Hiking Boyntons Backyard

The weather forecast called for a 50% chance of rain when we met at 0700 on 25 April 2015 for our hike in Boynton Canyon. Generally cloudy skies reinforced the forecast, but we decided to proceed anyway. After all, this hike had been scheduled in part because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were ready for a campout and strenuous hiking on the Mogollon Rim scheduled for the next weekend. If it rained today we would just don our ponchos.

Leaving the Safeway parking lot, we drove to Sedona, turned left onto Dry Creek Road, drove 2.9 miles to the stop sign at the junction with Boynton Pass and Long Canyon roads (Boyntons Pass Road to the left; Long Canyon Road to the right), turned left onto Boynton Pass Road, continued for 1.6 miles to a stop sign, turned right onto Boynton Canyon Road and continued for about 0.1 mile before turning right into the Boynton Canyon Trailhead parking lot.

We donned our packs, posted our Red Rock Passes (actually in our case Golden Age Passes), checked to make sure our ponchos were ready at hand and headed up the trail.

Displayed prominently at the trailhead we found a sign (right) reminding us that we were in bear country. However, the largest animals we saw during our hike were a solitary rabbit, not too bothered by our presence, and a single squirrel that scampered away as soon as we approached. But we did notice several rocks that bears had overturned in the search for grubs.

Boynton Canyon Trail and Deadmans Pass Trail share a common track for about 0.1 mile from the parking lot before Deadmans Pass Trail turns to the right and eventually joins Long Canyon Trail. We continued on Boynton Canyon Trail, entering the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness and passing a small area virtually covered with primroses, such as the example shown here (left).

Shortly after the primroses, we came to a flower-covered hillside sporting a variety of flowers The colorful flowers stood in stark contrast with the dull red dirt of the otherwise bare hillside.

Flowers on a bare red hillside

The trail climbed sharply up the rocky north slope of the canyon, wending its way through manzanita, scrub oak, juniper and other low-growing plants, as it bypassed Enchantment Resort which sprawled, like a cancer, across the mouth of the canyon.

Enchantment Resort spreading across the mouth of Boynton Canyon

The rocky but well-maintained trail (right) continued its course along the hillside above the resort for almost a mile before returning to the canyon floor. The hiking was easy as we followed the gently sloping trail up the canyon for the next mile to the point where our trail, loosely called Boyntons Backyard, turns off Boynton Canyon Trail. That does not mean that our trail left Boynton Canyon. On the contrary, Boynton Canyon Trail leaves Boynton Canyon here, turning up a box canyon and ending hard against Bear Mountain. Boynton Canyon, meanwhile, continues essentially straight ahead to end at a steep mountain saddle between Secret Mountain and Lost Mountain. What we call Boyntons Backyard Trail which ends at that saddle is apparently part of an old trail called Boynton-Hart Well Combo that continues around the north side of Lost Mountain and leads down Hart Well Canyon to Taylor Tank.

The turn off from Boyntons Canyon Trail is a bit obscure and I have had to search for it both times I have hiked this trail. A couple of dead limbs are placed across the turnoff to prevent hikers on Boynton Canyon Trail from getting lost.

Spot where we turned off to take Boyntons Backyard Trail

At first there is no discernible trail at the turnoff but it becomes obvious after a few yards and continues along the left bank of the wash for about 0.7 miles before dipping into the wash at a cairn and following it upstream. The cairn (left) was photographed while standing in the streambed. Except for two major obstructions, described below, that had to be bypassed, hiking in the wash was relatively easy. Footing was good with very few loose rocks and we encountered no areas that required climbing.

As for the two major obstructions, the first was about 0.2 miles upstream from where we first entered the wash. Consisting of a jumble of boulders and tree trunks blocking our way, it would have been very difficult to climb over. However, just a few yards downstream, we found a faint trail that allowed us to climb out of the wash and bypass the area by hiking along the bank for about 100 yards.

Obstruction in the Boynton Canyon wash

Back in the wash we continued upstream for another 0.2 miles before encountering another obstruction at a sharp bend in the wash and bypassed it by traveling along an obvious if little used trail for about 75 yards. Back in the wash, we continued for another 0.3 miles before exiting again. Both previous exits had been to the right, were quite short and occasioned by specific obstacles in the wash. This time, on the other hand, we exited to the left bank and climbed along a gently-sloping, fairly well-defined old trail for about 0.6 miles before entering the wash for the fourth time. This time we basically just crossed the wash and started a steep climb, at first close against the face of a rock cliff, following a faint trail that leads steeply up the mountain slope to end about 0.2 miles ahead at the pass between Lost Mountain and Secret Mountain.

This photograph (right) shows Jim Manning looking for trail markers.

The signals to my GPS played hop scotch between the canyon walls in the upper reaches of Boynton Canyon, making any GPS track and any resultant track drawn on a map useful only for general guidance. That is the track points the hiker to the pass where the trail ends but doesn't really show how to get there. That is true for a track I downloaded from the internet as well as for the one I made myself on a 25 February 2015 scouting hike. As we had done for that hike, we just watched closely for the occasional cairn, evidence of long-ago trimming and other signs of passage.

In spite of those disclaimers, finding our way did not turn out to be too difficult even if it was often tedious and time-consuming.

At 1230 we were still about 0.1 mile below the pass, but the weather was looking more and more threatening and I already had a GPS track to the top from my February hike, so we decided to eat lunch where we were and head back.

Before starting our return hike, I snapped a photograph of Lila admiring the down-canyon view. In the center, above and just to the right of Lila's head, is Thunder Mountain (shown on older maps as Capitol Butte).

Lila looking back down Boynton Canyon from just below the pass

Having lingered to look at flowers on the way up the trail, we didn't bother with them on the way down. We just hurried along trying to beat the rain, a futile effort as it turned out. By the time we had crossed the wash just below the extremely steep upper 0.2 miles of trail, I was striking the bushes with my hiking pole to shake the water off the leaves before passing. We were pretty well protected by our ponchos anyway, but our lower legs did get very wet. Water ran into my boots and my socks were thoroughly soaked when I got home. Surprisingly, however, I was still quite comfortable. The bamboo socks I was wearing did a great job of protecting my feet.

Although, as noted, we didn't stop to sniff the flowers on the way back, we had admired our share on the way up. George Everman was not with us on this hike, but he later identified many of the flowers shown below for me. Daisy Williams, who was along on the hike, was able to tell me the names of others.

We easily found all of the places where we had entered and exited the wash on the way up the trail and thus avoided any waiting time trying to decide which way to go or time recovering from taking wrong turns. We were also able to find the junction with Boynton Canyon Trail (left) without any trouble. Note that the blue track continuing to the left from the junction is Boynton Canyon Trail as it leaves the main canyon and turns up a box canyon. The red track is the route we followed. It is composed of Boynton Canyon Trail below the junction and Boyntons Backyard Trail the rest of the way up Boynton Canyon.

We paused, still in our ponchos, at the trail junction for a group photograph.

Left to right: Lila Wright, Joanne Hennings, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink (rear) and Jim Manning – author not shown

After uploading my GPS track and removing a lot of noise (extraneous cross-canyon hops), I measured the round trip hike as being 9.2 miles. The maximum elevation was 6065 feet and the total ascent was 2049 feet.

Our track is shown in red on the included map (below). But beware, as already noted GPS signals are highly inaccurate in the narrower parts of the canyon. A location may be shown on one side of the canyon when it is actually on the other. The blue track on the map shows Boynton Canyon Trail as it leaves Boynton Canyon and continues up a box canyon.

Black Canyon Waterfall

On 18 April 2015 fifteen Skyliners hiked to Black Canyon Waterfall. This hike involves following Black Canyon Trail for about 3.3 miles from Ogden Ranch road and then turning off on a well-worn side trail to descend steeply into the canyon at the waterfall.

We drove from the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot to the Black Canyon Trailhead at the end of Ogden Ranch Road and were on the trail by shortly after 0730, having paused at the parking lot for a group photograph.

Left to right: Gary Brooks, the author, Mary Gavan, Daisy Williams, Dolly Yapp (kneeling), Phil Sullivan, Betty Wolters, Floyd Gardner, Karl Sink, George Everman, Lila Wright, Joanne Hennings and Marianna Hartsong – two hikers chose to remain anonymous and one of them used my camera to take the above photograph

Two or three years ago Ogden Ranch Road was blocked off about 0.7 miles short of its original ending at the old Black Canyon Trailhead near Quail Springs. Concurrently, the trail was rerouted to start at a new parking area at the end of the shortened road. The total effect of these changes was to add one mile to the Black Canyon Trail, the one-way distance along the trail between Ogden Ranch Road and Allen Spring Road is now eight miles.

The trail leaves the parking area at about the 11 o”clock position, just where Betty Wolters and Karl Sink are standing in the above photograph. When I last hiked this way, there was a trail sign marking the trail as # 114; however, I did not see it today. I may have overlooked it or, more likely, it has been torn down by vandals.

From the parking lot the trail now follows along the course of an old road, passes through a gate and crosses Quail Springs Wash about 0.7 miles below the springs. When the trail reaches the rim on the other side of the wash, it leaves the old roadbed and begins a gentle climb, wending its way across a series of ridges and joins the original Black Canyon Trail after another 1.9 miles and an elevation gain of 1050 feet. This new section of trail is very well engineered and a pleasure to hike on. The hike today was especially enjoyable for those of us who like to pause and admire flowers along the way. We had expected to see a large number and variety and were not disappointed. Unfortunately, about half of the group were more interested in speed than flowers. But George Everman, who was leading the hike, solved that problem by splitting us into two separate groups. This allowed everyone to enjoy the hike.

George also came up with an ingenious game to entertain us along the way. He passed out pictures of a desert star flower and challenged us to find one, with a prize, a fake gold bar, going to the first to do so. As it were George himself was first to spot a desert star and, apparently deciding it would be untoward to accept the prize himself, presented it to Dolly in recognition for her diligent effort to photograph flowers for him while he sorted out the disparate hikers.

The strawberry hedgehog cactus, below left, was photographed on the way back after it was fully opened. The water jacket plant with pale yellow to white flowers, below right, is noticeably cool to the touch, always several degrees below the temperature of surrounding plants. George had searched for this plant during the entire hike and finally found it when we were almost back to the trailhead.

Strawberry hedgehog cactus

Water jacket plant

We saw several globe mallow plants along the way. For the most these were scattered among other plants and, too spread out to be individually noticeable, they just blended into their surroundings. However we did find one patch, below left, that was thick enough to make a dramatic statement all on its own. Meanwhile, silvery goat's beard plants, sometimes alone, sometimes in clumps of two to five plants, shouted out for attention.

Globe mallow 

Goat's beard

After the first few minutes we never saw the faster hikers again until we approached the waterfall. We didn't worry about that; we were having our own hiking experience.

About half way along the new section of trail I found a single larkspur (right) hiding in the undergrowth, the only one we saw on the entire hike.

The section of forest that we were passing through had apparently not been pastured for some time and flowers nestled attractively in the untrammeled grass. See for example the blackfoot daisies and mariposa lilies below.

Blackfoot daisies and mariposa lilies nestled in the grass

Yellow blossom – prickly pear cactus

Pink blossom – prickly pear cactus

We saw the occasional Indian paintbrush along the way, but they all appeared somewhat bedraggled and faded, so I never really bothered to photograph them. We saw altogether too many flowers on this hike to include them all in one report, so I have selected just those that most appealed to me. Prickly pear cactus blooms were sparse; however there were isolated examples that I couldn't resist including.

About 0.3 miles after passing through a second gate we reached the end of the new section of trail and continued up the canyon on old Black Canyon Trail. Apparently, there has been a problem with hikers taking the old, closed off, section of trail instead of turning onto the new section. Each time I pass this way, it appears that more brush has been placed on the old trail (left). One could now most certainly not take it in error.After hiking for around 0.7 miles up the old trail we came to a sharp turn in the trail. Located alongside the trail at the bend is a good-sized tree that can always be depended upon for a bit of shade. From here one can enjoy an expansive view out over the valley below. I always pause here when hiking Black Canyon Trail.

Just beyond the sharp bend in the path we came upon a section of trail lined with colorful California poppies. The photograph shown below was taken looking back down the trail.

California poppies lining Black Canyon Trail

The last time I saw such a profusion of poppies along this trail was in March 2010, but I think it is likely an annual display. A close-up photograph of this beautiful flower is shown here (right).

At about 3.3 miles from the trailhead we left Black Canyon Trail to follow a side trail that runs down the mountain to the waterfall at the bottom of the canyon. The easy part of the hike was now over. From here the trail is at first steep but well worn and easy to follow. Then, after around 0.4 miles, it becomes very steep and is rocky and sometimes hard to follow. The below photograph shows the trail forking left and heading for the waterfall.

Follow the left fork to the waterfall

Shortly after turning off the main trail, we came upon a single prickly poppy (left) thrusting its snow-white blossoms above the surrounding growth.

The path descends along a mountain ridge that slopes down toward the bottom of the canyon before ending at a sharp drop off above the narrow canyon floor. The trail follows along the left (downstream) side of the ridge and crosses under the ridge point.

It then descends precariously along the upstream slope of the ridge to a side wash (right) that feeds into Black Canyon. A thin stream of water can be seen flowing along the bottom of the wash. The stream shown here still has another 20 or so feet to drop before reaching the bottom of Black Canyon. Look closely straight ahead beyond the stream of water and close alongside the rocky cliff at the right and you will see, faintly, the trail that will lead us across a low ridge and down into the canyon at the waterfall shown in the below photograph.

Black Canyon waterfall seen from where we ate lunch

We found ourselves on a solid rock floor at the bottom of Black Canyon. The canyon here is very narrow; however, there was room for trees to provide shade and plenty of sun-drenched rock surface for those who preferred it. It was, in other words, just about a perfect place for lunch and a nap. A little looking around revealed that we were actually between two waterfalls, the one pictured above and another just a few yards downstream. Some of the hikers who had previously visited the site told us that a larger waterfall was located about a quarter of a mile upstream, but we were satisfied with where we were.

I ate lunch resting on a soft bed of dry sand just above the trickling stream and then drifted off to sleep admiring the stone spires rising above the trees located just upstream.

Looking upstream from Black Canyon Waterfall

After lunch we gathered our packs and headed back up the ridge, sustained, as we climbed sections such as that shown here (right), by the thought that once we reached Black Canyon Trail the rest of the trip would all be downhill.

The climb back to the main trail went surprisingly fast and we were soon enough heading back downhill. We didn't spend a lot of time looking at flowers on the way back. Mainly we just checked to see which ones might have opened since we passed that way earlier. As already noted George did find a desert star, in fact a large clump of them They are shown below along with a close up of a brownfoot flower. I cannot remember ever having seen one of these in full bloom before and was surprised to find that the blossoms were pink.

Brownfoot closeup

Desert star 

When we arrived back at the parking lot, the fast hikers were, of course, long gone. However, they had apparently counted noses and made sure we had enough room in the remaining vehicles to take everyone back to Cottonwood.

After uploading my GPS track and cleaning it up a bit, I measured the hike as being 8.4 miles. The maximum elevation was 4968 feet, the total ascent was 1270 feet and the descent was 658 feet. These figures were determined using the return portion of the GPS track. For some reason the hike in was much less accurate, with a lot of signals bouncing off canyon walls along the way.

Our GPS Track is shown in red on the included map (below)

Ash Canyon to Bottle Ranch

We had previously hiked on Ash Creek Trail from Bottle Ranch and on Ash Canyon Trail from Forest Road 132. These two hikes, along with the knowledge that Bottle Ranch drove cattle up the canyon for high country grazing, convinced us a hike from Ash Canyon Trailhead at FR 132 to the Ash Creek Trailhead at Bottle Ranch was a possibility. However, knowing that such a hike would be around nine miles one way, we would need to arrange a shuttle between the two trailheads.

Lila Wright, Gary Jacobson and the author scouted the trail in February 2015 and found that the shuttle distance between trailheads was 25.5 miles, almost all along rough but passable dirt roads. The drive time was about an hour and a half. Further investigation disclosed that we could take a more favorable route, mostly on paved roads, that would add 12 miles in distance but reduce the travel time by about 15 minutes and be a much easier drive.

We finally scheduled the hike for 11 April 2015, a time that most of the people who had expressed an interest in the hike expected to be available. Although, when the date finally arrived, three of the hikers most interested turned out to be unavailable. But we proceeded anyway. We would drive to Ash Canyon Trailhead on Forest Road 132, park there and hike downstream to Bottle Ranch.

Lila, having scouted the trail in February, agreed to forego the hike and pick us up there and return us to our parked vehicles. Dave Beach, although unable to hike with us, offered his large van for the shuttle run. Cindy Emmett graciously offered to accompany Lila and drive another vehicle in case we couldn't all fit into the van Lila was driving. In the event, due to the organizer's failure to call a member who does not use e-mail, we did have one more hiker than anticipated. We gratefully accepted Cindy's offer and the hike was on.

A heart-felt thank you from all of the Ash Canyon to Bottle Ranch hikers to Lila Wright, Dave Beach and Cindy Emmett.

We met at 0700 and were shortly thereafter on our way to the trailhead. We drove from Cottonwood through Jerome to the top of Mingus Mountain on Hwy 89A. There we turned onto FR 104, continued for 1.5 miles and turned onto FR 413. We followed FR 413 for 2.6 miles, continued on FR 132 for another 1.3 miles and parked at the Ash Canyon Trailhead.

We donned our packs and paused for a group photograph at the trailhead.

Left to right: Karl Sink, Floyd Gardner, Frank Lombardo (leaning on trailhead sign), Betty Wolters, Daisy Williams, Dolly Yapp and Collene Maktenieks – photograph by the author

Ash Canyon Trail was familiar territory to some of us as we had hiked it at least twice already. The first 0.2 miles follows along the course of an old road that apparently ended at the bottom of the canyon. The trail then makes a sharp left turn without crossing the wash at the bottom of the canyon. From that point one just follows along the bottom of the canyon, guided by a faint track and an occasional cairn. It is possible to go astray by following one of the old cow trails that occasionally lead up the canyon wall. But one's error soon becomes apparent.

Except for an occasional climb to bypass a rough spot, the trail follows closely along the streambed, crossing from one side to the other. The upper part of the trail follows through a ponderosa pine forest passing Ash Canyon Spring and Hog Spring along the way. Below each of these points the amount of water in the streambed increases a bit. However, flow is still sporadic with long stretches of dry streambed punctuated by sudden reappearances of pools of water. One of these pools, which I think lasts year-round, was monitored by a hidden camera at the time of a previous hike. The pool and camera site are shown below.

Cleft where camera was mounted

Year-round source of water 

 A little farther downstream the canyon makes a sharp loop around a small hill and becomes virtually impassible. The trail climbs sharply here to cross the hill and descend back to the canyon floor on the other side.



 The start of this bypass is marked by a large jasper stone (right) in the streambed.

From the top of the jasper stone bypass we had a clear view of FR 132 as it made its way along the slope of Mingus toward Cherry.

Forest Road 132 running along the mountain slope toward Cherry

Looking back upstream after we descended back into the canyon from the bypass, we could see a hillside that had clearly been burnt over some years before.

Looking back up Ash Canyon from below the jasper stone bypass

A little farther downstream the trail climbed a short distance above the canyon floor to bypass a jumble of large rocks that impeded progress down the canyon floor. On the downstream side of this section we found an appealing pool and stopped for our midmorning snack.

Settling in for a poolside snack break

Meanwhile, on the rocky hillside above the pool, I found the first really interesting flowers seen on this hike. I quickly ate my snack and lingered on the hillside to examine them more closely. They included a decent looking scrambled eggs and a Fendlers pennycress or Wild candytuff.

Scrambled egg

Fendlers pennycress

Perched, ostentatiously, at the very edge of the trail with a background of gravel, brown oak leaves and drab pine straw was the prettiest Oregon grape I have ever seen. Its golden blossoms were perfectly complemented by an array of brilliant red, greenish red and bright green leaves.

Oregon grape in Ash Canyon

A short distance downstream from the pool where we snacked, we came to the junction with Ash Creek. Ash Creek starts at Mingus Springs to the West of Ash Canyon and it appears that Ash Canyon ends when it drains into Ash Creek. I am unable to find a name for the canyon below that point. On all the maps I have seen it is just labeled as Ash Creek.

According to information posted on the Prescott National Website, "The Ash Canyon trail is 1.9 miles long.  It begins at Forest Road 132 and ends at Forest Trail 9029."  I have hiked the Ash Canyon Trail several times and have seen no indication of any other trail at the 1.9 mile point from FR 132.

Additionally, I checked a very old topographic map that I use on my GPS that shows a lot of old trails, including Trail 9027 (Powell Springs Trail) that no longer appear on Forest Service maps.  I think that, for all practical purposes, Ash Canyon Trail is 2.8 miles long and ends at the large stone cairn (left) that marks the junction with Ash Creek.

About 0.7 miles below Boat Spring and about half way through our hike, we stopped for lunch. It was now 1200 and had become pretty obvious that we were not going to be at the pick-up point at Bottle Ranch by 1500, the arranged time. I tried calling Lila to let her know but didn't have cellphone reception.

About 5.4 miles from our starting point at FR 132 we came to a spot where Ash Creek makes a very wide 0.4-mile loop to swing around a high ridge, turning from the southeast direction back to the northeast then south and finally turning northwest before turning southwest and resuming its normal course. The trail climbs steeply up the ridge and down the other side to rejoin the creek after only 0.1 miles. In addition to being longer, the loop section of the creek appeared to be virtually impassible. The trail we followed across the ridge was clear and showed signs off having been trimmed in the not too distant past. We assumed that the trail was built and is maintained by ranchers to drive cows to and from the high country.

I found that I had cellphone reception on top of the ridge and called to leave Lila a message delaying our pickup time until 1600.

When we rejoined the creek after the loop bypass we found that a section of fencing had recently been repaired, including a new wire gate. There had been an active campsite at that location when we did the scouting hike and we assumed ranch hands were camped there while working on the fence. They were now long gone, leaving behind a considerable supply of firewood and some discarded plastic containers.

For a little over a mile below the campsite the trail was a bit indistinct, sometimes following along one side of the creek, sometimes along the other and often climbing around difficult portions of the streambed. Additionally, some sections had been changed markedly by high water since the February scouting hike. Nevertheless, as always on this hike, one just needs to continue along the stream as closely as convenient in order to end up at Bottle Ranch.

Old out-of-service windmill 

Barbecue pit

By 1500 we were at Ash Creek Well, the junction of Ash Creek and Medlar Springs Trails and had only another 1.7 miles to go. This is the site of an ancient windmill with a long unused barbecue pit located on the streambank nearby. We paused to look around for a few minutes before resuming our hike.

While still at Ash Creek Well I noted a well-concealed hunting blind (right) installed in a nearby tree. From the blind one would have a clear and unobstructed view to a salt block placed nearby for use of pastured cattle or perhaps to lure prey to the area for hunters.The trail on to Bottle Ranch from this point seems to be called either Medlar Springs or Ash Creek depending on which trail one intends to continue on at the well. All information I have found concerning the trail indicates that it runs through the private property owned by Bottle Ranch. It is well trodden, mostly by cows, and easy to follow. However, I had laid out a route that would keep us clear of private property altogether.

We would leave the well-worn trail before reaching the boundary, cross a fence, climb a small cliff on the west side of Ash Creek and head straight for the bearing tree that marks the northwest corner of the private holding. The photograph shown here (left), taken after crossing the fence shows a short stump alongside the fence that can be used as a step to cross over the fence at the post, itself a larger and taller stump.

The climb up the low cliff follows along an old trail that leads diagonally up the cliff, probably an old cow trail. From the crest of the cliff, the bearing tree (right) is visible about 330 yards ahead.

From the tree, we could see the first of a line of yellow markers that lead south showing the line between private property and the National Forest. A faint but easy-to-follow trail leads down the slope into a wash and then up the other side to the parking area located alongside the forest road at Bottle Ranch.

The below map shows our track in red and the outline of the private property at Bottle Ranch in yellow.

The total one way distance for this hike was 9.7 miles, the highest elevation was 6591 feet and the total descent was 1948 feet.

Our track is shown in red on the included map (below). The yellow lines outline the private property at Bottle Ranch.