Up Gaddes Canyon and on to FR 413

Six Skyliners set out on 9 November 2013 with the intention of hiking the 2.6 mile Gaddes Canyon Trail #110 from the trailhead on Forest Road 413 near Burnt Tank to the trailhead at FR 104D near the Mingus Mountain Fire Tower. Both Lila and I had hiked the trail in the past; the other hikers, although having hiked fairly often in Gaddes Canyon had never before hiked Gaddes Canyon Trail #110, which merely runs across the canyon at Gaddes Spring. Most people mistakenly assume that Gaddes Canyon Trail runs up and down the canyon and this leads to much confusion.

Another trail, number 9037, does run from the end of Black Canyon Trail in lower Gaddes Canyon up the canyon itself to connect with Gaddes Canyon Trail where that trail crosses the canyon. Some maps label the lower section of Trail 9037 as Gaddes 2. Then, adding even more confusion, another short section of trail on top of Mingus, shown starting from a point on the Forest Road between the south towers and the old heliport and passing to the north and west of Dry Lakes Tank to end at the rim of Gaddes Canyon, is also labeled Gaddes 2. Perhaps these two sections were once connected?

The normal Skyliner hike in Gaddes Canyon, referred to as the Coleman-Gaddes Loop hike, consists of hiking from FR 413 at the Black Canyon Trailhead up the Canyon on Trail 9037/Gaddes 2 to the junction with a faint trail that angles up the east canyon wall to connect with Forest Road 104 near Dry Lake Tank. From there we take Coleman Trail back down the mountain to connect with FR 413 about 0.5 miles north of the starting point, thus forming a loop. Sometimes, for variety, we hike this loop in the opposite direction, by hiking up Coleman Trail and returning by way of Gaddes Canyon. In either case, that leaves almost a mile of Trail 9037 in Gaddes Canyon that most of our hikers had never been on.

After a bit of discussion, we decided to abandon our original plan to hike from the Gaddes canyon Trailhead on FR 413 near Burnt Tank to the Mingus Fire Tower and return entirely on Gaddes Canyon Trail #110. We would instead leave one vehicle near Burnt Tank and take the other further along FR 413 to the Trail 9037/Gaddes 2 Trailhead. We would then hike up the canyon to connect with Trail 110 and follow it back to Burnt Tank, foregoing the trip on to the firetower.

The following photograph was taken where Trail 9037 starts at FR 413 in lower Gaddes Canyon.

Left to right: Daisy Williams, Lila Wright, Collene Maktenieks, Ruth Frazier 

and Betty Wolters – Trail 9037 begins behind Daisy; FR 413 is to the right 

of Betty

The last time I hiked this way was just after a rain in July 2011 and the vegetation was then lush and green. It was now November and the area has apparently been pastured heavily since then. The leaves have fallen for the year and cattle have eaten much of the smaller vegetation that we saw in 2011. The trail itself was clear except for several trees that have fallen across it and the hiking was easier this time.

With the leaves having fallen from the deciduous trees, we had relatively clear views of both sides of Gaddes as we made our way up the dry streambed, crossing and recrossing it several times along the way. The two photographs below show the canyon walls. At left is shown the south side of the canyon, actually it is the southwest side for we were traveling northwest for the the first 1.5 miles before the canyon made a turn and heads almost directly north. The photographs below show, respectively, the south and north sides of the canyon .

South side of Gaddes Canyon

Shown below are the hikers making their way up the gently-sloping trail. Note, in the foreground, the fallen tree that has not yet been cleared from the trail.

Streambed (left), fallen tree (bottom center) and hikers on trail ahead 

(center left)

About 1.5 miles from from the trailhead where we started our hike, at the point where the canyon turns to the north, a very faint trail leads off to the right, running across the streambed and through an opening created by cutting a section from the trunk of a large, fallen ponderosa (right). Note the rock cairn built atop the end of the fallen tree trunk. It marks the way. This faint trail comes out at Dry Lake Tank atop Mingus and is the route we normally take to hike what we call the Gaddes Canyon-Coleman Trail Loop.

Today, however, we had other plans and continued on up Trail 9037. As already noted, none of the other hikers had hiked the 0.9 mile section of trail between here and the junction with Trail 110 (Gaddes Canyon Trail) at Gaddes Spring before, so this short section along with Trail 110 would be a new experience for them.

We had started to see bear scat and cowpies shortly after beginning our hike and this continued all the way to the junction with Trail 110. The cowpies were pretty well dried out, indicating that the cattle had been moved to lower country some weeks ago; some of the bear scat, however, appeared to be no more than a few days old.

We joined Gaddes Canyon Trail at the bottom of the canyon. From here, we could turn right, follow the trail on past Gaddes Spring and up the east rim of the canyon to the top of Mingus where it ends at FR 104D just below the firetower. The distance would be something over half a mile. However, we were parked in the other direction, so we turned sharply southeast and climbed the west rim of the canyon to follow the trail back to the trailhead on FR 413 near Burnt Tank.

The climb out of the canyon on this side is surprisingly gentle, sloping diagonally up the canyon wall to join a fire road at the rim. As we neared the rim, we could look back over our shoulders and see the firetower at the other end of the trail in the distance. The tower can be seen, between the tree branches, in the very center of the photograph (left).

The fire road we joined at the rim of the canyon turned out to be the firebreak at the edge of a prescribed burn conducted by the Forest Service from November 1 through November 4. We noted a few smoldering embers along the way, but there was not enough smoke to bother us. In fact, we stopped right in the burn area to eat lunch, having found a good spot on a sunny slope with an excellent view across Prescott Valley.

Lila eating lunch and enjoying the view of the mountains beyond 

Prescott Valley

After following the fire road along the rim for perhaps half a mile, our trail left it to make its way down the mountain to the trailhead at FR 413 about 700 feet lower.

There are a few rather steep places in this section of trail, but it is generally well-engineered with several switchbacks making the way easier.

At the trailhead, the Forest Service had posted a sign (right) saying that the trail was closed due to the prescribed burn that had ended five days earlier.

That seemed rather odd as the trail appears to have been closed in only one direction; we saw no closure sign when we approached the burn area from the other side. Possibly, the closure had been lifted earlier and this sign was just forgotten.

On the included map (next page), our track is shown in red. The track up Gaddes Canyon to Trail 110 follows Trail 9037. Trail 110 from the junction with 9037 is also shown in red as it is part of today's hike. The remainder of Trail 110 is shown in blue. The faint trail that leads out of the canyon at Dry Lake Tank is shown in yellow and the short section of trail on top of Mingus that I have referred to as Gaddes 2 is shown in magenta. The lower section of trail, running part way up the canyon and also referred to as Gaddes 2 is not shown separately, but its start point is coincident with Trailhead 9037 and its end point is shown.

My GPS recorded the hike distance as 4.3 miles, the elevation change as 1449 feet and the highest elevation as 7486 feet. For reference, the elevation at Mingus Firetower is just over 7700 feet and the hang glider launching pad on Mingus is about 7800 feet.