House Mountain to Paperspine Cactus

This was a 19 June 2010 hike up House Mountain on Turkey Creek Trail to as far as the location of a cluster of Paperspine Cactus viewed on previous hikes. This plant is rare in Arizona and we were trying to catch it in bloom. We drove to Oak Creek Village and turned off Hwy 179 onto Verde Valley School Road. We continued on Verde Valley School Road (and Red Rock Crossing Road - unpaved) for 4.0 miles to a rough dirt road leading off to the left. Parking is available at this point. However, we drove on the rough 4-wheel drive road for about 0.6 miles to reach the parking area at Turkey Creek Trailhead (Location 34°48'34.51"N; 111°49'4.10"W), and stopped there for a group photograph before starting our hike.

Left to right: Donna Goodman, Ellis Price, George Everman, Kwi Johnson,

 Perlina McCombs (Photographer: John McInerney)

We stopped at Turkey Creek Tank where we had previously found some Devil’s Claw plants because I wanted to see whether any new plants had come up this year. Unfortunately, I could not find any.  I am not sure whether that is because none were growing or because I just didn’t recognize the plants when I saw them. From Wikipedia I had learned that it “is a perennial herb growing from a thick, tuber like yellow root. The stem is decumbent, creeping along the ground. The shiny leaves have rounded, oval, or roughly triangular blades up to 7 centimeters long, which are deeply lobed and wavy along the edges. The inflorescence is an array of many showy, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers with five lobes flaring several centimeters wide. The flower is yellow to orange or apricot with an intricate pattern of speckles and streaks, its lower lobe lined with a nectar guide.”  I am still looking for one in bloom.

Disappointed at not finding any Devils Claw plants, we continued on our way to check the Paperspine Cactus, pausing to admire the flowers and plants we found along the way. Before reaching the Paperspine cactus, we paused to admire and photograph two specimens. The first (right) was a stemless four-nerve daisy (Tetraneuris acaulis).

Our second find (left), identified by George as a Greenstem paperflower (Psilostrophe sparsiflora), was located a little farther along the trail.

As we climbed higher toward our goal, we passed a very attractive twisted, gnarled Juniper (below). The sort of thing that simply cannot be duplicated in the garden no matter how hard one tries.

[Utah (shaggy bark) juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) - Photograph 

by John McInerney

On arriving at our destination, we found that the Paperspine Cactus was indeed in bloom; however, it had already passed its prime.  However, we took did get one decent photograph and George declared that he would return the next year a couple of weeks earlier.

Photograph by John McInerney [Paperspine fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus

 papyracanthus)

On the way back I found a really showy Brownfoot plant (see right). It is identified in the USDA Plants Database as: Brownfoot (Acourtia wrightii).

On the way up the trail we had concentrated on close by flowers and plants. Now that we were facing north, we had the red rock country spread out before us and really had an opportunity to enjoy the view. After taking the photograph of the Brownfoot plant, I forgot that I even had a camera, but John stopped along the way to take the following photograph.

Red rock country from the trail above Turkey Tank – by John McInerney

As we neared Turkey Tank, I finally remembered my camera again and took it out for one last photograph (right) of a Soaptree Yucca (Yucca elata).

After cleaning up my GPS file in the computer, I found that we had hiked 6.1 miles round trip, the maximum elevation was 4495 feet and the total ascent was 1070 feet.

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