Grief Hill Trail

It was a beautiful day for hiking when eight Skyliners set out early on the morning of 24 November 2012 for a long-anticipated hike on Grief Hill Trail. From Cottonwood we took Hwy 260 toward Camp Verde and turned right onto FR 9603S just past Cherry Road. Watch closely and you will see a sign for Newton Lane on the left just before you reach the turnoff. At the turnoff there is a wide parking area alongside the highway and an unlocked gate that provides access to FR 9603S.

Turnoff from Hwy 260 to FR 9603S – gate is unlocked

After passing through the gate we continued on FR 9603S for about 2.8 miles, at first traveling northwest parallel to Hwy 260 for about three-tenths of a mile and then turning southwest as the road ran up the crest of a hill bordering a wash. About 1.6 miles from the gate at Hwy 260, we came to a junction with FR 9650C which leads off to the right and connects with Cherry Road. We continued on FR 9603S, now heading almost directly south for about another 1.2 miles, passing an unmarked road leading off to the left along the way, to arrive at the rim of Grief Hill Wash. We parked on the rim at a currently unused cattle-watering station consisting of several, bullet marked, metal troughs arranged alongside the road. As it turns out, we could easily have driven another two-tenths of a mile farther to another spacious parking area near the bottom of the wash.

Before starting our hike, we all gathered for a group photograph.

Left to right: Lila Wright, Donna Davis, the author, Jon Lloyd, Daisy 

Williams, Becky Fowsky and Jim Manning – photograph by the eighth 

hiker using the author's camera

There is no specific spot marked as the beginning of Grief Hill Trail, so I chose to arbitrarily designate the spot where FR 9603S first reaches the very bottom of Grief Hill Wash, about three-tenths of a mile from where we parked, as the trailhead. Be aware that an old road, rough though it is, continues on past this point, passing a metal water tank and an old corral along the way, beyond the point where a cairn marks the spot where Grief Hill Trail leaves the wash and heads up the mountain. Others have used this cairn as the Grief Hill Trailhead. It is located just one-half mile upstream (by GPS measurement) from my trailhead where we first entered the wash.

The hiking is easy for the half mile as the trail follows the old road up the wash, crossing back and forth several times, but never becoming very steep or excessively rocky. This section of road has apparently been kept in semi-passable condition by ranchers running cattle in the area.

However, once you reach the cairn marking the point where the old wagon road ran up Grief Hill, the trail becomes steep, rocky and hard to follow. But, by stepping carefully, resting often, keeping a sharp eye out for the rocks that were accumulated along the sides of the old road and with the aid of cairns placed along the way by others, it can be done.

On one of our rest stops, Daisy Williams told me of an article she had recently read in Arizona Highways that mentioned the old road and I had previously discovered a 1999 newspaper article that provided a sketchy history of the road.

The newspaper article, written by Jean Cross and appearing in the February 21, 1999 edition of the Prescott Daily Courier reports that, “between 1865 and 1870, a road paralleling today's Interstate 17 to the west [that is to the west of I-17] was the route used by freighters and military between Fort Whipple [Prescott] and the Verde Valley.¹” Cross goes on to report that an article in the February edition of the Arizona Miner referred to the road as “an infernal breakneck pitch known as Grief Hill.”

Cross also wrote that the following information appeared in “an article written by Bob Munson appearing in The Journal of January, 1995:”

“The earliest penetration of the Verde Valley by a vehicle requiring a road was by wagons of the Swetnam party in February 1865.” and that “When the Verde Valley's first garrison, Company K, 1st New Mexico Cavalry entered the valley … their wagon tipped over within 100 yards of beginning the descent.”

As for Indian attacks, the article says that U.S. Army records disclose the killing of a private during an attack in December 1866 and the loss of a wagon train from Fort Whipple along with the wounding of five members of its military escort during a May 1869 attack by a large force (100 to 200) of Indians.

The article in Arizona Highways, written by Kathleen Bryant, appeared in the April 2003 edition and was titled Frontier Medicine². It discusses the tribulations of Dr. Edward Palmer whose wagon was burned during a skirmish with Apaches on Grief Hill as he was on his way to assume his post as Acting Assistant Surgeon at Camp Lincoln. Camp Lincoln was the predecessor to Camp Verde. Another source indicates that Dr Palmer arrived in October 1865 from Ft. Whipple along with Company A, 1st Infantry Arizona Volunteers, under the command of Lt. Primitivo Cervantes. Apparently the wagons had to be unloaded and lowered by block-and-tackle while the contents were carried down by soldiers. It seems some of Palmer's personal belongings had to be left behind at the top when night fell and he is reported as having written, “The Apaches had watched our movements... At an early hour a detachment was sent but found only ashes.³” The Arizona Highways article reports that Dr. Palmer later suffered a broken leg during another trip across Grief Hill.

Camp Lincoln was apparently relocated in January 1866 due to malaria carried by mosquitoes which thrived at the original location , West Clear Creek. On 23 November 1866, the name was officially changed to Camp Verde.

During our hike on Grief Hill Trail we didn't need to worry about Indian attacks, but the other conditions were much the same. We followed along the old roadbed all the way, veering off occasionally to to make our way around thickets of cactus or mesquite. In places we had to look hard for the rocks that marked the road's shoulders or the trimmed tree branches that showed where it had passed. Nevertheless, we were confident we had accurately retraced its route when we arrived at the saddle between Grief and Juniper Hill.

Below are some photographs showing the condition of the trail.

Looking up the trail on our ascent

Lila and Donna making the descent

Very near the top, the trail crosses the wash. I think this crossing must be where Company K's wagon tipped over in February 1865. After the crossing, the trail ascends steeply to cross a fence by way of a wire gate (photograph by Jon Lloyd at Right). It then continues upward into a cedar forest and levels out as it reaches the top. We were now in the saddle between Grief Hill to the north and Juniper Hill to the south. The trail from here became more difficult to follow. We found cairns placed sporadically along the way at first, but by the time we had started downhill on the western slope, these were no longer to be seen. I had previously placed a marker on my GPS map at the spot on FR 9607K that I thought would be the closest, and we headed that way. However, one of the hikers found what appeared to be a trail heading in a slightly different direction and we followed that for a while, but it faded out and we were left on the wrong side of a fence from our goal. We then crossed the fence and headed directly to the marker shown on my GPS. We actually intersected FR 9607K a short distance east of my marker. When we reached the road it was lunchtime and we stopped to eat.

The photograph by Jon Lloyd below shows a section of FR 9607K. It was taken from where we stopped for lunch and is just across the wash, visible in the center, from where my GPS marker had been placed.

Section of 9607K at the end of Grief Hill Trail, our lunch stop

After a quick lunch, and while the others waited, I hiked a short distance back toward the saddle, aiming for the shortest distance to intersect with the track we had made on the way here. Finding a clear route and another wire gate that we could use to cross the fence, I returned for the others and we took this more direct route back to the saddle to start our return trip down Grief Hill.

On the way down, we had clear views across Verde Valley and on to the San Francisco Peaks as shown in the following two photographs.

Section of Verde Valley framed between a tree and Table Mountain

Looking across Verde Valley and beyond the Mogollon Rim to the San 

Francisco Peaks in the distance

Our total hike distance, according to my GPS was 5.2 miles; however, that does not include the extra distance we hiked looking for FR 9607K. It is just the distance one would hike by following my cleaned- up GPS track of Grief Trail along with the distance from where parked to the bottom of Grief Hill Wash. The track I show for the actual trail starts at the point where FR 9603S first enters Grief Hill Wash, half a mile from where the trail leaves the wash to head up the mountain.

With that said, our hike is shown on the included map (see next page). Grief Trail is shown in red, the distance from where we parked to the trailhead is in blue and the yellow section is a part of the road leading to the trail.

1Prescott Daily Courier, 21 February 1999

2Arizona Highways, April 2003 edition, p 38

3By Stan Brown, available at: http://www.prescottcorral.org/TT6/ArizonaVolunteers.htm