Adobe Jack Loop Hike

On Saturday, 7 January 2017, Dave Beach led twelve Skyliners on the Adobe Jack Loop. He drove us northeast on State Route 89A to the trailhead between West Sedona and Uptown Sedona. The trailhead is on the north side of the highway just 0.3 miles beyond Airport Road and just before the Mariposa Restaurant.

The morning sun was still lurking just below the eastern horizon when we arrived in Sedona, but had already announced its presence by the glorious colors reflected from the low-lying clouds.

Sunrise in Sedona

There are several trails, collectively designated (right) as "Soldier Wash Trails", in this area. Three major trails run in the north-south direction up the wash. These are Adobe Jack (to the west), Javelina (to the east) and Grand Central located between these two. Several shorter trails serve to connect these three together.

Another sign posted at the Adobe Jack Trailhead provides the following information about HJ Meany, the individual for whom the trail was named:

"HJ Meany, also known as Adobe Jack, was born in Prescott, Arizona to a couple of European ancestry who met at Castle Hot Springs not far from there. They worked on the Crown King Railroad, were gold miners in the Congress Mine, and moved to California during the Great Depression. Jack came from a working class family who struggled through rough times. He served in WW11, graduated from USC School of Engineering, and ultimately climbed the corporate ladder. He always kept his love for the Old West in his heart and soul. He is dearly missed by his family and all who knew him." This sign is signed by George and Claudine.

Although our schedule had named only the Adobe Jack Trail, Dave would take us on a loop hike that would include some or all of the following trails: Crusty, Grand Central, Javelina, Jordan, a short loop around Ant Hill and Adobe Jack itself.

We left the parking area on Adobe Jack, crossed a wash (left), a side branch of Soldier Wash, and immediately turned right onto Crusty Trail. A small stream running down the wash formed an attractive waterfall. After 0.4 miles we came to the end of Crusty at Grand Central Trail. There we turned right and continued for another 0.2 miles to arrive at Javelina, the trail we would follow on our journey up the wash. We hiked the entire 1.2 mile length of Javelina Trail, ending up at Jordan Trail. Along the way we passed the upper Power Line Plunge Trailhead at a junction with Javelina. From here Power Line Junction runs southwest, crosses Grand Junction and ends at Adobe Jack just 0.9 miles north of the trailhead on Hwy 89A.

Just over a 100 yards beyond Power Line Plunge, Javelina Trail ends at Jordan Trail. This Trail, new in 1999, serves as a connector to other trails in the area and would lead us northwest to the upper end of Adobe Jack at the Devil's Kitchen.

About 0.5 miles from the Javelina/Jordan Trails junction we came to Ant Hill Loop Trail (right), a short trail that loops around a large mound named Ant Hill. We used it along with a short section of Grand Central, which intersects Ant Hill Loop, to hike around and to the top of Ant Hill.

As we traveled along Jordan Trail, and especially from Ant Hill itself, we had great views of the red rock country all around and on to distant mountains beyond. The following photograph shows snow-covered Mingus Mountain beyond the shoulder of Ant Hill.

Snow-covered Mingus Mountain in the distance

Our hike leader, Dave Beach, gathered us all together for a group photograph on top of Ant Hill.

Left to right: Dave Beach, Roxanne Wessel, Chris Jensen, Connie Woolard, Roger Fenske, Daisy Williams, Joanne Hennings, Anita Jackson, Ellen McGinnis, Loren Pritzel, Jim McGinnis, and Jim Gibson

Shortly after returning to Jordan Trail, we arrived at Devil's Kitchen sinkhole. This is a natural sinkhole located at the convergence of Soldier Pass, Cibola Pass, Jordan and Adobe Jack Trails.

At Devil's Kitchen there are signs reminding us to use extreme caution when walking near the sinkhole. Sedona geologist, Paul Lindberg, writing for the Arizona Geological Survey¹ notes that, “The Devils Kitchen sinkhole formed catastrophically and will continue to enlarge over geologic time”. He continues by saying, “Certain edges of the Devils Kitchen sinkhole are at greater risk of collapse while others are deemed less likely to collapse. It should be emphasized, however, that no degree of certainty exists at this site.”

A sign posted at the site provides diagrams and explanations detailing the sinkhole's creation along with pertinent measurements and dates. One wall of the sinkhole is shown in the photograph below.

Devils Kitchen Sinkhole

A short distance away from the sinkhole our return route on the Adobe Jack Trail began (left). In some spots the trail was muddy but not bad enough to cause mud to cake on our shoes.

We had a good view of the Fin (or Sail) and Steamboat Rock as we hiked along Adobe Jack Trail.

The Fin (or Sail) and Steamboat Rock

At about noon we found that we were more than half-way through our hike, so we decided to continue on without stopping for lunch. We had already eaten a snack while we were on Ant Hill.

On this first hike of the new year the sky was all gray and the weather was cold enough that most of us kept our warmest jackets on throughout the hike. The most significant wildlife we saw during the hike were two deer, a buck and a doe.

This hike was about 5.4 miles long and the elevation varied between 4385 feet and 4660 feet. Editor's note: These statistics are only estimates because no one provided a GPS track for the hike and some of the track data was hand-drawn by the editor.

The route to the Devil's Kitchen included a 100-yard section of Adobe Jack Trail, the entire 0.4 mile length of Crusty Trail, about 0.2 miles of Grand Central Trail, the entire 1.2 miles of Javelina Trail, about 1.6 miles of the Jordan Trail combined with a short, about 0.7-mile, loop trail to circle around Ant Hill and climb it for the view. The 2.0-mile return track, from Devil's Kitchen to the parking lot at Hwy 89A, was entirely by Adobe jack Trail. The included map (below) shows the entire hike in red.

Other trails shown within the loop we hiked include two segments of Grand Central (purple), Power Line Plunge (green) and Coyote (blue).

This report was written by Daisy Williams and assembled, edited and posted online by Ellis Price with help from Lila Wright.

1http://azgeology.azgs.az.gov/archived_issues/azgs.az.gov/arizona_geology/winter09/article_devilskitchen.html