet each way to and from the high point of the trail which is about one and one-half miles from Hwy 89A.

Some of the hikers stopped when we started down the rather rocky descent to Perkinsville Road, ate lunch there and waited for the rest of the group to return. Three hikers who continued on down to the end of the trail chose to return to Jerome by Perkinsville Road and wait at the Firehouse to be picked up as the main group returned to Cottonwood.

After downloading the file from my GPS and cleaning it up on the computer to remove false signals picked up along the way, I found the hiking distance to be seven and eight-tenths miles round trip.

Daisy, one of the hikers who returned by way of Perkinsville Road, was kind enough to carry my GPS and measure the distance to the firehouse in Jerome. That turned out to be just two and one-half miles.

I think we all agreed that this was a very good hike, with great views all along the way. One could modify it if desired by leaving cars in Jerome (The parking area on Perkinsville Road beyond the firehouse would do nicely), driving on to Walnut Springs and hiking back to Jerome by the old road (Bear Trail) and Perkinsville Road. That would be just over a six-mile hike with all the serious climbing at the start.

Although the views were great, I had recently scouted the trail and didn’t take any additional pictures on this hike. However, I am including several photographs from the October 28, 2010 scouting hike just to show what the views are like from this trail.

Looking out across the old copper pits at Verde Valley and on to
the Mogollon Rim – 28 October 2010

Looking down a canyon into Verde Valley – 28 October 2010

This is a 7.8 mile round trip hike. The highest elevation is 6466 feet and the total ascent is 782 feet.

On the included map (below), Bear Trail is shown in red, Perkinsville Road from the trailhead to the Jerome Firehouse in green and Hwy 89A in yellow.

Casner Quarries Road and Robbers Roost

Fourteen Skyliners turned out to hike to the old sandstone quarries on Casner Mountain and visit Robbers Roost on December 4, 2010.

We left Cottonwood traveling north on Hwy 89A, turned left onto Forest Road 525 at the Sedona Water Treatment facility (just past mile marker 364) and followed FR 525 for two and eight-tenths miles before turning left onto FR 525C. On FR 525C (Sycamore Pass Road) we drove seven miles before turning right onto FR 9530, the road leading past Robbers Roost to the old sandstone quarries on Casner Mountain. FR 9530 is very rough, suitable only for four-wheel drive vehicles. We drove up the mountain on it for one and one-half miles and parked across a wash from Robbers Roost, located about half a mile to the east.

Leaving Robbers Roost for later, we donned our packs and headed on up the road toward the old quarry sites. The road, still suitable for four-wheel drive vehicles, climbed about 500 feet up the mountain in the first six tenths of a mile.

Skyliners trudging up the mountain beyond Robbers Roost

At this point the road forks, one branch leading straight across the face of the mountain while the other angles on up the mountain for a short distance and then turns to cut across the mountain parallel to the lower road. Neither branch is any longer suitable for vehicular travel, being overgrown with Catclaw Mesquite in places and littered with fallen rock. Before leaving the fork we took some time to investigate the remains of an old structure that had been located there, probably a building put up by a mining company. The only signs of a building left now are several pieces of metal roofing, the remains of an old heater and miscellaneous metal accessories.

We chose to first explore the lower road. Although we encountered some Catclaw Mesquite along the way, it was possible to avoid most of it with a bit of care, and the road was level, a relief after climbing 500 feet in the first six-tenths of a mile up to the fork. A bit over a hundred yards from the fork we found a makeshift shelter formed of rocks and a piece of metal roofing scavenged from the building remains we had noted back at the fork. A fire pit, complete with a wire mesh top, making it suitable for grilling was constructed in front of the structure. A pot showing signs of much use was placed alongside the grill and a supply of fuel was neatly stacked nearby. The building was just large enough to provide shelter for one occupant. George climbed in to check it out and we immediately named the location “George’s Summer Home.”

Shelter with fire pit, fuel and pot

George has found himself a new home

We decided to tarry a bit at the area and Donna volunteered to be the group chef. We were not sure of her culinary skills but no one else volunteered. We decided that since we were all gathered to watch Donna pretend cook, this would be a good spot for our group photograph and George unlimbered our new lightweight tripod for a group photograph.

Our new chef – photograph by John

Gorillapod - our new lightweight tripod

watch Donna pretend cook, this would be a good spot for our group photograph and George unlimbered our new lightweight tripod for a group photograph.

Group picture. Posed in front of George’s Summer Home. Back row: 

Pauline Ordanez, Marvin Alt (actually in front of Pauline), Betty Wolters, 

Daisy Williams, Miriam Sterling, Name Withheld, Jim Manning, Gordon 

Bice; Front row: Chef Donna Goodman, Linda Tovar, John McInerney, 

the author, Dolly Yapp and George Everman - Photo by George with time 

delay

The old road we were following ended a little less than three-tenths of a mile from the fork and we turned back to try the other fork. Along the way, we paused often to gaze out on the views spread out before us across Verde Valley to Mingus Mountain to the southwest, to the White Mountains to the southeast and across Sedona to the Mogollon Rim to the east.

Haze-shrouded Cockscomb (left), Courthouse Butte (center)

and Scheurman Mountain (right foreground) with the 

Mogollon Rim in the background

We got several excellent shots of the views as shown following.

Doe Mountain (left), cockscomb), Scheurman Mountain, Rosie’s Volcano 

and House Mountain floating in the haze below the Mogollon Rim

(top mountain range) – Photo by John

Sugarloaf (center) with Mingus Mountain beyond and Black Mountain 

to the right – Photo by George

Returning to the fork and taking the upper road, we found that we were presented with the same spectacular views. This road ended about two-tenths of a mile from the fork, and we headed back down the mountain. As we walked along we were able to look down on the top of Robbers Roost directly below us with its pools of rainwater collected in the rock tanks glinting in the sunlight. I wanted to eat lunch there and, stopping to point out the spot, got agreement from the rest of the group. We then continued on our way back down the mountain. As we approached Robbers Roost, we could still view the haze-shrouded valley laid out beyond our goal.

We stopped to look down at Robbers Roost – Photo by George

Doe Mountain, Cockscomb, Scheurman Mountain, Rosie’s Volcano and 

House Mountain are lined up above Robbers Roost with the 

Mogollon Rim floating just above as a backdrop – Photo by George

As we got closer to Robbers Roost, we could see a road below leading off to our left that appeared to wind around and pass very near to where we would begin our climb up the formation. Gordon, John and Linda decided to take that route just to see how it compared with the normal trail from the road where we were parked. John took his GPS and later sent me a track. A comparison of the two different approaches showed that the alternate route was two-tenths of of a mile longer; it also involved some bushwhacking.

After climbing to the top of Robbers Roost we climbed very carefully along the steep cliff face to reach the cave itself.

Hikers arriving and leaving Robbers Roost Cave

The round window carved in the wall fascinated everyone.

The window – sometimes used by tourists 

Sometimes by groups of tourists Photograph by George

The cave is quite spacious and has a solid rock wall along the front. At first glance, it looks like a good place to hole up. However, if one were a robber it would be extremely difficult to escape once treed here by a posse. It would take only a few sharpshooters to ring the entire butte in which the cave is located.

Rock wall fronting the mouth of Robbers Roost Cave – Photo by John

Once everyone was through with the cave we all retired to the top and settled in for lunch. I found a nice grassy spot for a quick snack and a nap and some of the group gathered to chat while eating; others settled in individually at good vantage points from which to enjoy the views. Robbers Roost has a choice spot for everyone.

The social eaters – photo by John

A solitary eater – photo by John

As for me, I slept through it all, not stirring until George came for me and said that it was time to go.

On the way back we watched to find where Mooney Trail 12 leaves FR 525C. I knew that it was somewhere near Black Tank; but was not sure just where Black Tank was located. We found the trailhead just one and three-tenths miles from FR 9530, or coming from the other directions, five and seven-tenths miles from FR 525. I marked the spot for reference as we plan to hike Mooney Trail in the near future.

My GPS track disclosed that we had hiked a total distance of three and one-half miles, that the maximum elevation was 5637 feet and that our total ascent was 1158 feet.

The track for this hike is shown in red on the included map (below). The alternate route to Robbers Roost is also shown (see the yellow track).