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.