Harding Springs-Cookstove Loop

On 6 October 2012, for the first regularly scheduled hike of the fall season, nine Skyliners hiked on the Harding Springs and Cookstove Trails. The author was absent from this hike and this report is written from notes provided by hike leader Lila Wright.

The hikers drove to Harding Springs Trailhead on Hwy 89A, parked at the lot located just right of the entrance to Cave Springs Campground and ascended Harding Trail. Most of the hikers were a little out of shape for this first hike of the season, so they headed up Cookstove at a reasonable pace, taking an hour to make the 0.7 mile, 900 foot ascent to the eastern rim of Oak Creek Canyon.

Reaching the rim a bit winded, the hikers paused to enjoy a snack along with the great view available from an overlook located on the rim about 100 yards southwest of the trailhead. The Baby Carriage, seen on the horizon just above, and slightly right of, the hiker wearing the red baseball cap in the photograph (right).

Refreshed by the short break and their snack, the hikers retraced their steps to Harding Springs Trailhead and picked up the trail leading north along the rim to Cookstove Trail. This 1.4 mile section of trail led them through meadows carpeted a golden yellow by blossoms from an unidentified member of the sunflower family.

Beckoned by the flowers, they paused for a group photograph.

Left to right: Donna Goodman, Donna Davis, Dolly Yapp, Miriam Sterling, 

Daisy Williams, George Everman, Betty Wolters and Lila Wright 

– photograph by Name Withheld

As they continued along the rim, the hikers found an area where a smokey looking, reddish plant (Bush mulahy grass) was advancing into a sunflower-carpeted meadow (left).

The trail they were following led them east, then north and finally west to skirt the head of a side canyon that dumps into Oak Creek Canyon. The trail then continues north along the rim until it reaches Cookstove.

Finding a clump of poison ivy along the trail, its leaves now painted yellow for fall, George Everman, ever the daredevil, demonstrated his lack of fear (or was it foolhardiness?) by rubbing the leaves on his hand. He explained that when the ivy started to itch in a few hours, he would run very hot water over it and that endorphins produced by the hot water would take away the itch of the ivy. It is not recorded that anyone else tried this experiment.

George rubbing poison ivy on his hand

Upon reaching Cookstove, the hikers continued a few yards north and perched for lunch on a rocky overhang, overlooking the switchbacks of Hwy 89A as it wends its way up Oak Creek Canyon on the way to Flagstaff.

Cookstove trail has some large steps and one interesting segment that includes a ridge the width of a hiker's foot. In the photograph below Miriam is shown carefully navigating that very narrow segment. Donna Goodman and Daisy have already crossed it and are now on the safer, wider steps below.

Navigation the narrow section of trail

Lila reported that as they started down Cookstove after lunch, they could look straight across the canyon to a “volcanic outcropping or plug surrounded by sandstone canyon walls.”

Looking across Oak Creek Canyon from near the top of Cookstove Trail

At the bottom of Cookstove, the trailhead at Hwy 89A, the group stopped briefly to rest at Pine Flat campground and then proceeded south through a small cluster of houses. There they found the most colorful tree of the entire hike.

Fall foliage in all its glory

Lila describes the hike from Cookstove back to the Harding Springs Trailhead as follows, “We followed a power line south over a saddle that led us back to Oak Creek near our cars.”

The following quotation from a September 2011 hike is included to provide additional details about the route between the Cookstove and Harding Springs Trailheads at Hwy 89A:

We were about 1.1 miles north along Hwy 89A from where we had parked at the Harding Springs Trailhead, and because there is hardly enough room to walk alongside Hwy 89A in places, we took a slightly longer (1.2 miles) route: we hiked through Pine Flat Campground to emerge at the south exit, walked along Hwy 89A for about 100 yards and then entered the Pine Flats community, crossed Oak Creek on a low concrete bridge and continued straight on Bear Howard Road which soon became a dirt road.

About 0.1 miles after leaving Hwy 89A we turned left (south) onto a trail (apparently unnamed) that starts in the edge of a private driveway and follows a power line across a saddle behind a hump that separates it from Hwy 89A. Our trail then crossed back to the east side of Oak Creek about 0.3 miles from Bear Howard Road. After crossing back over the creek, we continued straight toward the highway for about 40 yards, turned right onto another trail and followed it for about 50 yards before turning left on still another trail which we followed only 30 yards or so before turning right on a straight, open trail which led us directly to our parked vehicles about 0.1 miles ahead.

Following this route between the trailheads does require crossing Oak Creek twice. As noted in the above quotation, the first crossing is by way of a concrete bridge; however the second crossing requires rock hopping. It probably should not be attempted during high water conditions.

Concerning the second creek crossing on the present hike, Lila reported that, “floating leaves dammed up against the rocks required us to concentrate carefully as we crossed.” She also provided the below photograph of the crossing.

Dolly Yapp and Donna Davis crossing Oak Creek

A failed GPS battery left the hikers without a specific distance for this hike, but I measured the GPS-recorded track from the September 2011 hike and found it to be 4 miles.

The GPS track shown on the included map (below) is the one from the September 2011 hike. Harding Springs is shown in blue, the trail along the rim in red, Cookstove in green and the trail between Cookstove and Harding Springs Trailheads at Hwy 89A in yellow.