Hiking the Inner Basin Trail

I had already hiked most of the other major trails in the San Francisco Peaks area – Humphreys Peak, Weatherford, Kachina, Abineau, Bearjaw, Bismark Lake Loop and Waterline – I now wanted to hike Inner Basin Trail from Lockett Meadow to Weatherford. Three fellow hikers -- Gordon Bice, Jim Manning and Jim Quin – agreed to accompany me. 10 June 2014 was a beautiful day and we left Cottonwood at 0700 in high spirits. Our route from Cottonwood took us north on I-17 to Flagstaff. From there we continued north on US 89 to the Sunset Crater exit, turned left and drove 4.5 miles on a well-maintained dirt road to Lockett Meadow.

Even a flat tire as we approached Flagstaff did nothing to dampen our mood. We simply stopped in the dead zone between the St Mary's Road exit lane and the freeway proper and replaced it with the spare. With three people to change the tire and me to hold the lug nuts we were soon on our way again.

Although we saw a number of campers before we reached Locket Meadow and there was a moderate amount of traffic on the road in, the Locket Meadow Campground was essentially empty, just a car here and there in the numbered slots. As for trailhead parking, ours was only the second vehicle in the lot.

The first time I had hiked on the Inner Basin trail, that time only the lower section of the trail, I had left Locket Meadow at a different place and followed along an old road to Jack Smith Spring. That section of trail was about 1.6 miles in length. Since about 2010, however, the trail has been rerouted and now starts at the very end (southwest perimeter) of the campground at a well-marked trailhead. Several parking spots are reserved nearby for day hikers.

As for the trail itself, it now follows for about 0.4 miles along the very edge of the 2010 Schultz fire. Upon leaving the trailhead one almost immediately comes to the burn area and then hikes for some distance along a trail with devastation on one side and an untouched forest on the other. The trail then dives into a lush untouched forest pine and fir trees, turning to mostly aspen about 0.8 miles from the trailhead. One mile from the trailhead, we started a series of switchbacks that lifted us through a forest now composed almost entirely of aspen. Oh, we saw the occasional evergreen among the white trunks. But essentially this was an aspen forest and remained so until we reached the Waterline Trail, about 1.8 miles from the trailhead by my GPS.

The quiet stillness of the aspens, broken only by the gentle sound of the wind and the occasional chirping of a bird, had an almost mesmerizing effect and made one want to linger. We paused to look around in awe at the stark contrast between the white of the aspen trunks and the emerald green of the grass-covering the forest floor.

Aspen forest traversed by the switchbacks

When we emerged on Waterline Trail at the end of the switchbacks, we still had 0.3 miles to go before reaching Jack Smith Spring. In other words, rerouting the trail away from the old road and creating the switchbacks through the aspens had added half a mile.

In my opinion it was well worth it. The switchbacks are well-engineered and the new trail allows one to spend additional time in one of the most beautiful spots I have ever visited.

Now on Waterline Trail (also Inner Basin Trail) we continued up an old road at a very gentle slope until we arrived at Jack Smith Spring. The road,, built to service the waterline, once crossed a road running the length of the Inner Basin at the spring. Now, however, the section of road between Locket Meadow and Jack Smith Spring is closed off and almost completely indiscernible. Meanwhile, this section of Waterline Road and the road running on up to the Inner Basin are closed to all but maintenance vehicles. Not even horses are allowed in the Inner Basin.

After looking around at the utility buildings and the old cabin located at Jack Smith Spring, we headed on up the Inner Basin Trail, now following the road still used by Flagstaff to maintain the water system. About a tenth of a mile distance up the road we came to Pumping Station # 11. The pump itself in enclosed in a pre-fabricated wooden structure fitted with lifting lugs, perhaps indicating that it was transported by helicopter.

 Pumping Station # 9

We continued for another 0.5 miles to arrive at the Inner Basin. Here we also found Pumping Station # 9 (right). The building was of the same pre-fabricated construction we had noted at Pumping Station # 11. We did not see a Pumping Station #10.

additional building

There was an additional building (left), of the same pre-fabricated construction as the two pumping stations, installed nearby. It looked very much like a bus stop shelter. I don't know why it was installed there, perhaps for shelter in an emergency.

Looking straight ahead (southwest) we could see, very faintly, the old road that was Weatherford Trail, traced below in red, running along the slope of Fremont Mountain. Our trail, the Inner Basin, would end at a junction near the rightmost end of the red line.

Showing Inner Basin Trail running through the basin toward Fremont (center)
 and its terminus at Weatherford Trail on Fremont

The saddle seen to the right of Fremont Mountain is Fremont Saddle. Doyle Saddle, hidden here by the shoulder of Doyle Mountain, is located to the left of Fremont, between Fremont and Doyle. The saddle names are from a USFS map published in 2000. Other maps, including the USGS map used for this report, reverse these names.

The trail to this point had been all uphill and that did not change. Sometimes it was quite steep, sometimes less steep, but always uphill. The path through the open Inner Basin meadow was only gently uphill and the hiking was easy for about 0.4 miles. At that point the trail, still following an old road, angled left to leave the open meadow, cross the wash below Doyle Spring and enter a forest of small trees. The trail now became steeper and had a lot of loose rocks. We came to another meadow as we approached the base of Fremont below the slide area. The spot where Weatherford Trail crosses the slide (red line) appeared almost close enough to touch.

Close up view of Fremont Mountain showing a section of Weatherford Trail (red)

From here the trail angled to the right, heading almost directly toward Agassiz Peak and we reentered the forest. Now the trees were larger and began to offer a modicum of shade. The trail still followed along an old roadbed and we were still closely following the wash in which Doyle Spring is located. At one point we saw a waterline access riser leading to the conclusion that Flagstaff is (or at least was) collecting water from a source farther up the wash, probably accounting for the old road we were following.

We were now finding patches of snow in shaded areas alongside the trail. We had been expecting another set of switchbacks to take us up the mountain and we were not disappointed. About 0.9 miles after we angled left at the end of the Inner Basin meadow to cross the wash below Doyle Spring, we came to a sign telling us to leave the old roadbed and make our way directly up the mountain. This was the start of the switchbacks. The old roadbed appeared to continue on up the wash. However, my Arizona topomap shows that it ended at the base of Agassiz, a short distance ahead.

Five quick turns on the switchbacks and a short, straight climb brought us to Weatherford Trail. We ate lunch and then took a group photograph, not a very good one, before heading back.

Left to right: Jim Manning, Gordon Bice and Jim Quin

According to my cleaned up GPS track, the elevation at the beginning of the hike was 8688 feet and the end was 10887, so we climbed about 2288 feet. Because my GPS did not lock in immediately when we started, I clipped the track at Weatherford Trail and just measured the return trip. That was 4.4 miles, meaning that we hiked 8.8 miles round trip.

The included map (next page) shows our GPS track in red. The yellow track shows the pre-2010 section of trail before it was rerouted. The blue track is a section of the Weatherford Trail.