General Crook Trail South of Hwy 169

We left Cottonwood on 2 March 2013 intent on hiking the short section of General Crook Trail from Hwy 169 to Hecla (Ash Creek Station). Unfortunately, the Forest Service had closed off that section of trail at Hwy 169 for a controlled burn.

Undeterred, we simply walked across the highway and took the same trail in the opposite direction. None of us had been on this section of the trail before, but we found it relatively easy to follow with cairns located at frequent intervals. The sun was shining and a cool breeze was blowing, so we moved along at a good pace, crossing South Old Cherry Road in Hackberry Wash and then stopping atop the next ridge for a snack break and to take a group photograph.

Left to right (kneeling): Daisy Williams, Dolly Yapp, Colleen Maktenieks; 

(standing): Carey Torgl, Gary Githens, Donna Goodman, Miriam Sterling, 

Lila Wright, Anita Jackson and Jim Manning – photograph by the author

After our snack break we continued east along the trail until we were on top of a hill just west of the Gray Wolf Landfill and stopped there for lunch. We had now hiked about 3.6 miles, winding our way up and down gently-sloping, brush-covered hills along the old General George Crook Wagon Trail that once ran all the way to Fort Apache.

Following lunch, four hikers, including the author, decided to continue along the trail to the Hwy 169 crossing near I-17. The others would retrace their steps to our vehicles and pick us up at the crossing.

As we approached the landfill, we could see that it lay astride our path and that the trail would have to detour around it. As we came closer we found that a strip of private land lay to our left, between our path and Hwy 169. Eventually we found ourselves at the west boundary of the landfill where it extends south along Racetrack Wash. The entire property is fenced and No Trespassing signs are prominently displayed at frequent intervals. To bypass it we skirted closely along the fence, our way made easier by the cowpaths that also followed along the fence. In retrospect, we should have followed approximately along the blue line shown in the below figure. The faint dotted line at top of the figure shows the original trail, now closed by the landfill. The heavy red line shows our path and the blue line is a suggested short-cut for future hikes.

Bypass around Gray Wolf Landfill

When we came to the southeast corner of the landfill property, rather than following the fenceline directly north, we headed in a northeast direction to travel through a gap in the ridge caused by Johnson Wash. As we hiked up the wash, we noted a hawk circling around a rocky outcropping to our left. We also saw part of an old rock wall that must be part of an Indian Ruin. The wall is visible running along the very top of the outcropping in the below photograph.

Rock outcropping containing Indian Ruins

We were sorely tempted to climb up for a look at the ruins, but were constrained by fear of being late for our arranged pickup. So marking the ruins for investigation at another time, we continued on up the wash, eventually crossing over and climbing a gentle slope to rejoin the old General Crook Trail. Now we once again found rock cairns, absent during the detour around the landfill, strategically placed to guide us on our way. Additionally, the path of the old road was clearly visible for most of the way.

About 0.6 miles after rejoining the trail we came to an area where Crook Trail ran just a few yards south of Hwy 169, and Forest Road 9604F crossed the trail and connected with the main road. There was a good wide spot for parking and cellphone contact with the main group confirmed that they were almost back to the cars. We were still around 1.6 miles from our intended destination and wouldn't be able to hike that far by the time they arrived, so we arranged to wait where we were for pickup.

We had hiked about 6.3 miles at elevations varying from around 4315 feet to 4540 feet.

What Prescott National Forest identifies as General Crook Trail, an 11.3 mile stretch running from FR 323 at Ash Creek to FR 136 near the head of Copper Canyon, is part of the road established by General George Crook that ran from Fort Whipple to Fort Apache. Note that some descriptions of the trail have it starting at Fort Verde; however, since Fort Whipple was the regional headquarters, it must have started there.

While hiking along the section of the old road we were following this day, we wondered how far it would be if we were to follow the route all the way to Camp Verde. To answer that question, I first reviewed a previous hike from the firing range on FR 136 just off Salt Mine Road at Camp Verde to the old stage station in Copper Canyon and found that distance to be 4.7 miles. I then measured the distance along Crook Trail from where we stopped our hike to FR 136 and on down Copper Canyon to the old stage station and found that to be 5.3 miles. Thus we would have had to hike about another 10 miles to reach the junction of Salt Mine Road and FR 136 at Camp Verde.

Today's hike is shown in red on page 1 of the included map (below). Page 2 shows Crook Trail from FR 323 to FR 136 and on to the firing range at Salt Mine Road and FR 136 at Camp Verde.