What's Up with Ellis: Mingus Slope Loop Hike

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Mingus Slope Loop Hike

On Saturday 22 January 2011 fourteen Skyliners hiked the Mingus Slope Loop. This is an eight and six-tenths mile hike and can be described as follows: Park at the intersection of FR 493 and an off-road vehicle trail (I call it Oak Wash Cutoff) two and eight-tenths miles up FR 493 from the junction of Hwy 89A and Mingus Ave. Just follow Mingus and it will turn into FR 493. From the parking area, follow the off-road vehicle trail southeast across Oak Wash. Shortly after crossing Oak Wash the off-road vehicle trail ends at a road that runs from FR 493 past Ox Bow Spring to Chuckwalla Road. Turn left on this road and follow it (going east) for about two-tenths of a mile to intersect with Chuckwalla Road.

The distance from FR 493 to Chuckwalla Road is about six-tenths of a mile. Turn right on Chuckwalla Road and follow it up the mountain for one half mile to where the road passes through a gate in a wire fence and then forks. The right fork, continuing on up the mountain, is Chuckwalla.

The left fork, actually straight ahead, is old FR 355 and it ends just past the green water tank visible ahead. We made a short side trip here to follow old FR 355 past the old green water tank to where the road ends at the edge of the ridge and looked down on the housing project at the present end of Quail Springs Ranch Road. Old FR 355 at one time continued on down the hill and apparently joined Quail Springs Ranch Road. However, the part of the old road running down the hill in that direction is now so badly rutted that it is not suitable even for four-wheel drive or off-road vehicles. I have hiked it in the past and found that it ended at a gate with a sign saying “No Trespassing - Private Property.”

Returning to Chuckwalla, we continued up the mountain for another one and four-tenths miles, to the second of two sharp left turns Here one slides under a barbed wire fence on the right, ending up on a faint, largely overgrown trail. Follow this trail for approximately one mile. It mostly follows an old aboveground waterline that was used to bring water down the mountain for stock and wildlife. I call it Waterline Trail.

Waterline Trail ends at an old mining site from which a road leads rather steeply uphill for about one-half mile to connect with another old road, referred to only as “Jeep Trail” on all the maps I have found. This road runs south of and parallel to Allen Spring Road. Turn right (north) on the road and follow it for one and four-tenths miles to connect with FR 493 on top of a ridge.

Note that before you reach FR 493, there are two roads leading to the right. Don’t take either of them. The first leads down the mountain to end at a stock watering area; the second ends at an old mine. The Jeep Trail itself ends at FR 493 near Copper Chief Mine. From there follow FR 493 back down the mountain, going between Copper Chief and Iron King Mines, for three and two-tenths miles to return to the junction of FR 493 and Oak Wash Cutoff where the hike began.

We had some discussion during the hike about Oak Wash and just where (and how many times) we crossed it, so I looked it up using the National Geographic Topographic Overlay in Google Earth. As it turns out we crossed Oak Wash on the first section of the hike (Oak Wash Cutoff) and did not cross it again until we were on the Jeep Trail. The wash we crossed on Waterline Trail that I thought was Oak Wash is just a side wash draining into Oak Wash. For clarification I have sketched Oak Wash on the accompanying map in yellow where it runs through our hike path. It originates near the top of Mingus just north of the Mingus Recreation Area.

I took a photograph of the sign at the old green water tank, which discloses the tank’s origin. The sign indicates that it was installed by “Quail Unlimited” and the Prescott National Forest.

The sign says: BLACK HILLS WATER SYSTEM. This water distribution system is

a cooperative project for the benefit of wildlife and livestock by the Quail

Unlimited, Verde Valley Chapter, Laurel Leaf Branch, and the Prescott

National Forest. This is the only reliable source in the area.

At one point, as it makes its way up the mountain, Chuckwalla Road passes very close to the rim above the private housing development at Quail Spring. When we reached that point, we followed a social trail made by the residents from the road over to the rim for another view of the houses and building sites below. Finally, about one and nine-tenths miles from where we first entered Chuckwalla Road we came to the start of Waterline Trail and stopped for a snack and a short rest before beginning the next, the most arduous, section of the hike.

Waterline Trail at first follows a fairly open path along the old waterline, then leaves it at the bottom of a small wash only to reconnect with it again after leaving the wash. The trail then follows the pipeline up the ridge through some pretty nasty stands of Catclaw before leaving it to drop rather steeply down into another, larger, wash. I had always mistakenly thought this to be Oak Wash and so told the other hikers; however, I have since discovered that it is only a side wash that drains into Oak Wash below. Oak Wash itself runs on up the mountain roughly parallel and just to the north of our path along Waterline Trail.

On reaching the old mine site at the end of Waterline Trail, we stopped for lunch, a well-deserved rest and, for me, a short nap. We then continued on our way following the old road that led up the mountain from the mine, climbing about 400 feet in half a mile.

On reaching the Jeep Trail at the end of the old mine road we turned right, northeast at first then generally north, and followed it until it ended at FR 493 near Copper Chief Mine. The Jeep Trail runs parallel to and just down the slope from Allen Spring Road (FR 413). Along the way we passed a road that runs back down the mountain and ends at a stock watering area near Oak Wash. We paused at the fork for a group photograph.

Left to right (standing): Gordon Bice, Bill Woolard, Connie Woolard, Linda

Tovar, Debbie Dobson, John MacInerney, Lila Wright, Miriam Sterling,

Name Withheld, Colleen Maktenieks; Kneeling: Donna Goodman,

Daisy Williams, Jan PreFontaine – Photograph by the author

Continuing along the Jeep Trail we passed Grand Island Mine. This is where the second road leads off from the Jeep Trail; it runs into this mining area described as “A former underground Cu-Au mine on 14 claims.”^¹ Just about two tenths of a mile beyond this mine, the jeep Trail ended at FR 493. At this point, Copper Chief Mine was to our right and Iron King was visible straight ahead on the next slope. Our trail down the mountain on FR 493 would lead us down the gulch between these two mines.

When we arrived back at the starting point for our hike, my GPS disclosed that we had hiked nine and two-tenths miles and that the elevation gain had been almost 1800 feet. We had actually climbed 2030 feet counting miscellaneous ascents and descents along the way. My total recorded hiking distance was nine and two-tenths miles because of several side trips, which I snipped from the hike path shown in the accompanying map (below) so as to obtain a more accurate measurement for the trail. Old FR 355 still shows clearly.

The individual sections of this hike are displayed as follows: