Riverfront Park to Tuzigoot and Jail Trail

This hike was first proposed as a hike on Jail Trail. However, after investigating the idea, we determined that the Jail Trail, running from the old jail building on Main Street in Cottonwood to the Bridge to Dead Horse, was only 0.5 miles in length. We obviously would need to add something else to the hike, so Lila proposed that we start at Riverfront Park and hike far enough up the river to make to make it a good hike. We scouted the trail on 7 January, hiking all the way to Tuzigoot Road and back, but not bothering to hike the short section, about 0.1 mile, of Jail Trail that runs from Main Street down to connect with the Riverfront Trail. In January, the trail was partly covered by snow and a little muddy in spots. The only difficult section was about the last 0.1 miles below Tuzigoot Bridge where the trail just disappeared and we had to pick our was through thick growth.

On 7 March 2015, a beautiful, sunny but slightly chilly morning, eighteen Skyliners gathered for a regular hike that would essentially repeat January's scouting hike. We parked at Riverfront Park and walked along the sidewalk past a service building, a sand-covered play area and a swing set to connect with the main trail that runs up and down the river. We were skirting the Frisbee (Disk) Golf course and signs were posted along the trail warning of flying objects. There are side trails all along the way. However, the main trail is easily discerned all the way to Dead Horse Bridge. At the bridge, a side trail runs down from the road and connects, through a stile, with the main trail which turns sharply to the right toward the river and then passes under the bridge along the river bank. A sign (right) announcing the start of Jail Trail is posted Just before the trail turns back north to cross under the bridge.

As we passed under the bridge, George and I were lagging behind while I adjusted my GPS and, by the time we looked ahead again, the rest of the group were lost to sight. This was not really a problem because for, although there are a number of trails winding their way along the river, we just had to continue north and we would be sure to rejoin the group sooner or later. As it turned out, the main group had taken a trail that forked right when they passed under the bridge while George and I took the left fork. These forks can be seen in the photograph below which was taken on the return hike.

As it turned out the fork to the right led into a low-lying area which, although it was approximately the way we hiked in January, was now very muddy due to recent heavy rains. Two of the hikers, deciding that they were not properly attired for hiking in the mud chose to turn back here. Meanwhile George and I were hiking along a nice dry trail. I could tell by referring to my GPS that we were not on the track I had hiked before, but we were traveling parallel to it and would eventually intersect with the Jail Trail which we could follow back to the main trail. In the below map insert, Jail Trail is shown in green and the dry path followed by George and I, along with parts of the main trail hiked in January, is shown in red. The section of green track from Dead Horse Bridge to Jail Trail Jct-1 is also part of the path we followed through this area on the January scouting hike. The muddy path (not shown) followed by the main group of hikers today was near the green line but reconnected with the main trail farther upstream than the Jail Trail junction.

Insert showing Jail Trail and the way we hiked

The path that George and I took is probably the best way to hike this trail, certainly following any heavy rainfall. However, on a hot summer day it would be more exposed to the sun. As can be seen on the map insert, we connected with Jail Trail about 100 yards south of Jain Trail Jct-1. We then followed the trail back to the main track and continued along the same path we had hiked in January.

Communicating with the hike leader, Lila Wright, by cellphone, we found that we were ahead of the main group and set a point farther up the trail, where it passed very close to several houses, at which we would wait for them. As we approached the area of the houses we noted a line of rock and cement structures, about three feet tall, placed four to five feet apart and strung together by a wire cable of about 1.5 inches diameter. Lila tells me that these structures were part of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project. This would place its construction in the 1930s. We could see no evidence that the spaces between the separate rock and cement structures had ever been filled with earth. On the other hand, any remaining signs could well have been washed away during the last 80 years or so.

The houses near which the two groups were to meet were nestled at the edge of the flood plain close against a steep hill. We wondered why in the world anyone would build in such a flood-prone spot. A couple of the structures were protected by a concrete wall, but others were not.

When we passed this way last January a very boisterous rooster crowed at us, starting as soon as we arrived at the edge of the small meadow and continuing until we were well past it. This time we heard nothing from him and wondered whether a hungry coyote might have feasted on him. Or, perhaps the owner ate him.

The main party soon arrived and we all continued upstream together, passing through only one more really muddy area, the wash that drains Mescal Gulch if I am correct. Otherwise the trail was relatively dry and very easy walking, even widening into a little-used but still quite passable dirt road as we crossed Horseshoe Bend heading to the diversion dam that is pinched in between the cliffs at the foot of Tuzigoot. Approaching the dam,we came first to the sluice gate that provided water to Cottonwood Ditch. When we were there in January, the only way across the ditch was to hold onto the valve wheel for support and walk across on a plank atop the gate.

Now, two months later, we found that dirt had been dumped into the ditch filling an area wide enough to drive equipment across. Since the dirt completely filled the ditch, blocking all water flow, it was obvious that it must be temporary unless the ditch were permanently removed from service. When we looked at the dam itself, we found an answer. A large section had been washed away during last weeks heavy rains and the temporary fill in the ditch must be to bring equipment across to rebuild it. The below photograph on the left shows the dam as it looked in January; the one on the right shows its present condition. All of the dirt fill has been washed away, leaving only the base of large boulders upon which the dam was constructed.

  Remains of the dam on 7 March 2015

Diversion dam on 7 January 2015

We paused on the bank overlooking the ruins of the dam for a snack in the warm sun and to enjoy the view. The Ruins of Tuzigoot (below left) were clearly visible on top of the cliff directly across the river.

Two more of our hikers, having made arrangements for a train ride on the Verde Railroad, left us at the dam.

Although the floodplain had largely disappeared and the river was pinched between cliffs on either side at Tuzigoot, we had a panoramic view looking up the river that included Mingus Mountain on the left to the Tuzigoot ruins on the right.

Panoramic view from Mingus to Tuzigoot.

From the dam, we would follow an old road that has been carved low in the cliff wall. But first we looked more closely at the Cottonwood Ditch and noted a flume across it, apparently carrying water to Hickey Ditch and on to Dead Horse Ranch on the other side of the river. A pipe, apparently buried under the old road, carries water from an intake somewhere further up river, feeds it through the flume across that crosses Cottonwood Ditch and on through an open ditch to another flume which carries it across the river to Dead Horse. Later, some of the group located this (Hickey Ditch) intake just a short distance downstream from where we stopped for lunch.

Traveling along the old road, we saw a lot of evidence of small rock slides and one recently fallen large boulder that completely closed the road to any vehicular traffic, other than perhaps narrow, off road vehicles.

Our goal for this hike was not really Tuzigoot but, rather, Tuzigoot Bridge which lies about a mile up river from the dam. The hiking was easy for the next 0.8 miles. We then reached a sunny, open area along the riverbank with several flat rocks. We had noted areas all along our hike where invasive trees (primarily tamarisk and paradise) have recently been removed, some chopped and stacked into neat plies, others chipped and left in anthill piles. Much of the area along the river beyond this open spot was apparently not infested with non-native species and had been left untouched. That made it rather difficult for part of the way and we had to crawl under some trees that had fallen and lodged in those around them. Fortunately, the rough going did not last long and we were soon back in an open area where a lot of trees had been removed.

Area where invasive species plants have been removed

We had left some of our group to wait at the open, sunny spot on the other side of the overgrown section of trail and we intended to return there to eat lunch, so we didn't linger for very long under Tuzigoot Bridge.

I had planned to stay long enough to climb up to the road, but found that I would need to wade a mudhole and changed my mind. The picture here (right) shows the underside of the bridge as seen last January from the road bank above.

Heading back to the open area for lunch, we found a slightly easier path than the one we had taken on the way to the bridge. But it still required a bit of crawling through the underbrush. After a leisurely lunch and my noon nap, we headed back down the trail, stopping along the way for a group photograph.

Left to right: Daisy Williams, Anita Jackson, Dolly Yapp, Joanne Hennings, George Everman (kneeling), Dave Healey, Akemi Tomioka, Loren Pritzel, Lila Wright, Joyce Arregui, Gary Jacobson, Collene Maktenieks (kneeling) and Beverly Sass

About 0.3 miles below the diversion dam, at just about the spot where the group photograph was taken, the trail (a dirt road at this point) crosses the Hickey Ditch. A side trail runs along the ditch to the flume that carries water across the river. Most of the group wanted to see that flume and Lila led them along that trail while a few of us dozed in the sun awaiting their return. That didn't take very long as the river was only about 200 yards away.

We then continued on past on down the trail, George and I again lingering behind, looking around for things we might have missed before. One of those missed objects turned out to be an old automobile chassis that George spotted. Closer investigation disclosed is a Dolphin branded car and that the chassis was still largely intact. I later looked to see what company had manufactured a car with that name. The closest thing I could find was a Dolphin built by Sipani, an Indian company, in the 1980's and 1990's.

Jail Trail Trailhead 

Old Jail

When we arrived back at the junction with Jail Trail, we turned toward Main Street on it and traveled about 100 yards to the junction with the trail George and I had followed to there from Dead Horse Bridge. While the rest of the group waited at the junction, I continued on to the old Jail to photograph the jail and the trailhead sign posted there. The brown building shown directly across the street looking past the old stone jail is Bocce Pizzaria.

I shortly rejoined the group and we continued on, soon arriving back at our cars. When we had parked at about 0815, we had the parking lot essentially to ourselves. Now at around 1330, it was jam-packed with cars and drivers were circling while waiting for a spot.

When I downloaded and measured the GPS track for this hike, I found it to to be 7.4 miles round trip. The highest elevation was 3364 feet and the total ascent was 618 feet.

The route we hiked is shown on the included map (below) in red except that the 100 yards we hiked on Jail Trail is in green and the 200 yard trip to the flume across the river and back is shown in blue. While working on the map, I identified the Hickey Ditch inlet. It is located, as shown on the map, just downstream from where we ate lunch.