Trail 511 to Box T Spring and FR 9602G

Trail 511, running across the Black Hills Mountain Range from Joe Best Spring on Forest Road 68D to Salt Mine Road at the Verde River, is about 10.5 miles long (10.7 miles if one visits Box T Tank on the way). On 2 March 2016 we did a scouting hike on the 7.7-mile section of the trail between Box T Spring on the southwest side of the mountain range and the trails end near Ryal Canyon at Salt Mine Road on the northeast side of the range. That section of trail rose from 5025 feet at Box T Spring to 5867 feet at the crest of the mountain and then descended to 3284 feet at Salt Mine Road. As well as being very steep, the trail was also quite rocky, so we decided it was not a suitable candidate for a Skyliner hike.

We later scouted the rest of Trail 511, the 3.3-mile section between Joe Best Spring and Box T Spring and found it to be suitable for a Skyliner hike if combined with Forest Road 9602G, a short road 2.3 mile road that connects Box T Spring to FR 732 just east of Bald Hills Ranch, 2.9 miles from I-17. We would park one vehicle there and then drive on the trailhead at Joe Best Spring to start our hike.

Leaving Cottonwood at 0700, we drove on SR 260 to Camp Verde, turned south on I-17 and drove to the SR 169 Exit. There, instead of turning west toward Dewey-Humboldt, we turned east onto Forest Road 732 and drove 2.9 miles to park at the junction with FR 9602G. This section of road was described in my report of the 2 March 2016 scouting hike as follows:

Forest Road 732 (also shown on some maps as FR 68D or even as SR 169), although dirt, was in first class condition for the first 2.5 miles. At that point it crossed a cattleguard and turned down a short, steep hill, becoming a lot rougher as it descended. It was still usable by a regular passenger vehicle.¹

At the bottom of the hill, the road passes the entrance to Bald Hill Ranch and then continues through a community of several houses, scattered along Cienega Creek, before reaching the intersection of FR 732 and FR 9602G. About a hundred yards beyond the junction, water springs forth from the otherwise dry creekbed at the foot of an ancient sycamore tree.

Water emerging from the dry bed of Cienega Creek

Some delicate blue flowers grew on the bank (below left) while a larger, bright bright yellow clump grew at the very edge of the water (below right).

Maiden blue eyed Mary            Monkey flower

Before sinking again into the dry bed of Cienega Creek, the running water created a small but lovely oasis-like area.

A small oasis in the dry desert

A fence runs across the stream about 100 yards below the water source, preventing stock in a downstream pasture from entering and trampling the area shown in the photograph (above).

There is a wide grassy area alongside the road above the creek and plenty of room to stop for an impromptu picnic. We parked our shuttle vehicle here and stopped to photograph the trail, actually a little-used forest road (left) from which we would emerge at the end of our hike. We then piled into the remaining two vehicles and continued on to the trailhead at Joe Best Spring, about another 3.2 miles.

About 1.1 miles from where we had parked the shuttle vehicle we left the course of Cienega Creek, angled away from the creek and passed between two small hills. Another 0.7 miles brought us to Wire Gold Tank and the inevitable question, “Where did the tank get its name”?. Eventually, I found that Google Earth, with the National Geographic overlay installed, shows a “mines” location about 0.9 miles southeast of the tank and that Mindat.org provides the names Escondido Mine and Moon Anchor Mine. It is listed as a wire gold “mine with underground workings²”; no other information is provided.

A short distance after passing Wire Gold Tank we came to a fork in the road. FR 732 turned sharply to the left while the road straight ahead became FR 68D; a sign was posted indicating it would lead to Dugas. We continued straight ahead on FR 68D for another 0.8 miles to the 511 Trailhead at Joe Best Spring. We donned our packs and posed for a group photograph before starting the hike.

Left to right: Jim Manning, Anita Jackson, Floyd Gardner, Betty Wolters, Joanne Hennings, Collene Maktenieks, Roger Fenske, Lila Wright, Daisy Williams, George Everman and the author – photograph by Name Withheld, author's camera

There is a large, flat parking area where the forest road crosses the presently-dry wash just above Joe Best Spring. Mounted at the bank of the wash was one of the largest wire-bound cairns (right) I have ever seen. Although we saw no trailhead sign, it was obvious that Trail 511 left the parking area on the opposite side from the cairn.

For the first 0.7 miles, the trail led us down the wash, past the mapped location of the spring. The wash was bone dry and we saw no indication of water as we passed close by. Meanwhile, a brisk, quite chilly wind was blowing up the wash and we were happy to still be wearing our jackets. The wash ended at Cienega Creek where we had crossed the creek on our way to the trailhead and then continued northeast, climbing the hillside at a gentle slope.

We were hiking through an area covered with junipers and pinon pines along with a large number of cliffrose shrubs, some manzanita and an occasional squaw bush. The trail was a little rocky in places but easy to follow and we now began to see more flowers along the trail. For instance the claret cup cactus (below left) and the delicate filaree (below right), found near Box T Spring.

Claret cup cactus                     Filaree                                  

About 1.7 miles from the beginning of the hike we came to one of those gate bypasses designed for the uninterrupted passage of ATVs and hikers. There are several of these gates installed along Trail 511 between Joe Best Spring and the top of the mountain above Box T Tank. The photograph (below) was taken looking back after we had passed through the gate.

Cattleguard for ATV and hiker passage

We arrived at Box T Spring at about 1035 and stopped to rest, look around and examine an old branding chute (left) installed at the site. Although generally called branding chutes, such devices could also have been used for dehorning and spraying.

We could find no open spring at the site. It appears that the spring has been filled in and the water piped to a lower point down the hillside where it emerges into the bottom of a tank. The tank then overflows and the water runs on downstream for a short distance before being reabsorbed by the thirsty soil. My report of our 2 March 2016 hike to the spring describes it as follows:

...no spring was visible, just a large rectangular metal tank setting in an open grassy area. However, a closer look disclosed that the tank actually formed part of the spring. There are no above-ground pipes feeding water to the tank; it has apparently been fitted over the mouth of the spring so that the water flows into the bottom of the tank and fills it up before overflowing from the top...³.

We left Trail 511 at the spring and followed FR 9602G back to the shuttle vehicle at FR 732. We found numerous flowers along this road and George and I again lagged behind examining and photographing them. Shortly after leaving the spring we came to an area that was literally covered with a carpet of delicate blue flax (below left). A close up photograph (below right) is also shown.

Area carpeted with blue flax  Close up of blue flax           

We saw a number of bright yellow groundsels along the way and then a nicely bunched group of four (below left). This was followed closely by a clump of deer pea vetch (below right) just past its prime.

Groundsels                                 Deer vetch                         

Cliffrose has been especially abundant this spring and I had thought that I had photographed it and the always abundant Indian paintbrush enough for the season until I came upon a small cliffrose intertwined with an Indian paintbrush and a single yellow groundsel.

Cliffrose, Indian Paintbrush and a single groundsel

We had noted several instances of squawbush (oak-leafed sumac) along the trail and I decided, even though it was not blooming, to include a photograph of one (below left). It would go nicely alongside a Utah serviceberry, pointed out by George that, itself, had just two blossoms (below right).

                            Squawbush (oak-leaved           Utah serviceberry                                       
                                                            sumac)                                                                                                             

We found a single aster blossom growing all by itself (below left), looking as though it were straining to get as far away from the main body of the plant as possible, and then a dandelion seed head (below right).

Single aster blossom               Dandelion head

Eventually, George and I had fallen far behind and the rest of the group stopped to rest while we caught up. However, we soon fell behind again when the hike resumed.

I have never been very enthralled by fleabane and usually don't bother to photograph it. However, the very attractive clump shown in the photograph (below left) drew my attention and I decided, after all, to include it in my report. I also finally found some decent Easter daisies (below right) near the end of the hike and decided to delete the Easter daisy photographs I had already taken in favor of this single example.

Fleabane                                    Easter daisies

We found one unusual plant (below left) that we were unable to identify. I am including it here as “unknown” and George will attempt to identify it later. I also photographed a fine leaf wooly white (below right).

Unknown                                   Fine leaf wooly white

As we were traveling along the top of the ridge before starting our descent at the end of the hike to FR 732 near Bald Hill Ranch, we saw an almost perfectly round rock (below left) that appeared to be in the process of being peeled as though like an onion. A little farther along we came upon a patch of lichen-colored rocks (below right) that we took from a distance to be flowers.

                             Round rock being peeled        Liken-covered rocks                                         like an onion                                                                             

We were back at the shuttle vehicle just after noon, so we chose to eat there, in that oasis-like spot, before retrieving the vehicles parked at Joe Best Spring.

Our hike is shown by the red track on the the included map (below). The blue track shows part of our drive along Forest Roads 732 and 68D to the trailhead at Joe Best Spring.

The hike was 5.6 miles in length, the highest elevation was 5113 feet, the total ascent was 650 feet and the total descent was 857 feet.

1FR 9602G and Trail 511 from FR 732 to Salt Mine Road, dated 2 March 2016, available at http://ellisfprice.blogspot.com/2016/03/from-squaw-peak-road-to-salt-mine-road.html

2 http://www.mindat.org/loc-144691.html

3 FR 9602G and Trail 511 from FR 732 to Salt Mine Road, dated 2 March 2016, available at http://ellisfprice.blogspot.com/2016/03/from-squaw-peak-road-to-salt-mine-road.html