Crook Trail in Copper Canyon

On 19 April 2014 seven Skyliners hiked General Crook Trail in Copper Canyon. We first positioned one car in Camp Verde at the Copper Canyon Trailhead, located on Forest Road 136 about 0.9 miles from Salt Mine Road. We then took Interstate 17 across the Black Hills to the Hwy 169 intersection and turned east on the dirt road to Squaw Peak (now FR 732, but possibly still numbered FR 68d). About 0.3 miles from I-17, we turned left onto FR 136 (possibly still numbered FR 684d). This is a rough road suitable only for high-clearance or 4-wheel drive vehicles. We could have continued for another 1.4 miles on FR 732 and turned on FR 9603J to bypass the first 1.8 miles, the roughest part, of FR 136. The route we took to park at the crest of Copper Canyon is shown below in blue. The alternate route (FR 9603J) is shown in green.

Map showing route (and alternate route) to parking at the crest
of Copper Canyon

We parked at the crest of the ridge at the very top of Copper Canyon, donned our gear and then posed for a group photograph before starting our hike.

Left to right: Jim Manning, Daisy Williams, Gary Jacobson, Betty Wolters,

Kwi Johnson and Lila Wright – author not shown

About 200 yards below the crest we started to see flowers. The first sightings were desert marigolds, feather daleas and 4 O'clocks.

Desert marigold/Feather dalea

 4 0”clock

After those first sightings we found flowers all along the trail. The next photograph (below, right), shows desert marigolds and feather daleas with a cliffrose shrub as a backdrop.

The road we were walking on, although fairly steep, did provide good footing, allowing us to devote much of our attention to our surroundings rather than next step. At some time in the past the old road had been moved a few yards up the hill and the older roadbed was clearly visible just below us. We really had no way of knowing whether it was the route of the original General Crook Wagon Road. However, I suspect that it may have been relocated numerous times over the years in response to slides and washes.

At one point we came upon a particularly attractive clump of desert marigolds (left) with a few sprigs of showy penstemon set among them and a hint of globe mallow arranged above.

As we neared the old stage station located just over a mile down from the top of the canyon, we noted a number of colorful rocks that had tumbled down the mountainside during construction of I-17 as the contractor blasted away the mountain above.

Rock blasted from mountain when constructing I-17

We then arrived at the old stage stop, a most pleasant place with a grove of hackberry and Arizona walnut trees and a steady flowing stream nearby.

Photograph taken standing near foundations of old stage stop building

There is a year-round spring just up a side canyon from where the old stage stop is located and water is always flowing in the nearby stream and on down the canyon from here. The spring is simply referred to on all the maps I have seen as “Copper Canyon Water,” apparently having no other name.

Wirelettuce (or Desert straw)

  Showy penstemon

Below the stage station flowers continued to grow in profusion, particularly where the earth had been disturbed when constructing the power line. Near one particular power pole we found the most perfectly-formed clump of wirelettuce (desert straw) that I had ever seen along with a veritable jungle of showy penstemon.

Firecracker penstemon

  Primrose

These were closely followed by a fiery red firecracker penstemon and a clump of primrose just past its prime.

A little farther down the trail was a single

salt cedar (tamarisk) plant (left) growing alongside the stream. The tamarisk, a native of Eurasia, is classified as an invasive species and the subject of countless eradication efforts throughout the desert southwest. The plant limits competition by taking up salt from deep ground water, concentrating it in its foliage and, from there, depositing it into the soil where it is detrimental to other plants. In spite of this, the tamarisk is certainly a beautiful plant at certain stages of its development.

Fleabane  

Just after we had paused to admire some fleabane growing in splendid isolation beside the road, we came upon a cave that, although having hiked this way several times in the past, I had never before noticed. Kwi checked it out and reported that it was about 25 feet deep and then turned and continued for another eight or ten feet.

Cave at side of FR 136

Antelope horn 

We found several more flowers, all pictured here, as we drew near to the small, lovely waterfall where we planned to eat lunch.

Groundsel

    

I climbed down to the top of the waterfall and snapped a couple of photographs before climbing back up to eat and settle in for a good noon nap.  The Copper Canyon Waterfall, seen from the top, is shown in the below photograph.

The Copper Canyon Waterfall from the top

Gary had already found a nice soft spot in the shade of a juniper tree and, shoving a few dried cow chips aside, I joined him there. I really don't know how long we slept, but do know that I was much refreshed.

It is just a little under two miles from the waterfall to the Copper Canyon Trailhead and we had excellent views down the road ahead, across the Verde Valley and beyond the Mogollon Rim to the San Francisco Peaks.

Looking down the road ahead and across the valley to the peaks

This one-way hike was 6.1 miles, the trailhead elevation (where we parked) was 4769 feet and the elevation difference was 1514 feet.

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