White Mesa Road and Red Draw Tank

The 08 December 2012 Skyliners hike was originally scheduled to be on the dirt road that climbs to the Mogollon Rim between I-17 and Rarick Canyon. That road, part of Beaver Creek Road, is called Blue Grade because of the blue granite seen along the way. However, we decided to change our schedule in order to visit a site further up Blue Grade that has Indian drawings associated with the winter solstice later this month. As a substitute for the originally scheduled hike, we chose to start at the same location but cross Rarick Canyon and hike a rocky, old road to the top of White Mesa. We would then return to Rarick Canyon and visit Indian Petroglyphs located in Red Tank Draw downstream from the crossing.

From the I-17/Hwy 179 Interchange, we drove east on FR 618 for one-half mile and turned left onto Beaver Creek Road (FR 689). We followed this road for 1.3 miles, to just below where the blue grade starts, and turned right onto FR 645A (referred to as White Mesa Road in this report), followed it for one-half mile and then turned right to park a short distance ahead near the rim of Red Tank Draw very close to where some of the petroglyphs are located.

Red Tank Draw is actually a smaller canyon formed by the stream flowing out of the mouth of Rarick Canyon. It could just as easily be called Lower Rarick Canyon.

Leaving our cars, we headed along what we took to be FR 645A, expecting to soon reach the Rarick Canyon crossing. Sadly, we failed to note that we had actually turned off the real FR 645A, perhaps a hundred yards before parking, and the road we followed ended at the stream in Red Tank Draw after a quarter of a mile. Directly across the stream from us was a sheer, red cliff, perhaps a hundred feet high.

One of our hikers had been to this spot previously with another group of hikers led by a person recognized as very knowledgeable about local history. That person informed them that this had been a sheep crossing. We saw galvanized metal bars firmly embedded in the cliff wall, and we wondered whether this might have been part of some structure designed to transport the sheep over the cliff. But that seemed unlikely, as an easy crossing existed just a short distance upstream where FR 645A crosses Rarick Canyon, and providing such an expensive structure here for that purpose would seem to be quite unnecessary. Later, viewing the area in Google Earth with a USGS overlay, I found that this was the site of an old water gaging station. This may, indeed, have been a sheep crossing, but the metal structure had nothing to do with it, and the sheep would have had to be herded either up or down the rocky streambed to reach a point where it would be possible to climb out on the other side.

Sheep crossing or not, this was obviously not the route we had intended to take across Rarick Canyon, so we retraced our steps to where we had parked and continued on past for a short distance to take the real FR 645A. Another short distance ahead, we encountered a large man-made hump in the road that would stop all but high-clearance and All-Terrain-Vehicles. The crossing itself, a little further ahead ahead, would certainly have deterred other than ATVs or the most dedicated of 4-wheelers. Despite all this, the route is marked on the National Forest map as “open to all vehicles.”

Rarick Canyon Crossing

Looking back as we left the crossing behind us, we could see Blue Grade Road snaking its way up the opposite side of Rarick Canyon.

The black arrow points to Blue Grade Road

While we were stopped to look at Blue Grade Road, we posed for a group photograph.

Left to right: Betty Wolters, Daisy Williams, Lila Wright, Dolly Yapp, 

Kwi Johnson, the author, Becky Fowsky and Gary Jacobson 

– photograph by the ninth hiker

White Mesa Road was shaded by the Mesa as we headed up the rocky, old road along its north slope. That made it pretty chilly on this December morning, and we didn't stop for our morning snack until we came to an isolated spot where the sun was peeking over the mesa. After a quick snack, we hurried right along and were soon at the saddle where our road topped out on White Mesa. We found ourselves at a fork in the road, a fork that did not show on any of the maps I had referenced. The right fork, the one not on the maps, led to the southwest, apparently making its way to White Mesa Tank visible below us. The left fork, which led higher on the mesa, was a continuation of FR 645A, the road we were following. After some thought, we took the left fork so as to have a better view of our surroundings for our lunch stop.

About a hundred yards from the fork, our road became FR 644H while a very faint road, FR 9248F, led off to the left, apparently to Rays Tank.

Forest Road 644H

Forest Road 9248F

Before stopping for lunch, we continued straight ahead on FR 644H for about another three-tenths of a mile to find a good viewpoint. We all scattered out in the grass, each looking for a spot with a soft seat and a good view. My selection was, of course, a nice patch of grass that would suffice for my traditional noon nap.

From our position high on White Mesa we had views in all directions. I was particularly struck by the views west to the Black Hills and northwest to the distant mountains beyond Sycamore Canyon.

Looking across Verde Valley to the Black Hills

Looking to the distant mountains beyond Sycamore Canyon

We didn't linger on White Mesa very long after eating lunch because five of us had decided to explore a future hike before returning home.

We watched our footing carefully on the way back down and, even though there were a number of near misses, no one took a spill. The section shown in the below photograph exemplifies the treacherous hiking surface that prevails along this stretch of White Mesa Road.

Hikers stepping carefully along the rocky slope of White Mesa

The trail was still shaded in spots on the way down, but the temperature was just about perfect for hiking.

We made it back to the crossing in short order, crossed to the other side and continued along the road for about another tenth of a mile before taking a faint trail to the left leading toward Red Tank Draw. This trail runs for around 150 yards through catclaw to fade out just short of the draw. From there, we just bushwhacked our way until we were in the rocky streambed. Our goal was to follow the stream down the draw until we came to the petroglyphs near where we were parked. The blue line in the below graphic shows our route down Red Tank Draw.

Route down Red Tank Draw

The going was rough down the draw, in some places there was water to be avoided, in others it had seeped below the rocks and the streambed was completely dry. In some places large pools had formed. All the way it was very rocky. All-in-all, though, the trip was well worth the effort. Late fall foliage was still clinging to the trees in this sheltered environment and we soon started to see petroglyphs on the canyon walls along the way.

Fall foliage in Red Tank Draw

The first petroglyphs we saw were located high on the left wall of the draw.

The first petroglyphs we saw (magnified view)

After this, we saw more and more of these as we progressed down the draw, predominately along the left wall at first, but also on the right wall farther down the draw. Additional examples are shown below.

On the left wall

Also along the left wall

On the right wall

Also on the right wall

The last two examples, shown below, are located on the right cliff wall where the trail leads up to where we were parked.

On the way out of Red Tank Draw

The last drawing as we left the draw

It was now after 1400 and, as previously noted, five of the party planned an additional excursion to scout for a future hike. This would be a visit to a site just off Blue Grade Road at the Mogollon Rim. We knew that there were Indian solstice drawings there, just below the rim of Rarick Canyon, and wanted to make sure we knew how to reach them before scheduling an official hike.

We all piled into Becky's hummer and drove up Blue Grade road for around 4.5 miles before turning right onto another road and going a further three-tenths of a mile to park near what appeared to be a gravel pit. The drawings were nearby and we found them after only one false start, probably a new record for our scouting group.

The GPS Track for this hike is shown on the included map (below). The green line is the track we took to White Mesa, the yellow line shows a section of the road to Rays Tank and blue line shows our route down Red Tank Draw to look at petroglyphs. The round trip distance for this hike was 4.8 miles, the maximum elevation was 4902 feet and the total ascent was 1183 feet. Our travels to scout out a future hike are not shown.