Rock Wall Trail

Some days are just made for being outdoors and 24 October 2015 was one of them. When we gathered at the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood at 0700, it was chilly enough that our coats were quite comfortable. We drove east on Hwy 260, joined with Hwy 87 and continued through Strawberry to about mile marker 270 (position 34.40613, -111.48235) and parked on the left side of the road. (highways 260 (E-W) and 87 (N-S) run together along this stretch and the mile markers are for Hwy 87.). We arrived at the trailhead at 0815 and doffed our coats before starting the hike.

There were nine of us on this hike and, after donning our packs, we all gathered for a group photograph (below) before heading up the trail.

Left to right: Joyce Arregui, Gary Jacobson, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink, Jim Manning (hike leader), Frank Lombardo, Andy Lombardo (Frank's son) and Donna Goodman – the author is not shown

Just a few yards away and up a slight rise to the left of where we were parked, we saw a sign at a pedestrian gate for Bear Foot Trail (below left). Our trail on the other hand followed along an old road that started just below us to the right (below right). A truck is barely visible on the old road at the top center of the photograph, just left of the power pole.

We looked briefly at the Bear Foot Trail sign, wondering how long it might be and where it might lead, then set off up the old road on Rock Wall Trail. There are a jumble of old roads at this point, one running alongside the highway, one leading up the wash toward Fuller Spring and one (below left) turning right and climbing sharply up the mountain to pass above and east of Fuller Spring. We turned right and again encountered Bear Foot Trail as it crossed Rock Wall at a cairn (below right) and, as we later learned, headed east to Pine Trail.

The trail (below) was fairly steep and washed out with a lot of loose rock underfoot For a short distance as it climbed the slope above Fuller Spring.

Climbing the slope above Fuller Spring

I was looking for the rock walls for which the trail was named and, for some reason, had a vision of walls holding the earth back on the upper side of the road. That is not the case; the rock walls all actually support the roadway itself.

The upper road bank was often composed of chiseled cliffs where the road had been carved into the mountain. We never saw any signs of drill holes as are often seen where roadways are formed by blasting paths into mountainsides. The rocks here were relatively soft sandstone and we decided that the road must have constructed manually, perhaps using just hammers, chisels and crowbars.

The trail leads at first to the northeast along the south wall of Fuller Canyon. It then crosses the main drainage and runs northwest to the Mogollon Rim. Altogether I counted five drainage areas, and one long stretch around a mountain shoulder, where dry-stacked stone retaining walls had been built to support the road.

The dry-stacked retaining walls were not the only expert stonework seen along this trail. The old road had been provided with numerous culverts. These, obviously built before metal culverts were readily available, were constructed all of stone. The drainage channels had been constructed by lining the bottom with flat sections of sandstone, using blocks of the same stone for both sides of the waterway (below left) and then placing even larger, closely-fitted slabs of stone across the top (below right). The whole was then covered with several inches of gravel and dirt.

Most of the vegetation appeared to have been deliberately removed at the lower end of the trail, but a little farther up we found ourselves traveling through a mixed forest of manzanita, oak and juniper along with an occasional ponderosa and a few firs (below).

Mixed forest above Fuller Canyon

The larger trees, primarily ponderosa pines, tended to become more predominant as we moved along the slope of the canyon. However, after we crossed the main drainage area and headed on up toward the Rim, manzanita became the predominant species only with a few scattered ponderosa pines.

Manzanita forest just below the Rim – still in Tonto National Forest

We entered Coconino National Forest while in the manzanitas, but it would be another 1.1 miles before we saw the first Forest Road 608 sign. That sign was located 1.6 miles along the trail from the highway at Strawberry to the Coconino National Forest boundary.

The hike description I had found online described a hike that followed Forest Route 608 all the way to its end at Hwy 87. However, the GPS track that accompanied the report turned onto Forest Road 9367R about 2.9 miles from the lower trailhead and followed it to Hwy 87. We chose to follow FR 608 as the written report suggested, disregarding the rest of the GPS track, and that is the route I have included in this report. The distance along FR 608 from the FR 9367R junction to Hwy 87 was about 1.1 miles.

The point where we ended our hike on Hwy 87/Hwy 260 (below) is just 1.4 miles south of the Hwy 260/Hwy 87 junction, so we had passed the upper trailhead on our way to Strawberry. It would be very easy to do this trail as a one-way hike by parking cars at both ends.

Upper Rock Wall Trailhead – Junction of FR 806 with Hwy 87/260

On the return hike we stopped in a sun-splattered spot about half a mile from Hwy 87 for a leisurely lunch. Following lunch, Jim had planned to lead us on a short side trip for a view over the Rim. However, when we approached the turnoff to the viewpoint, we were deterred by the sound of gunfire in the area.

The return trip went quickly. It was a gentle downhill slope except for the short distance near the bottom. I paused to admire an especially attractive manzanita (below left) and we were delayed for awhile by a black rattlesnake (below right) who had staked out a sunny spot in the very center of the road and absolutely refused to move. There was a steep bank above the road and a sharp drop below, with about eight feet on either side of the snake. We tossed pine cones at him in an attempt to encourage him to move. In return we got only fierce rattles and a mean stare. Most of the group eventually passed him walking very carefully along the very edge of the road. I am an absolute coward when it comes to snakes, so, along with another hiker, I chose to climb the steep bank and give the stubborn rattler a much wider berth. We then continued on our way leaving the surly fellow on high alert, ready to defend his chosen spot.

The total one-way distance for this hike was measured by GPS as 4.1 miles. The separate distances given between points along the way do not add up to this total because of rounding errors.

The red track on the included map shows the route we took, the yellow track shows the paved road and the blue track shows an alternate route along Forest Road 9367R that terminates at a different point on Hwy 87/260. The round trip hike distance was 8.2 miles, the maximum elevation was 7180 feet and the ascent was 1420 feet.