Hwy 89A to Cornville Ditch

On Saturday, 4 February 2012, the Skyliners hiked from Hwy 89A at Page Springs Road to the Echo Canyon Winery and on to the old dam at Cornville Ditch. We met at the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot, drove about 7.5 miles north on 89A to Page Springs Road. Turning on Page springs Road, we proceeded about 0.28 miles to a parking area on the right. After parking we crossed Page Springs Road, hiked up Hidden Valley Road for about 0.32 miles and turned right onto Echo Canyon Road. We found ourselves to be high above Oak Creek, looking down at a stretch of the creek leading on to the settlement at the bend.

Oak Creek seen from Echo Canyon Road – photograph by Virginia Driscoll

For this hike we had permission to pass through private property owned by a friend of Mary’s, so were able to travel along Oak Creek to the old dam site; we thus continued on Echo Canyon Road past the winery and then cut across the private property to reach the creek. On our way, we actually walked through a covered patio attached to the landowner’s house and then were joined in the back yard by his cat for our morning snack. George, the cat’s favorite hiker, was having milk and cereal.

George sharing his snack with the cat – photograph by Virginia Driscoll

Upon reaching the creek we traveled along the bank to the old dam site. From there, rather than take the suggested route (the yellow track shown on the Google Earth map included on page xx13) back to the road, we chose to continue on along the creek bank and travel up a wash near Old Schoolhouse Road to return to Echo Canyon Road somewhere near the intersection with Hidden Canyon Road. George and I, lagging behind the main group, passed on by the wash, following an enticing cow path straight ahead, and wound up in the back yard of a private home. The house was located on Old Schoolhouse Road and, managing to avoid detection by the landowner, we passed quickly through the yard, took Old Schoolhouse a short distance to connect with Page Springs Road. We then contacted our hike leader by cellphone to let her know our status and returned to the parking lot by way of Page Springs Road.

Meanwhile, the main group of hikers had left the wash and climbed the slope on the other side; we could see them making their way along the ridge toward Echo Canyon Road as we hiked along Page springs Road.

We paused for a group photograph, taken by George using my camera and his small tripod, upon our return to the parking lot.

Left to right: Jim Manning, Lila Wright, George Everman (kneeling), 

Anita Jackson, Ellis Price, Mary Gavan, Kate Lockwood (kneeling), 

Donna Goodman, Virginia Driscoll (kneeling), Marvin alt, Colleen Maktenieks 

(kneeling), Bill Woolard, Connie Woolard, Daisy Williams (kneeling), 

Name Withheld (blue blurb), and Miriam Sterling – photograph by George 

with time delay

After returning home and uploading my GPS track to the computer, I found that we had crossed private property on the way down the creek to the wash and that the wash itself crosses a section of private property.

The easiest way to hike to the dam at Cornville ditch is to take Echo Canyon Road (red) to the green 4-wheel drive connector and use it to connect with the yellow path. The section of the yellow track that runs parallel to Echo Canyon Road is not really a trail; it is just the way we bushwhacked our way back on the April 2008 hike. However, this bushwhack route, following along the top of the ridge, offers great views of the area. The road may be easier, but the ridge is certainly worth the extra effort. Finally, I have included a small track (magenta on the map) that shows the route to an excellent viewpoint overlooking Hidden Valley.

The total distance for this hike was about 5 miles. That includes the side trip out to the Hidden Valley overlook. The total elevation change is approximately 550 feet.

The only information I found about what might be called “Cornville Ditch” by doing a quick online search was the following extract from a Wikipedia article:

The first settlers in the Lower Oak Creek area were Captain Andrew Jackson, a retired Confederate officer from Virginia, and his wife, Margaret, who arrived in the spring of 1876. Several other families including the Dickinsons, Munds, Copples, Pages, Mullhollands and Tiptons had followed by the autumn of that year or the spring of 1877. The settlers quickly built an irrigation ditch serving farms on the west side of Oak Creek.¹

I was given the name Cornville Ditch by the, now deceased, leader of a 6 April 2008 hike to this site. Based on what she told me, I have since referred to the site as Cornville Ditch Dam. This hike was accordingly publicized as “Hwy 89A to Cornville Ditch.” However, while editing this book for me, Lila Wright, who grew up in the area, informed me that Cornville Ditch was located farther downstream in Cornville. She had no name for the ditch associated with the dam we visited, but did point out that it runs no farther than Dancing Apache (or D A) Ranch (east of the stream) and might be called “D A Ranch Ditch” or “Page Springs Ditch.”

I never really liked the name Cornville Ditch and neither Page Springs nor D A Ranch sound any better, so I shall henceforth refer to it as Dancing Apache Ditch. That will at the very least give it a more specific location.

Thus this becomes the hike from Hwy 89A to Dancing Apache Ditch.

The included map (below) included in this report shows the entire track (red line on the map) that I followed for this (4 February 2012) hike, including the part that crossed private property). I have also put together an alternative track that does not cross private property. This alternative route is composed of part of an April 2008 hike (yellow on the map), along with a small interpolation (green) along a 4-wheel drive road between Echo Canyon Road and the yellow track.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornville,_Arizona