Deadwood Trail

I had long wanted to hike Deadwood Trail from Cedar Flat to Forest Road 618 near Walker Creek. The Skyliners had hiked a part of the trail, starting at FR 618 and returning the same way, the previous spring. I wanted to start at Cedar Flat and hike the entire trail. Saturday, 30 November 2013 turned out to be the perfect day for it. The regular Skyliners hike, led by Lila Wright, was to be on the lower portion of Chavez Historic Trail and several of us had already hiked that trail last spring to scout it for today's hike.

After some discussion with Lila we agreed that I would organize a separate hike on Deadwood for those who had accompanied us on the Chavez Trail scouting hike. This would include, in addition to the author: Jim Manning, Collene Maktenieks and Miriam Sterling. As it turned out Miriam was unable to hike that day and I recruited Donna Goodman to take her place.

We met at my house and left for our hike at 0800, the normal time for Skyliner hikes this time of year. In retrospect, we should have left an hour earlier because the driving and staging time to get to the Deadwood Trailhead at Cedar Flat turned out to be 2 hours, so we didn't start our hike until about 1000.

We drove to Camp Verde, took I-17 north to the Sedona Exit and turned right (southeast) onto FR 618. We continued on past the turnoff to the Beaver Creek Ranger Station, crossed Wet Beaver Creek and arrived at the unmarked Deadwood Trailhead just 0.1 miles before crossing Walker Creek at Ward Ranch (also known as Rancho Roca Roja); we had traveled 3.9 miles from I-17. The only sign at the trailhead proclaims the route to be Forest road 9201J. Deadwood Trail follows this road all the way between FR 618 and and FR 214 at Cedar Flat Tank. Although the road is coded on the Coconino National Forest Motor Vehicle Use Map as being open to all vehicles, only about the first 0.8 miles should be attempted by other than serious 4-wheelers, as it quickly becomes very steep and is covered with loose rock.

For this hike we had already decided that we would position one high- clearance vehicle (my pickup) at a corral located 0.8 miles from the trailhead at FR 618 and drive Jim's Jeep around Walker Mountain on FR 214 to the upper trailhead. Collene had also driven her vehicle which we left parked at the FR 618/Deadwood Trailhead.

We then continued south on FR 618, which now became a dirt road (it had been paved this far), crossed Walker Creek, continued past the entrance to Ward Ranch and turned left (east) on FR 214 about 6.2 miles from the Deadwood Trailhead. We followed FR 214 for another 9.6 miles before arriving at the upper Deadwood Trailhead (again unmarked) at Cedar Flat Tank. The spot is marked by a large corral with a huge, now unused, loading chute constructed of large timbers set on concrete footings. The old chute has apparently been replaced by a nearby portable metal chute.

Although not marked as such, the Deadwood Trail was easy to find with our plotted GPS track; it starts at FR 214 on the northeast side of Spring Creek. As we set out across the flat we were at an elevation of almost 5800 feet and we had clear views of the mountains all around us. Especially prominent were the San Francisco Peaks to the north and the Black Hills to the west. The area is open and grass covered, except for the eponymous, widely scattered cedars.

We saw several clumps of closely growing cedar trees located on top of the surrounding low hills. The clumps were similar to those, of other species of tree, I have seen growing in tropical environments such as the Philippines and Borneo. In particular, I remember standing on the catwalk of the USS Thetis Bay Flight Deck while anchored off the coast of Borneo at Kota Belud in 1959. We were landing Marines in the jungle as part of SEATO operation, Saddle Up and, while observing helicopter operations, I noted an otherwise bare hill with trees growing in a clump very much like the clumps of cedars we saw on the hills in Cedar Flat.

We noted that the old road (FR 9201J) we were following, did not correspond very well with the track (copper colored on the map below) I had plotted from an old USGS overlay in Google Earth. When we stopped for a snack at about 1130 at a fork in the road, I could see on the GPS just how great this variation between the track and the road was. Thus it didn't bother me at all when, having taken the fork leading north after our snack, we again departed from the GPS track. I thought it was just another temporary deviation. In retrospect, we should have taken the left fork, leaving both the road we were on and the GPS track in favor of what I have since determined is actually FR 9201J, the green line on the map below.

Upper section of Deadwood Trail, showing trail details and deviations

So it was that we blithely continued on our way, leaving the GPS track and continuing on until we eventually joined Long Canyon Trail. We at first thought it might be Deadwood Trail. Actually, we only recognized it as a trail because of a series of neat, wire-bound cairns lining what would have been the path had there been one. Other than the cairns and an occasional sign bearing the number 63, there was no indication that anyone had ever hiked that way. I was pretty sure that Deadwood Trail was not numbered at all, but we were at least traveling parallel to my plotted GPS track and I knew that we would always be able to intersect it by traveling directly south.

We continued following the cairns until we reached Long Canyon Tank, at which time, it appeared that we were in danger of traveling too far down the north side of Deadwood Draw, the opposite side from the GPS track, so we headed directly south, traveling across country. We did have to cross Deadwood Draw, but we were soon back on the track as shown on the map (above). The below map shows the profile of our detour, including the 225 foot climb down into and back up the other side of the draw.

Profile of the major deviation we made from our plotted GPS track

After rejoining the plotted track and traveling west (slightly north) for about 0.6 miles we came to a fork in the road where another road branched off at an acute angle to the southeast. Later, I determined that that road was the actual trail, or at least was FR 9201J which we were attempting to follow as Deadwood Trail. It is the way we would have come had we taken the other fork where we stopped for a snack. See the point on the included maps labeled (snack at fork).

Another 0.4 miles brought us to a sharp turn where the trail headed almost directly south and descended sharply, dropping some 600 feet in 0.6 miles. The old road we were following was, in addition to being very steep, covered with loose rocks, making each step a perilous adventure. This was without doubt the hardest part of the hike.

About half way down this difficult section of trail, I discovered that I had lost my camera. I think that the strap probably snagged on a bramble while we were crossing Deadwood Draw. In any case, I wasn't about to return back up that steep, rocky road to look for it.

The below map (below) shows the GPS track of our hike in red, the plotted GPS track in copper and the short section of FR 9201J that we should have taken in green.

We might want to schedule an in-and-out Skyliner hike sometime in the future on the upper part of the trail, starting at Cedar Flat Tank and returning there.

We hiked 9.6 miles (from Cedar Flat to 0.8 miles short of the lower end of Deadwood at FR 618), 1.2 miles of this being due to our deviation to and on Long Canyon Trail. According to my GPS the total descent the way we hiked was 2193 feet and the highest elevation was 5780 feet.