Sombert Lane to Little Horse Trailhead at Hwy 179

On 28 March 2015, seventeen Skyliners hiked from Margs Draw Spur A Trailhead on Sombart Lane to Little Horse Trailhead on Hwy 179. This hike included the following trails: Spur A, about half of Margs Draw, Broken Arrow and Little Horse. Along the way, we visited the Devils Dining Room, lunched at Submarine Rock (making a slight detour to do so) and paused briefly for the view at Chicken Point.

Having completely forgotten the ritual on last week's hike, we gathered for a group photograph today before leaving the parking lot.

Left to right: The author, Frank Lombardo, Jim Manning, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink, Lila Wright, Beverly Sass, Joyce Arregui, Ellen McGinnis, Dolly Yapp (front), James McGinnis, George Everman, Gilliam Ashworth, Betty Wolters, John Ashworth and Collene Maktenieks – photograph by Name Withheld

Passing by a Forest Service trail information Kiosk at the east side of the parking area, we immediately entered the Munds Mountain Wilderness area, climbed a steep, but mercifully short, section of trail and encountered our first flower of the hike, a bladderpod mustard (right). 

George was assigned as tailgater, to make sure we didn't lose anyone and I stayed with him so that he could identify the flowers we saw along the way. The warm days were working their wonders and, as we passed through a forest of juniper, manzanita, ceanothus and other high desert plants, we found a variety of flowers along the trail. One, called fineleaf woolywhite, was particularly intriguing. It first appears as a feathery looking clump of grass (left), but then unexpectedly shoots up a tall stalk and displays yellow blooms at the top (right) as though to announce its arrival to the world.

The distance on Spur A Trail from the parking lot to the intersection with Margs Draw Trail was 0.6 miles and we continued to find flowers such as the Indian root shown here (left) along the way.

Spur A had led us east, but when we reached Margs Draw Trail we followed it south for 1.1 miles to Morgan Road where a large parking area is provided. At this point Margs Draw Trail ends and Broken Arrow Trail continues south. Meanwhile, Morgan Road turns south and becomes Forest Road 179F, leading to such tourist attractions as the Devils Dining Room, Submarine Rock and Chicken Point.

As we approached Morgan Road from the north, we were faced with a large butte or mesa directly ahead, between us and Twin Buttes. I think the formation must be Battlement Mesa. Although I have been unable to find it on any map, Battlement is mentioned often in hiking and cycling reports and is generally placed north of Twin Buttes. From this angle it looks more like a butte than a mesa. But the top appears more table like when viewed from the Twin Buttes area.

Battlement Mesa

The area is shown in the map insert (right); the junction of Margs Draw and Broken Arrow Trails is shown at top right and I have placed a marker on what I believe to be Battlement Mesa.

We left Munds Mountain Wilderness area at Morgan Road, but we were never far from its boundary. At any point during the hike along Broken Arrow Trail we had only to look east across the valley floor to see Munds Mountain itself looming in the distance. The wilderness boundary runs down the valley floor to the west of Munds Mountain to Chicken Point, continues along the valley floor west of Lee Mountain and then swings west to encompass Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock near The Village of Oak Creek.

Although some flowering plants stand out boldly as though to say, “stop and admire me,” others are more modest, seeming to hide themselves like a shy child hiding his face in his mother's skirt. We almost missed the small yellow blossoms of the Wrights deer vetch (left) so well was it hidden

Since starting south on Broken Arrow we had seen a constant stream of pink jeeps ferrying tourists to and from the sights along the way. But our first intersection with the road they followed was not until we reached the Devils Dining Room.

Devils Dining Room

This site is not very interesting and I have a great amount of difficulty understanding why is is considered a tourist attraction at all. To me it just looks like a hole in the ground that only a geologist would love.

It was only 0.5 miles from Morgan Road to the Devils Dining Room and another 0.3 miles brought us to the turnoff to Submarine Rock, so named because it bears some resemblance to a submarine. It is about 0.6 miles to the top of the rock from the turnoff. The deviation we made from Broken Arrow Trail to visit Submarine Rock and then return to the trail was 1.2 miles and is shown below.

Showing detour to visit Submarine Rock

Submarine Rock is much more interesting than is the Devils Dining Room. From the top of the rock one has a great view up and down the valley and to Munds Mountain to the east. On this hot day, we also had a nice cool breeze to cool us off.

As shown on the map insert (above), we returned to Broken Arrow Trail at a different point, about 0.2 miles from where we had left it. We did this by following the jeep road (FR 179F) up a short but very steep hill until it intersected the trail. We cut about 0.2 miles off the length of the hike by doing this, but we would have expended much less effort by returning the way we had come.

                                     Desert hyacinth

Continuing on to Chicken Point, we found several more interesting flowers.

Spring parsley

We paused only briefly at Chicken Point before continuing on our way, now on 

                              Indigo bush

Mountain sunflowers 

Little Horse Trail, to the trailhead at Hwy 179, still 1.8 miles away.  

George called my attention to one last flower along the way, a rattlesnake weed (below).

It had now become quite hot and we were reminded why we hiked at higher elevations during the hotter months of the year. By the time we reached the trailhead I, for one, was exhausted.

According to my GPS track we hiked 6.1 miles, the highest elevation was 4624 feet and the total ascent was 1054 feet.

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