Etta Mine Hike

On 20 March 2010, eleven Skyliners hiked from Cherry Road to Etta Mine and back. We took Hwy 260 toward Camp Verde and turned onto Cherry Road at the County Complex. We followed Cherry Road for about 6.5 miles and parked at the junction with Forest Road 361. The junction is located approximately at mile marker 11.9 on Cherry Road.

Our intended goal for this hike was Monarch Mine. However, we made a wrong turn during the hike and wound up at Etta Mine instead. We then decided to rename this the “Etta Mine Hike” and turn back, leaving Monarch Mine for another day. Hikers included Jim Manning, Donna Goodman, Marvin Alt, Fran Lind, Daisy Williams, Collene Maktenieks, Dolly Yapp, three unnamed hikers and Ellis Price (the photographer, not shown).

We were a bit taken aback to find that the road led downhill at the start of the hike. We generally prefer to do our climbing at the beginning of a hike while still fresh and do the easier downhill part on the way back. This hike turned out to have many ups and downs as we wound our way through the foothills. About one mile from Cherry Road where FR 361 crosses a wash, we thought we could hear water running. A little investigation showed that water was indeed running in the wash above the road but that it all sank into the bed of the wash before reaching the road. Later reference to a topo map revealed that we were at Blue Monster Spring. The map also showed another spring, called Pfau Spring, about two-tenths of a mile further along FR 361. We did not see a spring at that location, so assumed that it must be located below the road. However, we did find some old mine ruins with quite elaborate stonework alongside the road.I couldn’t find a name for this mine and have just labeled it “mine near Pfau Spring.”

Mine near Pfau Spring. This mine is located along FR 361 about 1.25 miles from Cherry Road.

After passing the mine near Pfau Spring, we continued on FR 361 for just over another mile and a half (about 4.5 miles from Cherry Road) before we came to a road leading of to the left that we thought might be the road to Monarch Mine.

Taking that road we soon found that it did not lead to Monarch Mine. However, we could see another road running along the mountainside above and to the northwest of us. We took a short side road that led us up a wash in the direction of the road we could see ahead and, when that road ended, bushwhacked our way on up the mountainside.

Upon intercepting the road running along the mountainside, we followed it on up the side of the mountain until it ended at an unidentified mine that I later identified as Etta Mine. We stopped there for lunch.

After lunch I gave up my customary noon nap in favor of climbing to the top of the ridge above the Mine. Dolly, Jim and I climbed through a manzanita grove that was in full bloom to come out on the mountaintop in one of those sandy, open spaces that look more like an ocean beach than something to be expected on a mountaintop.

The views from the top were spectacular, well worth the extra climb from the mine below. Laid out before us was a slice of Mingus Mountain to the northwest, the upper reaches of Verde Valley to the north, the San Francisco Peaks to the northeast beyond Sedona and, further toward the east, a view of the red cliffs of the Mogollon Rim directly across Verde Valley:

From atop the ridge above Etta Mine facing northwest. A slice of Mingus Mountain is shown in the center

From atop the ridge above Etta Mine facing north by northwest. A bit of Mingus is shown at the left edge

From atop the ridge above Etta Mine facing north. The San Francisco Peaks are visible to the right

From atop the ridge above Etta Mine facing northeast. The San Francisco Peaks are visible the left

From atop the ridge above Etta Mine facing northeast. A magnified view of the San Francisco Peaks

After looking at the far off views, I focused on the always-beautiful manzanita nearby.

Large Manzanita above Etta Mine                Large Manzanita above Etta Mine

After lunch, we started our trek back to Cherry Road. However, when we reached the point where we had entered the mountainside road after bushwhacking up the side of the mountain, Carol and I continued along Etta Road to map the route to FR 361. The rest of the group bushwhacked their way back down the mountainside the way we had come. When Carol and I arrived at the junction with FR 361, we found that four roads actually come together there. It could have been a bit confusing; however, there were signs posted and we knew that we would need to turn south to rejoin the rest of the party.

Later reference to a topo map showed that roads marked as FR 361 lead in three directions from this junction: to the northeast to end at Old Hwy 279 near Hwy 260 at Thousand Trails, to the northwest to end about 0.6 miles ahead, and south to end at Cherry Road. At the junction we were about two-thirds of a mile from where we had turned off on the way in. To reach Monarch Mine, our original goal for this hike, we should have continued on FR 361 to this junction, taken the road leading east (labeled as FR 361 on some maps) and followed it for about seven-tenths of a mile. The road runs between what is apparently two separate claims that constitute Monarch Mine and continues on up the mountain for a short distance before ending.

NOTE: I have have shown the road to Monarch Mine as a green track on the included map (below).

The total distance for this hike as shown on my GPS was nine miles. That includes the climb to the top of the ridge above Etta Mine and the extra distance (over a mile) hiked by Carol and me to follow the Etta Mine Road on to the junction with FR 361. The change in elevation from the low point to the high point of the hike was about 900 feet; however from a quick look at my GPS file, I estimate that the additional climbing, going up and down to cross the foothills along the way, added another 1000 feet. In other words if you went on this hike and then felt that you had climbed closer to 2000 feet, you were not far wrong.

The GPS track of this hike is shown on the included map (below) along with the road to Monarch Mine.