A.B Young Trail to East Pocket Lookout

A hiker from Sedona who claimed to know how to reach the site of the Vultee plane crash by way of A.B. Young Trail, agreed to lead a hike to it. Having long been somewhat curious as to exactly where the plane crashed and not having hiked A.B. Young since October 2009, we scheduled a hike for 27 February 2013.

On the appointed day, we traveled north on 89A through Sedona and parked alongside the highway about 150 yards north of the entrance to Junipine Resort (located about half way between mm 382 and 383). We walked back to the resort entrance and proceeded on the main road through the resort for about 100 yards until we came to a small sign pointing to a walkway leading down toward the “creek.” The photograph shown here (right) shows Dolly Yapp emerging from the walkway on a 2009 hike.

The walkway brought us out on a street below headed directly to a bridge crossing Oak Creek. The bridge is shown below in a 2009 photograph.

Bridge across Oak Creek at Junipine Resort – October 2009

Directly across the bridge an unnamed trail leads upstream along the bank of Oak Creek to A B Young Trail, about 0.42 miles ahead. The trail sign shown here (left) points out the start of this trail. The photograph was taken on our October 2009 hike.

As we walked upstream alongside Oak Creek, we noted the remains of an old irrigation system. In places along the trail, we encountered communications cables strung on short poles over the trail, in some areas low enough that one needed to duck to avoid touching them. I call them communications cables because I assume that no one would install power cables so low along the trail.

The junction with A B Young Trail was clearly marked when we came to it. In the photograph shown (right) here the trail leads to the left up the mountain. The trail leading to the right continues along Oak Creek to a very difficult crossing at a parking area alongside 89A. We crossed there to hike on this trail several years ago.

An old, rusty metal sign, barely visible in the top of the above photograph, reassures the hiker of being on the right trail. To this point, the hike has been along a relatively level trail. It now starts to climb, at first rather gently, rising some 200 feet in the next two-tenths of a mile. After that it rises very rapidly along a series of switchbacks to the top of the mountain.

We made our way up the switchbacks, pausing occasionally for a breather and soon were high enough that we had excellent views down into Oak Creek Canyon. The following two photographs will serve to display the view and to contrast the differences between what we saw on this February hike and our October 2009 hike.

Oak Creek Canyon from A.B. Young Trail in February 2013

Oak Creek Canyon from A.B. Young Trail in October 2009

When we arrived at the top of the mountain we found about 18 inches of snow on the ground and I began to doubt that we would find the wreck site. Even finding the trail, now obscured by the relatively undisturbed snow, was a bit difficult in places. Nevertheless, we pushed on, climbing the relatively gentle slope to the crest of East Pocket Knob where the tower is located.

On reaching the tower, I noted that considerable work had been performed on it since 2009. It was not manned at the time of this visit; however, we were able to climb most of the way up (only the top level was locked) to get a better view of the surrounding area. Going on past the tower for a hundred yards or so, we found picnic tables and benches placed at the end of Forest Road 231. I paused there and sat on one of the tables to look back and photograph the tower.

East Pocket Lookout Tower – February 2013

The wreck site is said to lie down the slope to the southwest of the tower and, along with the rest of the party, I did go a short distance in that direction. But it was immediately obvious to me that, with landmarks obscured by the snow and no specific coordinates for the location, we would never find it. I decided to save the search for a summer day on which I could drive in on Forest Road 231, perhaps stop for a picnic, and do a more leisurely search.

I turned back to the picnic tables and just enjoyed the scenery while I waited for the other members of the party to return. Looking up, I found that barren tree branches above me were most attractively outlined against the blue sky and took several photographs of them. The one I like best is shown below.

Barren branches against the sky

Even though I was surrounded by snow, the sun was warm and I began to think of a noontime nap. Looking around, I found a nice pile of broken tree limbs and other debris that had been cleared from the picnic area and managed to make myself a rather comfortable nest in it. That is where I remained until the rest of the party returned.

We all agreed that a summer expedition to find the crash site would be more appropriate and headed back down the trail, pausing along the way at the “throne.” This is actually nothing more than a stump where a tree was cut down and fell before being sawed all the way through. The unsawed part of the trunk split away and left a shaft of wood on the stump extending several feet above it. The stump with that shaft of wood still standing makes a good chair, or “throne.” We stopped and coaxed Mary onto the “throne.” George immediately declared her Queen Mary and proclaimed himself to be a knight of her realm.

“Queen Mary” and “Sir” George

The elevation gain for this hike from Oak Creek to the lookout tower on East Point Knob was just over 2100 feet. The total hiking distance from where we parked to where I gave up searching for the crash site was 3 miles, making my round trip hike 6 miles.

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

Participating in this hike, in addition to the author, were: Frank Lombardo, Becky Fowsky, Mary Gavan, George Everman and Jim Manning.