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)