Snoopy Rock and Marg's Draw North

Marg's Draw Trail, according to one source, was “named after a horse that grazed the area in the late 1800s”.¹ That surprised me as I had always assumed Marg was a person. The south Marg's Draw Trailhead is located at the end of Morgan Road, about 0.6 miles from Hwy 179. The north trailhead is located at Schnebly Hill Road, about 0.8 miles from Hwy 179. The trail can also be accessed from a spur trail which starts at a parking lot on Sombart Lane, about 0.1 miles from Hwy 179.

For this 24 January 2015 hike we would start at the Sombart Lane Spur and hike 0.5 miles to join Marg's Draw about a mile from its south trailhead. But on reaching the trail we would continue straight across it heading northeast to Snoopy Rock. We would then return to Marg's Draw Trail, using a different route, and follow it on to Schnebly Hill Road. Then to complete our hike, we would return on Marg's Draw and the Sombart Lane Spur to our cars.

We parked in the graveled parking lot on Sombart Lane, donned our gear and crossed the road, heading to a Forest Service kiosk visible directly ahead. Among other things, the kiosk provided a trail map.

Information kiosk at Sombart Lane Spur to Marg's Draw Trail

Just beyond the kiosk we passed through a gate and were in the Munds Mountain Wilderness. As shown in the photograph (right), the first quarter of a mile is quite a steep climb. However, the trail then leveled off and was easy hiking.

Just at the point where the trail levels off at the end of the steep climb from the parking lot, it becomes a bit confusing. The area is heavily used and there are numerous social trails, mostly going nowhere in particular. Luckily, we knew that we must continue generally east and all of the social trails seemed to lead in other directions, so we had no problem and were soon at the junction with Marg's Draw.

Now, we would take one of the social trails that did have a definite destination, Snoopy Rock. Although the trail we wanted was almost directly across Marg's Draw Trail from Sombart Lane Spur, one could easily miss it if not careful. It is offset by about a yard and partly obscured at the beginning by grass. But we knew it was there and continued confidently on our way, soon seeing our goal ahead (left). Snoopy is shown, as so often depicted by Charles Schultz, flat on his back atop his doghouse. His feet are to the left, his nose to the right; the very tip of his nose is white.

The social trail we were following was indistinct in places and, even though I had an old GPS track as an aid, we lost it and wandered around in the wilderness for a while before finding it again.

As I am prone to do when following a GPS track, I had dialed out for an overview of the trail and missed a turn. Someday, perhaps, I will learn to follow the instrument more closely. The rightmost blue line on the map insert (right) shows the route we should have taken. The rightmost red line shows the route we actually hiked. The tracks forking off to the left show the old GPS track I was using as a guide (blue) and the track of our hike today (red).

Our goal was to reach the pass at Snoopy's head and, as we struggled up the steep hillside to that spot, we stopped often to rest and look back at the emerging view behind us. We could look across the floor of the draw below us to the nearby eponymous red buttes and on to Mingus Mountain on the distant horizon. A small section of Sedona was visible just beyond the red shoulder at right.

View to Mingus Mountain on the horizon – as seen from below Snoopy Rock

The wind had been brisk and quite chilly when we started the hike and we expected it to be chillier still and to blow even harder when we reached the pass. To our complete surprise the wind was still and the warm sun made it a most comfortable spot for our morning snack. We lingered for quite some time, basking in the sun and enjoying the view to the north-northwest across Oak Creek and Sedona and into the red rock mountains beyond. Framed by the cliffs on either side of the pass, we had a panoramic view from Chimney Rock on the left to Wilson Mountain on the right, with Capitol Butte (also called Thunder Mountain), Bear Mountain, Soldier Pass, Brins Mesa in between.

Looking across Sedona from Snoopy Rock - photographed by Karl Sink

Our descent from Snoopy Rock was at first along the same social trail that we had followed on the way up. However about 0.2 miles from the top, we came to a fork in the trail. As shown by my old GPS track, the blue line on the map (left), we could take the right fork and intersect the main trail about 0.2 miles further further up Marg's Draw. We chose that option but soon found that the old trail had been blocked off, possibly to protect sensitive vegetation. We continued in the same general direction along a rock ledge and soon were able to rejoin the old track.

Once back on Marg's Draw Trail we headed north, traveling through a forest of pinion pine, juniper and Arizona cypress, with an occasional manzanita thrown in for variety. The trail itself was well-developed and easy to hike.

A typical section of Marg's Draw Trail

We now started to meet other hikers. I think that we must have met around fifteen individuals hiking in small groups of from two to four. As we were in the Munds Mountain Wilderness for the entire hike, we did not meet any bikers.

Although the Forest Service description for this trail indicates that it crosses Schnebly Hill Road and ends at the nearby parking area that serves this trail as well as Munds Wagon Trail and Huckaby Trail, the posted signs indicate that it ends at the road and that Huckaby Trail starts on the other side.

Some of the hikers continued on to the parking area to use the toilet facilities while the rest of us sprawled out in the sun on nearby rocks like so many sun-starved lizards.

When we were all together again we posed for a group photograph.

Left to right: John Veilleux, Sandy Veilleux, Connie Woolard, Rita Faruki, Lucy Acheson, Ed Acheson, Daisy Williams, Joanne Hennings, Anita Jackson, Bill Woolard, the author, Jill Ashworth, Karl Sink, Lila Wright, David Beach, Collene Maktenieks, John Ashworth, Jim Manning and Miriam Sterling – photograph by Name Withheld

Our track is shown in red on the included map (next page). Shown in blue are parts of the old GPS track recorded by the author in 2008.

This hike was 4.9 miles total. The highest elevation was 4952 feet and the total ascent was 1065 feet.

1http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=74