Crook Trail - Twentynine Mile Tank to County Line

Seven Skyliners hiked the section of Crook Trail from Twentynine Mile Tank (actually from Forest Road 144) to the Yavapai/Coconino County line on 11 October 2014. We drove from Cottonwood to the county line on Hwy 260 and dropped one car. We then proceeded to mile marker 249, turned north on Forest Road 144 and drove another 0.5 miles to the point where Crook Trail crosses FR 144. A family had set up camp at our chosen parking area, but there was plenty of room for everyone, so we parked, disembarked, donned our hiking gear and gathered for a group photograph before heading down the trail.

    Left to right: Betty Wolters, Karl Sink, Daisy Williams, the author, Lila
Wright and Kwi Johnson – photograph by Name Withheld

We started our hike by following an old, still traveled road through the ponderosa pine forest. Other than one passing 4-wheeler, a couple of squirrel hunters and a tarantula scurrying along the trail on some unknown mission, we had the trail to ourselves.

We chatted with the hunters for a few minutes and learned that they had nothing as yet to show for their efforts, but were still convinced that they would earn their dinner before the day was done. Of course, optimism is the first requirement for being a hunter. As for the tarantula, (right) we also stopped to visit with him; however, he seemed disinclined to reveal the purpose of his wild scurrying about, so we were soon on our way again.

We were at an elevation of just over 7000 feet on the Mogollon Rim and we knew that we would eventually leave the ponderosa forest behind in favor of junipers, pinons and other low-growing trees as we descended from the rim. As it happened, we passed in and out of discrete ponderosa groves several times before finally leaving them behind entirely. By the time we first emerged into a more open terrain we had left the currently used dirt road behind, but we were guided on our way by one of the ever-present chevrons posted on a tree. In other places no markers were needed as the old wagon road was easily discerned.

Chevron on tree at left

Old Crook wagon road still discernible

Hiking through this more open terrain was a bit more difficult as much of the old road bed had eroded away leaving rocks of various sizes behind. But we took our time, walked carefully and stopped often to enjoy the sights. One particular noteworthy object (or possibly objects) is shown in the picture below. I still don't know whether this is a single alligator juniper fighting to become two or two of them making love.

Alligator juniper(s) – breaking up or making out?

We had wondered just where Twentynine mile Tank was located and that question was finally answered. It is located approximately 2.2 miles from FR 144. Twentynine Mile Butte, meanwhile, is located about half way between the tank and FR 144.

This section of Crook Trail is much easier to hike than is the section between Clear Creak and the county line. We were hiking about an 8.9 miles section today and would descend only around 900 feet. I had deliberately chosen to hike down the trail rather than up, thinking it would be a little easier. However, that precaution was hardly necessary as it would also have been a relatively easy uphill hike.

When we came to what would be our last ponderosa grove we found the larger pines to be more widely scattered and interspersed with smaller trees, mostly small ponderosa but also some oaks.

Large ponderosas widely dispersed with smaller trees underneath

We didn't see a lot of colorful foliage on this hike. It was a little early for most of the deciduous trees, primarily oaks, that were scattered about. However, we did find one particularly beautiful spot (left) where a Hwy 260 underpass was framed by the striking red fall foliage of sumacs.

Although we noted relatively few flowers on this hike, those we did find were especially attractive. Some of these are shown below.

Mountain aster?

 Indian paintbrush

The contrasting red and yellow flowers (below right) are Indian paintbrush and, according to Daisy Williams, yellow composites or perhaps goldenrod. According to one source yellow wildflowers are often just referred to as “damned yellow composites” because there are so many different varieties and identification is so frustrating.

I have referred to being guided along the trail by chevrons and by the remaining trace of the old wagon road. Often some of the more striking trees were selected to display the chevrons. For example, the ancient alligator juniper shown here (left).

Additionally, other markers such as wire-bound cairns, the remains of destroyed cairns and even an occasional official National Recreation Trail sign all provide guidance. Coupled with the use of a downloaded GPS track, these markers pretty well ensured that we would not go far wrong on the Crook Trail.

A neat wire-bound cairn

            The remains of a cairn

In this photograph (below right), of an official National Recreation Trail marker, the colorful letters in the middle of the sign once said USA. The S, the top letter, is almost completely gone now, but if you look carefully you can still make out the U and the A, the bottom two letters. Note also that the chevron shown here is copper-colored. It is just one of the regular aluminum chevrons, as shown elsewhere in this report, painted with copper paint. I have no idea why anyone would go to the trouble to apply paint, but we have observed several of them on this and previous hikes.

At various points as we made our descent we had excellent views all the way to the distant San Francisco Peaks (left) beyond Flagstaff.

The below photograph was taken looking south. We were hiking along very close to Hwy 260 and the area between us and the highway was dotted with Indian paintbrush, showing here as a faint reddish-orange tint in the grass on the other side of the fence. This scene was stitched together from three separate photographs.

Panoramic view looking south from Crook Trail

The hike was 8.9 miles, the highest elevation was 7113 feet, the total ascent was 531 feet and the total descent was 1424 feet. The GPS track is shown in red on the attached map (next page).