Arizona Trail From FR 751 to 3.6 Miles South

Having decided to hike a section of the Arizona Trail south from FR 751, we left Cottonwood shortly after 0700 on 3 August 2013. We drove through Camp Verde on Hwy 260 and continued on to the junction with Hwy 87 just below the Mogollon Rim. The mile marking system used on Hwy 260 is rather quirky. The road starts in Cottonwood and less than a mile ahead has mile marker 207 posted, the approximate distance by highway to the western state border by way of Hwy 89A, US 89, Cr 71, US 60 and I-10. The marking system is then consistent for 46 miles to the junction with Hwy 87 which it reaches at approximately mile marker 251.9. Highways 260 and 87 then run south together for 26 miles to Payson where Hwy 260 continues east with mile marker 252. This means, of course, that all remaining mile markers on Hwy 260 are off by 26 miles.

But, for purposes of this hike, we turned north on Hwy 87 and drove 16.6 miles to the junction with FR 751, turned south on that road and drove another 2.1 miles to reach the Arizona Trail crossing to start our hike. We paused for a group photograph before starting our hike.

Left to right: Ellis Price, Miriam Sterling, Lila Wright, Dave Beach and 

Kwi Johnson - photograph by name withheld

A sign showing the layout of the Arizona Trail was posted at the trailhead.

Arizona Trail – our starting position was near the middle of the trail, just above the Blue Ridge 

Reservoir – see red arrow

As soon as we disembarked, the mosquitoes attacked with a vengeance. One person had applied repellent before leaving home and another had a small amount with him. The rest of us just covered up as much as possible. I donned a pair of gloves to protect my hands and used a technique that seems to work for me – breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. I don't know why, but it seems to repel insects.

The trail in this area leads through the forest and is mostly shaded, good for the mosquitoes, but did have some open spots where the trees were widely spaced. All along the way, we found flowers in bloom.

Golden tickseed flowers taking advantage of an old roadway 

- http://www.delange.org/TickseedGolden/TickseedGolden.htm

The trail led almost directly south for a little over half a mile, then turned west to follow closely along the rim of East Clear Creek Canyon. Knowing that Blue Ridge Reservoir was located in the canyon, we kept looking for water below. After about another half a mile, the trail began a fairly gentle downslope and then turned back to the south and descended the steep canyon wall, falling about 400 feet in 0.6 miles.

Some of the flowers we saw along the way are shown below.

Lindley's silverpuffs

Wild dwarf morning-glory

Parry's aster

Pineywoods geranium

When we arrived at the bottom of the canyon, we found it completely dry. Although the reservoir does apparently extend this far up the canyon when filled, it was at only 68% of capacity on the day of our visit.¹

Blue Ridge Reservoir, constructed by Phelps-Dodge, was completed in 1965 at a cost of 7.2 million dollars. It was constructed as part of an agreement between the company and Salt River Project to allow Phelps Dodge to use water from the Black River at its Morenci facility. A 187-foot-tall concrete dam was erected to create a 15000 acre-foot reservoir in the East Clear Creek Canyon. East Clear Creek is a part of the Little Colorado River watershed, outside the SRP's service area. Water from this reservoir would then be supplied to SRP to compensate for the water taken by Phelps dodge from the Black River. The water was routed through a tunnel and then pumped up a 435-foot shaft to a pipeline which carried it 10 or 11 miles to the East Verde River. A hydroelectric generating station was installed at the lower end of the pipeline to generate power to drive the electric motors which lifted the water from the reservoir.

In 2005, pursuant to a clause in the agreement that allowed SRP to purchase the reservoir should Phelps Dodge decided to sell it, SRP purchased it to add to their system's resources. The reservoir was also renamed C.C Cragin Reservoir in honor of an early 20^th century SRP general superintendent. However, it is still generally known as Blue Ridge Reservoir.²

Under a separate agreement, SRP will provide and Payson with a 3000 acre-foot annual allocation of water from the reservoir. To make use of this water allocation Payson is installing a 13.5 mile long, 18-inch diameter pipeline from the tailrace (discharge) of SRP's existing hydroelectric facility to a new 234 Kilowatt hydroelectric facility which will generate power to operate a new water treatment plant. This project is scheduled to be completed in late 2016.

When we arrived at the dry bed of East Clear Creek, we found that we had left the mosquitoes behind, so we stopped for a midmorning snack. We then started the steep climb out of the canyon on the south side. This seemed even steeper than the descent from the north rim had been. However, a look at a topographic map discloses that the south rim is actually 200 to 300 feet lower.

We came out on the south rim just west of the site of the Battle of Big Dry Wash, the last battle fought between the Apaches and army regulars.³

At the south rim, we came to a fence with a pedestrian pass-through. After that the rest of our hike, until we turned back, was along an old, level roadbed.

Arriving at the south rim of Clear Creek Canyon

We saw the below plants while ascending to or hiking on the south rim.

Pine drops

Silene (orange)/Parry's aster ( light blue)

After returning to the trailhead, some of our group were still intent on seeing water, so we drove on down FR 751 until it ended at the reservoir, before heading back home.

Blue Ridge Reservoir from the parking lot at the end of FR 751

This hike was 7.6 miles round trip, the highest elevation was 7377 feet total ascent was 722 feet.

Our track is shown in red on the included map (below). The yellow tracks are part of the Arizona Trail that we did not hike.

1http://www.watershedmonitor.com/siteDetail.aspx?dbNm=usgs&statn_id=09398300&kw=WW_LwrVerde

2http://www.srpnet.com/water/dams/cragin.aspx

3http://www.paysonrimcountry.com/MountainRecreation/InterpretiveCenters/BattleofBigDryWash.aspx