House Mountain from Beaverhead Flat Road

Nine Skyliners hiked on Forest Road 9952 and 9952C from Beaverhead Flat Road to House Mountain on 29 December 2012. From Cottonwood, we drove north on Hwy 89A, turned right (east) on Cornville Road and followed it for 8.2 miles, passing through Cornville, turned left onto Beaverhead Flat Road and followed it for 2.7 miles to arrive at the turnoff to FR 9952 (on the left). We drove for about one mile on FR 9952 before parking to start our hike.

After donning our packs, we paused for a group photograph.

Left to right: front row: Dolly Yapp, Kwi Johnson, Miriam Sterling and 

Betty Wolters; back row: Mike Sterling, Mark Purcell, the author and Jim 

Manning - photograph by the ninth hiker using the author's camera

The section of road shown in the photograph (right) exemplifies the condition of the road along which we would hike all the way to the top of House Mountain. Although it was a little rockier and a good bit steeper in places than shown here.  As can be seen here, the road was bathed in sunlight when we started our hike; however, that soon changed, for the sun was blocked by a steep hill on our right as we traveled deeper into the wash that would lead us up the mountain toward our goal. The lack of sun coupled with a gentle, but chilly, breeze that blew steadily at our backs caused us to move briskly along in an effort to keep warm. As a result we made very good time and an hour and a half from the time we started our hike we were at Trick Tank (or as it is marked on my map, “Horse Mountain Trick Tank”).

The following photograph, taken from the catchment area, shows a fairly new galvanized tank (left) and an older rusty one (right).

Metal tanks located at Trick Tank

The trough leading to the top of the galvanized tank carries runoff from the catchment area; the pipe from the top of that tank carries overflow to the rusted tank seen behind the tree. At the time of my last previous hike to House Mountain, about six years ago, the galvanized tank had not yet been installed and the catchment area consisted of two long runs of metal roofing, mounted parallel to one another on the hillside and slanted to the middle so that all water ran to the center and then downhill to be collected in a single rusty metal tank. The old roofing sections have since been replaced by an expanded catchment area that is composed of a layer of asphalt, or possibly plastic sheeting, covered with a layer of gravel and the galvanized tank shown in the photograph (above) has been added.

We paused at the tank for a mid-morning snack before continuing on toward the top of House Mountain. We still had two miles to go, one to the FR 9952C turnoff and another to the top. We were long since out of the shadow of the hill and it was a little warmer, but not much, as a thin layer of clouds had drifted across the sky and now filtered the sun. Consequently we continued to move along at a good pace and were soon at the summit.

Hiker Mark Purcell eating lunch on the summit, elevation 5154 feet

From his perch on the summit (above) Mark could see in all directions. Looking to the north, he had a clear view of the sun-drenched, snow- capped San Francisco Peaks.

Humphreys, Agassiz, Fremont and Doyle Peaks lined up left to right 

– slightly enlarged photograph

To the west, across the Verde Valley, Mingus Mountain brooded in the thin sunlight that filtered its way through the overcast sky.

Mingus Mountain seen from House Mountain

As measured by my GPS track (see map on next page) we had hiked 4.8 miles one way and climbed 1470 feet to reach the summit.