Bell Trail 12

Parking at Trailhead

Location: 34°40'26.88"N; 111°42'48.49"W

Elevation: 3856

Along with five others, I hiked part of the Bell Trail on 05 June 2010. George and Betty suggested this hike. However, after discussing the weather and the projected presence of “no see ums” (Ceratopogonidae, or biting midges) with a group of naysayers, Betty decided to sit this one out. Donna, Gordon, Loren, John and I met at the normal gathering spot in the Safeway parking lot and then proceeded to meet George at the I-17/Hwy 179 intersection. From there we traveled east on Forest Road 618 for about 2¼ miles before turning left on Forest Road 121 to proceed to the trailhead about ¼ of a mile ahead. The road turns to the right toward a Forest Service complex after a hundred yards or so and one must continue straight ahead to reach the trailhead. It is not hard to find.

On reaching the trailhead, we donned our packs and started up the trail, stopping to read the trail information sign along the way.

Forest Service Trail Description

As we continued on up the trail, we saw a beautiful patch of trailing four o’clocks followed immediately by one of silverleaf nightshade.

Trailing Four O’clock

Silver Leaf Nightshade

After admiring the flowers we paused for a group photograph.

Left to right: George Everman, Donna Goodman, Gordon Bice, Loren 

Pritzel and John McInerney (Photographer: Ellis Price)

A raven perched high on a dead limb alongside the trail, called a welcome to us as we passed -- or perhaps it was a curse. I stopped for a shot of the raven and to admire a honey mesquite bush growing nearby.

Raven sentinel posted alongside the trail

Western honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa)

John told us there was an Indian ruin ahead and we found it, about 1.75 miles from the trailhead, by following a faint trail leading toward the creek.

Indian ruin just off trail about 1¾ miles from the trailhead

Leaving the Indian ruin, we continued for just over ½ of a mile further before turning toward the creek on Weir Trail. This is an excellent place to stop alongside the creek to rest and dangle ones feet in the water or, if getting your feet wet is not your thing, just relax for a spell in a shady spot and listen to the rippling stream.

This is a pool just below the weir

I wonder if the fish will bite his toes?

Donna doing some rock hopping

A cable car is installed to cross the creek at the weir. While it appears to be maintained in good condition, we were not able to determine what it is used for. It was locked to prevent unauthorized use, but we decided that did not preclude a bit of posing.

Ready to go, but all locked up

When we were ready to continue, Gordon, George and Donna returned to Bell Trail by way of Weir Trail. Loren, John and I took a shortcut, scrambling up the mountain to reconnect with the trail and waited there for the rest of the group. While waiting, we were passed by at least 35 or 40 other hikers, many of them on a bus tour from Colorado. Apparently Bell Trail was recently written up in Arizona Highways magazine and it is currently much in vogue. Everyone was headed to the swimming hole at the crossing. Most of the group from Colorado, all apparently of high school age, were ill-prepared to for a 3½ mile hike on a day when the temperature reached 103% F. Most of the boys were shirtless and the girls were mainly wearing bikinis.

One poor girl appeared to be in the early stages of heat exhaustion when they reached where were waiting. Someone talked her into staying in the shade with us until the group leader, wisely hiking at a more leisurely pace, arrived. When the rest of our party arrived, the girl still didn’t look much better, but she was now in the care of the group leader, and we continued on our way.

The crossing area does have a great swimming hole I one cars to dive in from a high rock ledge; however at this particular time the tour group from Colorado were there in full force and they sounded, as one might expect, like a bunch of high-school students on vacation.

Nevertheless, by continuing a short distance on up the creek, I found a shady spot on a rock where the noise from the swimming hole was bearable and settled in for lunch and an hour-long nap. It seemed that I had barely dozed off when I heard the group calling me for the return trip.

We saw the following flowers on the stretch of trail between the Weir and the swimming hole at the crossing.

Prairie spiderwort 

Prickly Pear Cactus or Cactus apple

Ocotillo

Brownfoot

The round trip hike was about 6.2 miles except for George, Gordon and Donna who didn’t take the shortcut from the weir. I estimate that they hiked about three-quarters of a mile further. The elevation change was only about 300 feet and, while he temperature reached 103⁰ F, we did not get overheated, perhaps because we stopped to rest several times along the way.

Our GPS track is shown on the included map (below).