Packard Trail

Eleven Skyliners departed from the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot at 0700 on 7 April 2012 to hike on the Packard Trail.  We took Main Street through Old Town Cottonwood to the Tuzigoot turnoff, crossed the river and then turned left onto Sycamore Canyon Road.  We followed Sycamore Canyon Road until it ended at Sycamore Canyon.

Before starting our hike, we paused for a group photograph.

Left to right: Becky Fowski, Daisy Williams, Miriam Sterling, Donna 

Goodman, Betty Wolters, Mary Gavan, Lila Wright (rear), Dolly Yapp (front) 

and Jim Manning – photograph by the author (not shown)

Jim Manning, Becky Fowski, Mary Gavan and I planned to hike all the way past Sycamore Tank to look for Indian Ruins.  The rest of the group planned to hike up to the mesa, stop for lunch where they would have a good view of the surrounding area and then return.

The group looking for Indian Ruins pushed ahead without waiting for the rest of the hikers, hiking down into the canyon on Parsons Trail 144 and then turning onto Packard Trail 66 at the creek.  We had brought shoes for wading the creek.  However, we found that we really didn’t need them.  Packard Trail immediately crossed a dry channel in the creek bed and emerged onto a still dry wide, rocky area, perhaps a 100 yards across.  The creek, itself (at least the part with running water) was still ahead.  Just below our position, the water ahead proved to be wide and deep; however, we found that by heading directly across the creek (actually heading northwest from the start of the trail), we could cross at a place where it was divided into four separate rivulets.  There were convenient rocks for use as stepping-stones and we crossed without having to change into wading shoes.

Being anxious to reach Sycamore Tank in time to explore for Indian Ruins, we moved right along and never saw the rest of the group again.  We paused several times on the climb to the mesa to catch our breath, but never for long and had covered about 3.6 miles before we stopped for our morning snack break.  Lila reported that the rest of the group had later turned off the trail just 0.3 miles short of where we snacked and climbed another 0.3 miles up the slope for a good view where they ate lunch before turning back.  In her own words:

One of our hikers is sending you a GPS trail where we sidetracked for lunch. It was a good detour at 3.3 miles from the trailhead, with an all-encompassing view of the Verde River area. We could see Jerome to the south and Bill Williams Mt. to the north. The Drake cement plant showed up in between. A portion of the railroad to Perkinsville could be seen below.

I regret not taking my camera. Just as we were coming back from lunch and hit the main trail, Kate Lockwood came along by herself. She thought we were leaving Cottonwood at 8 so she just came on by herself. We told her about our lunch spot and she headed that way. It was amazing that she did not come along the trail while we were off for that 30+ minutes. Just as we got to the cars we saw her crossing Sycamore Creek on her way back.

Meanwhile, those of us searching for Indian Ruins pushed on to Sycamore Tank, and there the written directions we were following became very confusing.  First, we were told to enter the fenced in area around the pond and then exit on the opposite side.  That was counter-intuitive as it would not lead us in the direction of the ruins.  We finally decided that we should just continue north along the side of the tank we were on and exit at another gate there.  In retrospect it appears that we were right in doing so.  However, we were also told that we would then come to a gate at the wilderness area and the start of Trail 63 was on the other side.  The directions had also indicated we were to continue straight on Trail 66 to reach that point; however, shortly after leaving the fenced enclosure around the tank we came to a sign that indicated Trail 63 went west from that point and that we were now actually on Sycamore Basin Trail.  We eventually gave up on following the directions and just headed toward a waypoint (from: www.sedonadreammaker.com/.../Verde%20Valley%20Ruins.kmz) that I had inserted into my GPS.  That, too, turned out to be a mistake; I think that whoever placed the waypoint for this ruin must have stood a few yards away and used a dart to place it.  We actually circled the area denoted by the waypoint and then crisscrossed it.  The ruins are not there.

To make matters worse, after having hiked about 6.5 miles to get there, we looked down and observed at least six vehicles parked just below us.  The occupants were hiking up a trail on the other side of a gap from where we were.  I now think that they were probably also looking for the ruins and that they had a much better idea of how to get there than we did.

A quick look at Google Earth with a USGS overlay later disclosed that the way to drive to where the vehicles were parked would be to go through Perkinsville and continue for another 3 miles (approx) before turning back east toward Henderson Flat.  From there a jeep road runs generally south to Sycamore Tank.  The road forks about half a mile short of the tank, the left fork ending about a half mile ahead at a junction with Sycamore Basin Trail where we observed the parked cars.  The total distance from the fire station at Jerome would be between 30 and 35 miles.

Considering the distance to be driven on dirt roads and the fact that Google Earth shows three additional Indian Ruins in the Henderson Flat area, we should consider an overnight trip on our next attempt to find these ruins.  We can drive in, taking our water with us, explore Indian Ruins at one site and camp overnight.  The next day, we can explore the second set of ruins and drive back home.  Jim would like to do this and I think he returns from Indiana in November; will it be too cold by then?  Should we set it for spring 2013 instead?  Mary and Becky also expressed interest.  We need to determine if enough others are interested to make it one of our scheduled Skyliner events (i.e. taking the place of a regular weekend hike) and decide on a time for it.

Lila called later in the afternoon to let us know that their group had reached the parking lot safely.  The rest of us were back at the parking lot at 1745 and we called to report our safe return.

The group that ate lunch at a viewpoint (7 hikers) on the mesa hiked about 7.2 miles; the rest of us (4 hikers) hiked (according to two concurring GPS readings) 14 miles.  The group of seven climbed about 1500 feet including the climb back out of the canyon.  The group of four climbed about 2500 feet including all the climbing we did hunting for ruins, the climb back up the mesa from Sycamore Tank and the climb out of the canyon.

The green line on the included map (below) page shows Packard Trail to Sycamore Tank.  Note that it also includes the short section of Parsons trail leading from the parking lot down into Sycamore Canyon.  The dark yellow (almost green) line shows our wanderings in search of Indian Ruins.  The short yellow line leading off Packard Trail about half way to Sycamore Tank is where the group of seven left the trail to eat lunch.