Chasm Creek Trail

On 3 April 2010, eleven members of the Skyliner's group (Marvin Alt, Miriam Sterling, Lila Wright, Gordon Bice, Daisy Williams, Donna Goodman, Betty Wolters and Dolly Yapp, Ellis Price and two others) hiked on Chasm Creek Trail. We took Salt Mine Road from Camp Verde to Forest Road 574 and followed it for about three miles before parking at the trailhead.

As we started our hike, we found a profusion of light blue and yellow flowers (stock and bladderpod from the mustard family) along the way and a fiddleneck among the other flowers.

Stock and Bladderpod Fiddleneck                               Stock and Bladderpod

The trail passed through a gate and descended into Chasm Creek Canyon and crossed the creek about one-tenth of a mile on. Along the way, the Barberry bushes were in full bloom.

Barberry bushes                                                           Descending to Chasm Creek

On reaching the creek, the trail follows it upstream for about a tenth of a mile, crossing several times before climbing up the east wall of the canyon. We paused near a small waterfall to take a picture before starting the climb.

Magnified view of waterfall on Chasm Creek

The climb from the creek is quite steep for a few hundred yards, after which it levels off and crosses a wash that drains into Chasm Creek Canyon. One can climb down the wash into the canyon below and follow the creek downstream to rejoin the trail at the waterfall where it starts the climb up the east canyon wall. We would choose to do that on our return. For now, we headed on up the trail with the goal of reaching the saddle at Table Mountain, about three miles from the trailhead, by lunchtime. From the wash the trail climbs up the mountain to the northwest for about two-tenths of a mile before making a sharp turn to the southwest and continuing to climb toward the saddle ahead. About 100 yards to the north (slightly east) of the turn in the trail, at the brow of the ridge formed by Chasm Creek Canyon to the north and the wash just behind us, are located some old Indian Ruins and an excellent overlook, with views down into the canyon, across Verde Valley and the Mogollon Rim to the San Francisco Peaks above Flagstaff. We deferred a visit to the overlook and ruins to the return trip and continued on up the trail, noting several flowers along the way.

Eastern Mojave buckwheat (?)                                          Spring Parsley

Anemone Mock Vervain                                                 Wild Geranium or Phlox

Upon reaching the saddle at Table Mountain, several of us turned off the trail in favor of climbing to a viewpoint, located northeast of our position in the saddle, and at the top of Table Mountain. Others stopped to eat in the saddle itself and a couple of this group traveled a short distance on along the trail to the southwest after eating. I chose to join the group climbing Table Mountain and, on reaching the top, we wandered around a bit searching for a view to the north. However, we soon determined that the flat top of the mountain (the table, as it were) was larger than we had anticipated and returned to eat lunch at a viewpoint overlooking the saddle where the rest of our group had stopped to eat.

The photograph included here (right) provides a view of the saddle from where we ate lunch.

The next photograph (left) shows Donna enjoying lunch on Table Mountain.

After lunch we started back down the trail at a good clip, becoming a bit spread out and traveling in three loose groups. This made our hike leader a bit cranky, although I thought we were relatively well behaved. The first group did, after all, stop to wait at the intended turnoff where we were to go down the wash; and when the second group left the trail, before reaching the wash, to explore the Indian Ruins and the Chasm Creek Canyon overlook, we did leave a sentinel at the trail to alert the leader.

In any case, all except the first group visited the overlook. From there we could see Chasm Creek flowing down the canyon several hundred feet below and we got a close up look at the ruins.

View down into Chasm Creek Canyon

Not much is left of the ruins; just the barest outline of stacked stones that must have compartmentalized what appear to have been living areas.

Indian Ruins

Leaving the overlook, we joined the rest of the group waiting for us at the wash we intended to use to descend into the canyon. Climbing down the wash and traveling along the bottom of the canyon proved to be relatively easy as rock hopping goes. The only really rough spot was getting around the waterfall that we had stopped to photograph on the way in. There was simply no way to travel safely along the bottom of the canyon past the fall and we just had to climb around that section. But that was a minor inconvenience and the nice views (see photographs below) along the way down the wash and the canyon certainly made the detour worthwhile

In Chasm Creek Canyon

Looking up Chasm Creek Canyon

Sycamore at the mouth of a side canyon just below the waterfall

After climbing around the waterfall, we reconnected with the trail, traveled down the stream, climbed out of the canyon and returned to our cars. Along the way, I found a couple of flowers that I had missed on the way in – a fiddleneck (below left) and fringed redmaids (below right).

Fiddleneck                                                              Fringed Redmaids

According to my GPS file, the total hiking distance was 6.6 miles and the elevation change, low point to high point, was 1630 feet.

Our GPS Track for this hike is shown on the included map (below)