Ryal Canyon Trail

Our hike for 23 March 2013, Ryal Canyon Trail 521, was new to us. Two members of the group had scouted it; however, neither was able to hike with us today. They did provide a description and I found a GPS track for the trail on the web.

The lower trailhead is located on Salt Mine Road 1.5 miles south of the junction of Salt Mine and Oasis Roads, When we reached the trailhead, the sun was shining brightly, but this was tempered by a chilly breeze that felt as though it were blowing across snow-covered mountains. The trailhead sign had been torn down, no doubt by some careless 4-wheeler, and was lying flat on the ground. Nevertheless it served to reassure us that we had reached our intended trail.

The trail at first leads across a flat and then up a gentle slope, but after about 0.3 miles it starts to rise steeply and, with a few short interruptions, continues at a steep slope for the rest of the way to its junction with Trail 521. We found that we were climbing along the crest of the north wall of Ryal Canyon. At one point the crest was only a few yards wide, with Ryal to the south and a small basin carved out by an intermittent stream between Ryal and Lucky Canyons to the north. After we passed the head of that intermittent stream, the canyon wall we were following clearly divided the two canyons. Beyond Lucky Canyon to our north we could see the far wall of Copper Canyon where I-17 snakes its way up the mountain.

We passed through two gates, one near the trailhead and another farther up the mountain. However, we saw no cattle, excepting a pile of bones near the second gate, and the metal watering tanks placed along the way were mostly dry.

The trail, obviously used fairly extensively by off-roaders, followed closely along a barbed-wire fence that ran up the spine of the ridge; the watering tanks, fed by a black plastic, above-ground waterline were placed so as to allow stock to water from both sides of the fence, about two-thirds of each tank protruding into the north pasture. Farther up the mountain, the trail left the fence and dipped down into Ryal Canyon and we did note one small tank that actually contained water. However, there were no signs of recent usage.

When I say the trail “dipped down” into the canyon, I do not mean that we were actually traveling down hill, rather that while still climbing rather steeply, we were getting closer to the stream in the bottom of the canyon. The trail continued to slope upward pretty much as shown in the below photograph which was taken on the way back down the trail.

Descending hikers carefully picking their way back down the trail along 

the north wall of Ryal Canyon

The trail did finally turn downhill, just 0.1 miles short of its end at Trail 511. On reaching the end of the trail, we continued about 50 yards along Trail 521 to the spring, labeled just as “Ryal Water” on my map, that feeds the stream running down the canyon.

It was about 1145 when we reached the spring and we scattered out to various sun-drenched spots that were sheltered from the wind and settle down for lunch. In my case, of course, followed by a short nap.

All too soon it was time to leave and I started the somewhat lengthy process of donning my gear. I was breaking in a new pack loaded with everything I would require for any of several upcoming backpack trips (Rainbow Bridge, Crack-in-Rock Indian Ruins on the Navajo Reservation and a 5-day trip down Paria Canyon) along with two 48-oz bottles of water hanging from my belt. With the extra 96 ozs of water, needed only for the Crack-in-Rock, I was carrying 42 lbs.

When everyone was ready, we stopped for a group photograph before starting the trip back down the mountain.

Left to right (crouching): Dolly Yapp and Donna Goodman; (standing): Jim 

Manning, Frank Lombardo, Gary Jacobson, Marywave Van Deren, the 

author, Anita Jackson, Daisy Williams and Miriam Sterling

– photograph by unnamed

The below photograph, taken just after we started back, shows the short section of the trail that leads up from the spring. Except for this 0.1-mile section, the trail back was essentially downhill all the way back to our cars.

Short uphill section of trail on the way back down the mountain from 

the spring in Ryal Canyon

Once we climbed up the rise shown in the above photograph and started downhill, the going was faster, but hiking downhill along a trail strewn with loose rock is hazardous and requires close attention to footing. Stepping on a rock that rolls can cause a serious fall, and this trail was composed of just such rocks. Note the care with which the descending hikers are placing their feet (photograph before group shot).

When we were able to take our eyes off our feet we had good views across Camp Verde spread out below and the tree-lined course of the Verde river snaking its way down the valley.

Looking out over Camp Verde and the Verde River in the valley below

We made it back to our cars without any serious falls and were much relieved to settle into soft seats.

The GPS track of our hike, from the lower trailhead to the spring in Ryal Canyon just beyond the upper trailhead, is shown in red on the included map (below).

The round-trip hiking distance was 5.2 miles, the maximum elevation was 4768 feet and the total ascent was 1703 feet.