FR155 – Bakers Pass – Pipeline Loop

The weather forecast when I checked the evening before had been for mostly sunny skies and when we left Cottonwood for our hike on 9 April 2016 there were just a few clouds in the sky, mostly on the horizon. Our hike for today was primarily along well-drained forest roads and a little rain really wouldn't bother us anyway.

We left the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot at 0700 and drove south on SR 89A for 9.1 miles to the firehouse in Jerome. There we continued straight ahead on Perkinsville Road (FR 218/CR 72) for another 6.9 miles, turned sharply right and downhill on Forest Road 155 and continued for an additional 1.3 miles to park at Horseshoe Tank.

Horseshoe is a large tank, divided by a fence so as to water stock in two separate pastures. Looking across the tank George Everman noted what appeared to be an elaborate corral on the other side, so we hiked over to investigate. We walked past the tank and beyond the corral and then looked back for the view shown in the photograph (below).

Looking back across Horseshoe Tank with the corral in the forefront

The fence that runs across the tank, permitting access by stock in two separate pastures, can be seen at the left in the photograph. At the top, just left of center is seen a powerline pole. We were not sure what power was used for at the tank; however, the elevated structures shown in the corral could mean that cows are butchered at the site, so perhaps portable chillers are brought in for that purpose.

We gathered at the corral for a group photograph and then returned to where we were parked to start our hike.

Left to right: Jim Manning, Betty Wolters,Keith Reichenback, Floyd Gardner, Dolly Yapp, Joanne Hennings, Ellen McGinnis, Jim McGinnis (rear), Lila Wright, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink, Loren Pritzel, George Everman and Gary Jacobson – author not shown

The only cattle we saw for the entire hike were two nursing cows, lingering with their calves near the tank. One of the cows had a distorted horn, angled down rather than jutting up as is normal.

The only cattle we saw during this hike

Several members of the group, including the author, had hiked this trail in September 2009, starting at Perkinsville Road, and we vividly remembered the steep climb, 525 feet in 1.3 miles, from Horseshoe Tank back to Perkinsville Road. We had parked at the tank for this hike primarily to avoid repeating that difficult climb.

Our plan was to hike on Forest Road 155 to Bakers Pass Tank, continue on FR 9004L to Bakers Pass and then return to FR 155 by way of the El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline service road. We passed the intersection of the pipeline and forest service roads, about 0.4 miles below Horseshoe Tank, on our way to Bakers Pass Tank and stopped to look at the pipeline instrumentation mounted there. In the photograph (below left) Karl and Jim and are shown examining the equipment while Keith is looking toward the service road we will follow on our return. A number of years ago, I had spent a lot of time driving the backroads of Arizona and New Mexico to inspect El Paso Natural Gas and Kinder Morgan facilities. At that time they were separate companies; but, as indicated by the sign (below right), have since merged.

Pipeline instrumentation        Pipeline caution sign        

As can be seen in the background of the photograph (above left), we were hiking through an area of grassland and scattered juniper. Sometimes the junipers were more dense than shown here, sometimes less; but they were always present. Less noticeable were scrub oak, cactuses, snakeweed, an occasional clump of beargrass and finally a single, lonely primrose (right).

In one area we found the trailside virtually blanketed with yellow bladderpod blossoms (below left). I singled out the best of the plants for an individual photograph (below right).

A profusion of bladderpods   An individual bladderpod

As we continued north on FR 155, we had a good view into the rough, mountainous country that lies beyond the Verde River, west of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness and east of Perkinsville (photograph below).

Looking north beyond the Verde River from FR 155 below Horseshoe Tank

After hiking about 1.5 miles north on FR 155 from Horseshoe Tank, we came to a fork in the road. Forest Road 155 took the right fork while the road straight ahead became FR 156. An old, faded but still legible sign (below) provided guidance, indicating that we should turn right and continue on FR 155.

Old sign posted at the intersection of FR 155 and FR 156

The road became a little rougher as we climbed a low hill after turning at the fork to head for Bakers Pass Tank; but it then leveled out and was good the rest of the way to the tank.

Approaching Bakers Pass Tank, we saw a corral (below left) across the wash. There were two horses in the corral; however, only the rump of one horse is shown in the photograph. Ahead (below right) was a massive dirt dyke that formed the downstream rim of the tank.

                            Corral – rump of one horse      Massive downstream                                    is visible                                       dyke at tank                       
 

The photograph (above right) was taken at the fork in the road. Forest Road 155 continues to the left, running along the foot of the dyke; Forest road 9004L is the right fork running past the right edge of the dyke and continuing up the valley below Bakers Pass.

Forest Road 155 had turned at the FR 156 junction and taken us in an easterly direction around the bottom portion of our loop hike to Bakers Pass Tank. Now we were heading south on FR 9004L and, looking ahead toward the pass, it looked as though our good luck with the weather might be coming to an end; ominous clouds were gathering on the horizon and the sun had deserted us.

We had noted a large, deep, rapidly eroding wash running down the floor of the valley above Bakers Pass Tank. One of the hikers referred to it as a miniature Grand Canyon. Erosion from the wash was obviously rapidly silting up the tank below, reducing its capacity, and resulting in the need for frequent renovation. This probably explains the large downstream dyke.

About 0.8 miles up the valley we noted what at first appeared to be the construction of a new tank (below left). Later I learned that this was the site of existing Henry Tank. The floor of the excavated region was very uneven and it at first appeared that the project had been abandoned. However, we then discovered an excavator (below right) tucked behind a tree and realized that the workers were likely just taking the weekend off.

Stock tank excavation site       Excavator                             

We found a few more flowers along the way. These included a verbena (below left) and a blanket flower (below right).

Verbena                                     Blanket flower                     

As we made our way up the valley toward Baker Pass, the road became steeper and rougher, navigable only by jeep-like vehicles. About 100 yards from the pass we came to the pipeline service road that we intended to take back across two ridges to rejoin FR 155 below Horseshoe Tank. I paused there to take a photograph showing the ridges with the route of the pipeline across them both (two red arrows in below photograph) and the last of our hikers (right in below photograph) still climbing the trail.

Looking across the valley below Baker Pass – taken 100 yards below the pass

The sky was still overcast and the wind through the pass was brisk. I hiked on to the top for a quick peek through the pass and a photograph. In the photograph (right), the Black Hills loom at right and the mountains on the other side of Verde Valley can be seen on the horizon. After one quick look and one photograph, I returned to a sheltered spot below the ridgeline, found a spot of grass and ate lunch while waiting for the rest of the party to catch up.

After lunch and a short nap (for me, at least), we were on our way across the two ridges between us and FR 155 on the other side. The first ridge, although steep, was a short climb. The second one was a bit more difficult but we soon crested it, passed through a gate, looked down at our cars parked below and paused for a short rest before descending. I took advantage of the pause for a last panoramic photograph (below) of the rough country to our north.

Looking north from the top of a ridge between Bakers Pass and Horseshoe Tank

We were back at our vehicles by 1315 and I, for one, was very happy that we had chosen to park at Horseshoe Tank rather than at Perkinsville Road, thus avoiding a 1.3-mile uphill hike. I never like to end a hike with an uphill climb.

On our return, I stopped along Perkinsville Road to photo-graph some cliffrose I had seen there earlier. However, the lighting was all wrong, so I substituted a photograph (left) taken near Bakers Pass.

Our hike is shown by the red track on the included map (below). The blue track is part of Forest Road 155 between Perkinsville Road and Horseshoe Tank.

The hike was 6.9 miles in length, including the side trip to the corral at Horseshoe Tank. The highest elevation was 5245 feet and the total ascent was 1161 feet.