Dry Beaver Creek Hike

Nineteen Skyliners (Lila Wright, Daisy Williams, John MacInerney, Linda Tovar, Miriam Sterling, Anita Jackson, Dolly Yapp, Kwi Johnson, Connie Woolard, Marvin Alt, George Everman, Bill Woolard, Colleen Maktenieks, Donna Goodman, Jim Manning, the author and three others) hiked near Dry Beaver Creek on 05 February 2011. Leaving the assembly area at the Cottonwood Safeway, we drove north on Hwy 89A, turned right on Cornville Road, proceeded through Cornville and turned left at the borrow pit just 2.3 miles past the Beaverhead Flat Road intersection. We had some discussion about the meaning of the term “borrow pit” and I looked it up:

A borrow pit, also known as a sand box, is a term used in construction and civil engineering. It describes an area where material (usually soil, gravel or sand) has been dug for use at another location. Borrow pits can be found close to many major construction projects. For example, soil might be excavated to fill an embankment for a highway, clay might be excavated for use in brick-making, gravel to be used for making concrete, etc.¹

Parking our car at the pit, we struck out on FR 9203T, a road that runs along Dry Beaver Creek. About eighty yards ahead we crossed a dry wash that appeared to also serve as a road. Looking at a map later, it appears that it indeed does serve as a road and that we could have turned up the wash and reconnected with the road we were following after about three tenths of a mile. After another two tenths of a mile (about a half mile from the parking area) we came to a fork in the road and continued straight ahead to cross Dry Beaver Creek and hike up the other side. Ignoring other possible turnoffs from the road we were on, we continued straight ahead and reached the dry creek bed after another two tenths of a mile (around seven tenths of a mile from our starting point).

Uncaring people have created a mini-dump alongside the creek where we were to cross over. We found several discarded monitors and other assorted trash that irresponsible persons had abandoned and then apparently used for target practice.

As we crossed the otherwise dry creek, we did see a shimmering pool of water several yards upstream, indicating that water had been flowing in the recent past. And then further upstream, we came to a larger pool of water near a bend in the streambed. Upstream from there, water was flowing; downstream the creek was dry.

Glimmering pool of water at a creek bend – below here the streambed is dry

We were now heading north on the east side of the creek, which at this point flows almost directly south, but soon turns so that we would be traveling upstream in an easterly direction. After traveling about three-tenths of a mile along the east bank of the mostly dry streambed we came to an almost ninety degree bend, so that the upstream direction was now to the east. From the bend as far as we went upstream there was water in the stream. We crossed over here to continue upstream along the north side of the generally west flowing stream.

As we continued in a generally east (slightly north) direction, the creek, now at times some two tenths of a mile to the south of our track, turned again so that it was now flowing from the north for a short distance, and we crossed it again about 1.1 miles from the bend where we had first crossed at the bend.

Below the bend – the streambed is dry

Water covers the bed upstream

After crossing the creek again we traveled generally north parallel to the creek and then climbed sharply to the top of a hill. From there we could see that Dry Beaver Creek curved back around the promontory we were standing on and once again was flowing from east to west. We followed the spine of the ridge diverging slightly from the path of the stream and climbed higher until we were almost two hundred feet above the point where we had last crossed the creek.

Our track from the borrow point to this point is shown on the attached map in red. Since we returned by a slightly different path, I have shown the return in yellow. The view from the ridge was quite good; we could see the Red Rock Country to the north, House Mountain to the northwest and Mingus Mountain almost directly west.

Looking toward Red Rock Country to the north

House Mountain to the northwest

Mingus Mountain in the distance to the west

On our way to the top of the ridge we had noted a trail snaking up the slope of the next hill south of us, and then saw a group of riders following it. This trail appeared to lead back toward our last crossing of the creek and we decided to take it back to there. It turned out to be an excellent trail, a much easier route back down to the creek. We stopped for lunch at the crossing before continuing our journey

After lunch we continued back down the creek, retracing the route we had followed on the way up until we arrived at the bend where the creek turned to flow directly south and where we had taken the group picture. From that point we followed a road paralleling the creek on the west side of the creek rather than crossing back over to go back down the east side.

Somewhere along the way Colleen had collected a piece of driftwood and stuck it in her pack for the trip home. Seeing a great opportunity one of the other hikers sneaked up behind her and suspended a beer can from her prize.

Colleen brought an extra ration of beer in case of extreme thirst 

- see it hanging on her left antler.

The total distance of the hike was 5.5 miles, according to my GPS track, and the difference in elevation was around 365 feet.

This was a most pleasant hike with very little climbing, good trails, great views and no bushwhacking; such as we experienced on our recent Mingus slope hike.

The GPS track of this hike is shown on the included map (below).

1 From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borrow_pit