Grandmaw’s Cave – Harding/Cookstove

The Skyliner’s have a hike to Grandmaw’s Cave scheduled for 22 September 2011, and our leader Lila did not wish to attempt that hike with knowing exactly how to get there. We had already tried twice without being able to locate the cave, even though we knew we were in the immediate vicinity. Thus it was that six stubborn Skyliners set out on yet another scouting hike in a last ditch effort to locate the cave before the hiking season begins in October.

The following group photograph, taken in front of the cave, demonstrates our success on this attempt.

Left to right: George Everman, Lila Wright, John McInerney, Akemi 

Tomioka, Gordon Bice and the author 

– photograph by George using the authors camera

Lila, John, Gordon and Ellis met at the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood at 0700. Kwi was missing, not having received word of the scheduled hike. We drove to Harding Spring Trailhead at the entrance to Cave Springs Campground on Hwy 89A where we were met by George and Akemi. A parking lot is provided just to the right of the entrance to the campground.

We donned our packs, walked across Hwy 89A and headed up Harding Springs Trail; the trailhead is marked by a rusty metal sign located very near the sign for Cave Springs Campground.

Harding Springs Trailhead sign and Cave springs Campground sign

We headed up the trail at a reasonable pace so as not to tire ourselves out too early in the hike. Harding Springs Trail is fairly steep, climbing over 900 feet in just 0.7 miles; however, it is well developed and a reasonably easy climb if you pace yourself.

An old post marks the point where the trail tops out on the rim; it probably once hosted a sign announcing the Harding Springs Trailhead.

The old post (right) marks the start/end of Harding Trail at the rim. From here a trail leads off to the southwest for about 100 yards to an excellent overview point from which you can see back down Oak Creek Canyon and across the way to the cliffs on the other side. A second trail (Telephone to Cookstove) leads to the northeast along the rim to connect with Cookstove Trail 1.4 miles away. Finally, a third trail (also Telephone to Cookstove) leads to the southeast. One takes this trail for approximately 0.3 miles before turning off to the right, heading almost directly south (about 140 degrees true) to cross a wash; emerging on the south side of the wash, the trail (indistinct but marked by cairns along the way continues for about another 0.1 miles (you should never be out of sight of a cairn) before crossing another wash. It then turns to the northwest (about 292 degrees true) for around another 0.3 miles to the very tip of the ridge you are on. At this point you are just about on top of Grandmaw’s Cave; however, a hard scramble down the face of the cliff along a steep, barely discernible trail to the cave opening awaits you. (NOTE: these interim distances are approximate)

The cave itself is quite large, running approximately 100 yards back into the mountain ridge along which we had traveled. The following picture was taken as the photographer approached the cave.

Approaching the cave – photograph by George

Just inside the cave mouth is located a geocache, securely chained to the wall. The next two photographs show the cache and George placing a golf ball in the box. Akemi left the paper swan; not being into geocaching, I left nothing and took nothing.

Geocache box showing, among other items, Akemi’s paper swan and 

George’s golf ball - by George

George placing a golf ball in the Grandmaw’s Cave geocache

The end of Grandmaw’s Cave – photograph by George

Looking out from inside the cave – Gordon, Lila and John are shown

The following two pictures (below) were taken as we climbed back up the cliff from the cave.

Akemi and John climbing back up the trail to the top of the ridge 

after our visit to Grandmaw’s Cave

Lila and Gordon climbing up the cliff from Grandmaw’s Cave

Back on top of the ridge above Grandmaw’s Cave, I took a photograph of a tree that grows from approximately just above the cave opening and then found another one taken on 17 August 2011 showing the same tree. We had almost found the cave on that trip.

Photograph showing tree growing just above the mouth 

of Grandmaw’s Cave

Taken 17 August 2011 – George appears to be pointing at the tree 

growing above Grandmaw’s Cave

As we continued our way up the trail along the ridge from the point above Grandmaw’s cave, I took several photographs looking back just to remind myself what the trail looked like on the way to the cave.

The trail to the ridge point above the cave leads close against the 

cliff wall shown here

The going is steep and rocky in places

Fortunately, the rough part of the trail leading down to the point of the ridge above Grandmaw’s Cave is only about 0.1 miles. The rest of the way between there and the intersection of Harding Springs Trail and Telephone to Cookstove Trail is an easy hike – just watch for cairns and, if possible, load the Garmin gdb file sent along with this report in a GPS and follow it. That will help to avoid a lot of wondering as to whether you have taken a wrong turn.

We arrived back at the top of Harding Springs trail in short order and then continued the 100 odd yards out to the viewpoint to eat lunch.

After lunch we took the Telephone to Cookstove Trail north along the rim for about 1.4 miles to its intersection with Cookstove Trail.

The blaze on the tree shown here marks the end of Cookstove Trail 

at Telephone to Cookstove Trail

The Arizona topo map I am using in my GPS shows Telephone to Cookstove Trail running on north along the rim for about 0.3 miles, I think just to a viewpoint, before it ends.

Cookstove Trail seemed to me to be steeper than Harding Springs Trail had been. However, when I downloaded the GPS file and examined it in the computer, I found that we had descended about 200 feet less than we had ascended on Harding Springs Trail. The recorded distance was exactly the same – 0.7 miles.

The Cookstove Trailhead at Hwy 89A is, like the Harding Springs Trailhead, marked with a rusty metal sign (below left). A drinking water station (below right) is located directly across the highway from the trailhead and just a few yards from the north exit from Pine Flats Campground. The water was most refreshing and we all paused for a drink and a short rest before continuing on.

Trailhead sign

Water station

We were about 1.1 miles north along Hwy 89A from where we had parked at the Harding Springs Trailhead, and because there is hardly enough room to walk alongside Hwy 89A in places, we took a slightly longer (1.2 miles) route: we hiked through Pine Flat Campground to emerge at the south exit, walked along Hwy 89A for about 100 yards and then entered the Pine Flats community, crossed Oak Creek on a low concrete bridge and continued straight on Bear Howard Road which soon became a dirt road.

About 0.1 miles after leaving Hwy 89A we turned left (south) onto a trail (apparently unnamed) that starts in the edge of a private driveway and follows a power line across a saddle behind a hump that separates it from Hwy 89A. Our trail then crossed back to the east side of Oak Creek about 0.3 miles from Bear Howard Road. After crossing back over the creek, we continued straight toward the highway for about 40 yards, turned right onto another trail and followed it for about 50 yards before turning left on still another trail which we followed only 30 yards or so before turning right on a straight, open trail which led us directly to our parked vehicles about 0.1 miles ahead.

Akemi is headed back to Japan on the 27^th and this was her last hike with us this year, so while still at the Grandmaw’s Cave we took the time to wish her well and to toast our success in finally finding the cave with a spot of green tea.

Toasting our success in finally finding Grandmaw’s Cave with 

a spot of Akemi’s green tea

With the extra trip to eat lunch at the viewpoint and the searching we did to find the Cave, my GPS indicated that we hiked 5.2 miles. The highest elevation was 6335 feet and the total ascent was 1828 feet.

Some distances:

Harding Springs Trail: 0.7 miles (red).

Top of Harding Springs Trail to Grandmaw’s Cave: 1.0 mile (magenta).

Harding Springs Trail to Cookstove rail on rim: 1.4 miles (green).

Cookstove Trail: 0.7 miles (red).

Cookstove Trail to Harding Springs Trail along Oak Creek: 1.2 miles (dark magenta).

Lookout Point at top of Harding Spring Trail: 0.1 miles (white).

Note: The sum of these separate tracks differ slightly from the total due to rounding error.

The included map (below) shows the route we took for this hike.

Snowbowl to Schultz Tank via Humphreys and Weatherford Trails

On Saturday, 13 August 2011, four hikers from Cottonwood and Sedona, along with a visitor from Japan, stowed raingear in our packs and headed out to hike from the Snowbowl to Schultz Tank. We were hoping for the best even though the weather report gave a 50% chance of thundershowers. We had previously hiked Humphreys Trail from Snowbowl to the Peak and Weatherford Trail from Schultz Tank to Doyle Saddle and were anxious to do the entire route from Snowbowl to Schultz Tank.

Kwi Johnson, Gordon Bice and I left the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood at 0500 and drove to Flagstaff where we met George Everman and Akemi Tomioka (our very welcome visitor from Japan) at Denny’s. Traveling in two vehicles we continued on into Flagstaff, took US-180 W and followed it about 3.2 miles before turning right on Schultz Pass Road. We followed Schultz Pass Road (being careful to turn left about 0.3 miles from US 180) approximately 5.2 miles to the trailhead parking lot at Schultz Tank. The turnoff to the parking lot is on the right (south) side of the road about 0.2 miles past the sign for Schultz Pass. A toilet is provided at the parking lot. Parking one vehicle there, we all returned to US 180 in the other vehicle and followed it for another 3.8 miles before turning right onto Snowbowl Road. After another 6.2 miles on this road we arrived at the parking lot for Humphreys Trail at the Snowbowl.

The trail leads across a meadow and enters the Coconino National Forest about half a mile ahead. Soon after entering the forest the trail begins to climb sharply. Just about a mile from the trailhead, we entered the Kachina Peaks Wilderness. We stopped there for a short rest before continuing on our way. I had decided that we would stop for a rest at one-mile intervals during the steep (2540 foot ascent), winding, 3.8-mile climb from Snowbowl to Humphreys-Agassiz Saddleⁱ (otherwise known, at least to Humphreys Hikers, as the “first gap”). We spotted several great looking mushrooms along the trail (two pictures by George below).

Mushroom – photo by George

Mushrooms – photo by George

Refreshed by the occasional break we were soon approaching the treeline. The sign says the elevation here is 11400 feet and prohibits off trail hiking beyond this point.

From front to rear: Ellis Price, Gordon Bice, Kwi Johnson and George 

Everman – photograph by Akemi Tomioka

When we reached Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle, having already climbed 2540 feet from Snowbowl, we still had 300 feet to go feet to go before to reach the high point of our hike. It was very windy in the saddle and being damp with perspiration we were quite chilly. We had, anyway, traveled a bit less than a mile since our last break, so we pushed on, stopping for our fourth break on the southwest slope of the ridge between Agassiz and Humphreys. From there we had great views of the ski area on the slope of Agassiz, Bill Williams Mountain to the southwest and Sitgreaves Mountain to the west. We were just a few feet below the high point of our hike where we would again be exposed to the wind as we crossed a high ridge on the north slope of Agassiz at an elevation of 12000 feet. From there we would begin the long, almost 4000 foot, descent to Schultz Tank, hiking down the eastern slope of Agassiz and across the north slope of Fremont, passing through Doyle Saddle and continuing down the winding mountain trail to our destination.

After a short time to rest and enjoy the view from our sheltered spot on the slope of Agassiz, we again braved the wind and climbed the few remaining feet to cross over the ridge and begin our descent. From here, except for a short easy climb to cross through Doyle Saddle, the way would all be downhill along an old roadway used by motorists in the early part of the last century to access the peaks.

We crossed the ridge quickly to get out of the cold wind on top and started down the eastern slope. Along the way we had great views down into the Inner Basin. And we saw some gorgeous flowers growing in the fractures of rock ledges alongside the trail, which George lagged behind to photograph for his collection. (left).  George identified the flowers for me as yellow coralbells or Heuchera.

Just after we started down the slope along Agassiz, Akemi climbed up on a rock formation for an even better view down into the inner basin. In the below photograph she is shown scrambling back down to the trail.

Akemi Tomioka descending from a rock formation alongside 

Weatherford Trail at the head of the Inner Basin

Someone asked how the Inner Basin was formed. The quick answer is, of course, by volcanic action. However, the US Forest Service provides a more informative, but still very brief, narrative in the Coconino National Forest trail guide for the Inner Basin Trail #29. The following excerpt from that guide is provided for general information:

The San Francisco Peaks are actually the remains of an extinct volcano. Millions of years ago this great mountain was shattered by an explosion similar to the one that devastated Washington's Mt. Saint Helens in 1980. Inside the now quiet caldera a lush alpine environment has blurred evidence of that cataclysmic event.

The trail into the heart of the ancient volcano begins in beautiful Lockett Meadow. From this island of emerald ringed with aspens and high peaks it follows a primitive road into the mountain's now quiet Inner Basin and then connects to the Weatherford trail. Here, extensive stands of aspens cover the steep slopes of the old caldera coloring them solid gold in early fall. In spring and summer, wildflowers add a sprinkling of blue, red and yellow. From the basin's rims, avalanche tracks streak down the talus slopes and remnants of old lava flows bear witness to the mountain's cataclysmic heritage.¹

We lingered along the trail for the views and I distracted Gordon from looking down into the basin long enough to snap the following shot.

Gordon Bice with the Inner Basin in the background

We continued down the slope of Agassiz to Fremont Saddle.ⁱⁱ Labeled as Doyle Saddle on some maps, it is located 1.6 miles along Weatherford Trail from Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle, just about equidistant between Agassiz and Fremont peaks. We continued on past the saddle to cross along the north slope of Fremont on our way to Doyle Saddleⁱⁱⁱ (labeled as Fremont Saddle on some maps). About 0.9 miles further along the trail (some 2.5 miles from Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle) we passed the junction with the Inner Basin Trail. The trail along here passes through a heavily forested area and the hiking is pleasant, mostly level with just a slight upslope as one approaches Doyle Saddle. It was close to 1330 when we arrived at Doyle Saddle and we had been on the trail since 0805. It was certainly time to stop for lunch and this was an excellent spot, about midway between Fremont and Doyle peaks, still with a view of the Inner Basin from one side of the saddle and a view on down the mountain toward Flagstaff from the other.

After a quick lunch, Gordon and I took a nap while the others just rested and admired the view. Then we picked up our packs and headed on down the mountain toward Schultz Tank; we still had something like 6.5 miles (trail signs indicate 6 miles, but I am not convinced) to go.

Lunch at Doyle Saddle – Left to right: Gordon Bice, Ellis Price (sleeping), 

Akemi Tomioka, George Everman and Kwi Johnson 

– by George Everman with time delay

Shortly after leaving the saddle we stopped to look at the wreck of an old yellow car that had tumbled down the mountain from the road. The wreck, still bright yellow, shows little evidence of rust or damage from the elements. However, it must have been there for some time as the road appears to have been closed to motorized vehicles for several years.

Old wrecked vehicle just below Doyle Saddle – by George Everman

The flowers alongside the trail in this area were spectacular. Some of these are shown in the following photograph taken by George.

Flowers alongside the trail below Doyle Saddle – by George Everman

My favorite spot along this trail is Aspen Spring, located around four miles below the saddle, and I was determined to make that our next rest stop. We were heading downhill now and the “one-mile between rest stops” rule was long forgotten, so we wound our way down the heavily forested mountain slope at a good pace until we reached the lush, aspen-bordered meadow signaling our arrival at Aspen Spring.

We took a good long break at the edge of the aspen forest with a great view across the open grassy meadow spread out below the trail. We then had George take a group photograph using the aspens for a background before continuing our hike.

Left to right: George Everman, Akemi Tomioka, Ellis Price, Kwi Johnson 

and Gordon Bice – by George Everman with time delay

Somewhat reluctantly leaving our peaceful rest area, we gathered ourselves up and began the last two miles of our hike. About 0.3 miles from Aspen Spring we left the Kachina Peaks Wilderness and then after another 0.2 miles passed Dead Elk Fork (so called because we once found a dead elk there) where Kachina Trail leads off to the west, ending after five miles at the Snowbowl where we started. Our trail, however, continued on down the mountain to end at Schultz Tank, about 1.6 miles away and we pressed on.

We arrived at Schultz Tank at about 1725, having hiked around 13.9 miles, climbed 2735 feet and descended 3985 feet since leaving Snowbowl at 0805.

Below are shown a couple of miscellaneous photographs taken along the way.

The author – near 12000 feet elevation on Weatherford Trail 

overlooking the Inner Basin – by Akemi with my camera

Akemi Tomioka - near 12000 feet elevation on Weatherford Trail 

overlooking the Inner Basin

The one-way distance for this hike was 14.6 miles. The highest elevation was 12023 feet, the total ascent was 3209 feet and the total descent was 4023 feet.

Our GPS track is shown on the included map (below).

1 From: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/peaks/inner-basin-tr.shtml

i This saddle apparently does not have an official name. Hikers on Humphreys Trail just refer to it as the “first gap” because it is the first gap on the way to Humphreys Peak.

ii Fremont Saddle, according to a USFS map published in 2000, is located between Fremont Peak and Agassiz Peak. Be aware, however, that on the USGS overlay map for Google Earth, Fremont Saddle is labeled as Doyle Saddle. Likewise, Doyle Saddle, located on the USFS map between Fremont Peak and Doyle Peak, is labeled as Fremont Saddle on the USGS map.

iii Ibid

Humphreys Peak Trail

Having finally found what looked to be the perfect day for it, we headed out on a hike to Humphreys Peak on Saturday, 06 August 2011. Gordon, Ellis and Kwi met at the Safeway parking lot and drove thru Sedona to pick up George and Akemi. We then drove to Flagstaff and stopped at Denny’s for breakfast. After breakfast we continued on into Flagstaff, took 180 north for 7 miles, then Snowbowl Road (FR 516) for 7.4 miles to the Snowbowl. We parked in the lower parking lot just a few yards from the trailhead and donned our hiking gear. Someone counted and said that there were already 40 cars in the parking lot when we arrived. I guess perfect days are popular.

Getting ready - Left to right: Gordon Bice, Kwi Johnson, Akemi Tomioka 

and George Everman

The trail leads across a meadow and enters the forest about four-tenths of a mile ahead. The way across the meadow is pretty level but soon after entering the forest the trail begins to climb sharply. Something less than a mile (my GPS said six-tenths) from the trailhead it enters the Kachina Peaks Wilderness.

We continued on toward Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle¹, looking forward to the view down into the Inner Basin. That turned out to be somewhere between 3.25 and 3.5 miles from the trailhead. According to Google Earth, we had gained 2535 feet (9277 to 11812) in elevation in those three plus miles.

We took time to rest and enjoy the view out over the Inner Basin before leaving the saddle to continue our way on up to Humphreys Peak.

Looking out over the Inner Basin from Humphrey-Agassiz Saddle 

on Humphreys Trail

George took a picture of the group while we were resting (below) and another showing 36 hikers continuing on up the trail toward the peak (below).

Left to right: Ellis Price, Gordon Bice, George Everman and Akemi 

Tomioka – by George

Thirty-six hikers strung out on the trail leading on up to Humphreys Peak 

– by George

Looking at the trail ahead (see photograph previous page), it would appear that the peak was just ahead. Not so. We climbed three of these and walked along saddles in between before the final climb to the peak.

Atop Humphreys Peak - Left to right: Akemi Tomioka, George Everman, 

Gordon Bice and the author – by George

On reaching the top, we decided to take a short break and then return to Fremont Saddle for lunch. Kwi had chosen to wait for us there and, although the weather had been perfect so far, we were afraid that the wind might pick up if we lingered on the peak.

This is one of the few times when I have found the downhill hike to be more difficult than going uphill had been. The footing was precarious with loose gravel and small rocks scattered among the larger boulders and, worst of all, loose dirt and fine gravel scattered on top of some of the slanting rocks used for footing. I slipped three separate times. Luckily, I was able to set down rather than fall onto the rocks. If there is anything that I am well practiced in, it is the art of falling.

When we arrived back at Fremont Saddle for lunch, I was pretty well tuckered out. However, it was encouraging to remember that the worst part of the trail was behind us. We ate lunch, took a short nap -- at least Gordon and I napped. The others just enjoyed the view and visited with fellow hikers. George took the opportunity to follow Weatherford Trail, which intersects with Humphreys Trail at the saddle, for a short distance to scout it out for a future hike. We plan to hike from the Snowbowl to Schultz Tank using Humphreys and Weatherford Trails.

Gordon asked me to take a picture of the flower shown below, growing well above the treeline. It was located at an elevation of around 12000 feet between Fremont Saddle and Humphreys Peak. None of us could identify it. If you can, please let us know.

Unidentified flower growing on Mount Humphreys at 

around 12000 feet elevation

The rest of the hike was uneventful except that I felt a twinge in my right knee shortly after leaving Fremont Saddle and had to slow down and take great care for the rest of the descent so as to avoid injuring it. By the time we reached the meadow near the end of the hike, the twinge was gone and I have not had any further problems with it.

The total hike distance according to the Forest Service is nine miles round trip. According to my GPS file it was 10 miles.

According to my GPS, the round-trip total distance was 10 miles, the maximum elevation was 12613 feet and the total ascent was 3749 feet.

The GPS track of this hike is shown on the included map (below)

1 This saddle apparently does not have an official name. Hikers on Humphreys Trail just refer to it as the “first gap” because it is the first gap on the way to Humphreys Peak.

Thomas Point-Telephone Trails Loop - Scouting Hike

Five hikers (Dolly Yapp, Gordon Bice, Ellis Price, George Everman and one other hiker) gathered at the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood at 0700 on 23 July 2011 to do a scouting hike on Thomas Point #142 and Telephone #72 Trails. Our plan was to hike up the east rim of Oak Creek Canyon on Thomas Point Trail, find our way north along the rim to the top of Telephone Trail and take Telephone back down into the canyon. This would bring us back to Hwy 89A at the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon about 0.7 miles north of our starting point.

We drove through Sedona on Hwy 89A and started looking for the Thomas Point Trailhead. We knew that it should be between mile markers 384 and 385. However we missed it on the way up and had to turn around and drive back down. It is much more noticeable on the way down and we found it pretty easily. We then parked on the east side of the road between the two trailheads (Thomas Point and Telephone) and began our hike up Thomas Point Trail.

At Trailhead - Left to right: Dolly Yapp, George Everman and Gordon Bice.

Thomas Point Trail zigzags steeply up the wall of Oak Creek Canyon leading in a southerly direction for about the first half-mile. It then rounds a shoulder and heads up the north wall of Surveyor Canyon in an easterly direction, topping out on the rim after about another half-mile. The elevation change for the first mile from the start of the trail is about 900 feet. All along the way we had grand views down into and across Oak Creek Canyon.

Looking down Oak Creek Canyon from Thomas Point Trail near the rim 

When we topped out on the rim we noted a large pile of rocks (right), almost as though someone had started to build a rock fence alongside the trail. The picture shown here was taken looking back after we passed the rock structure. Thomas Point Trail (not readily discernible here) tops the rim just to the left of the rocks and leads directly toward the photographer.

From this point, the trail is very faint, marked primarily by an opening in the trees leading off to the east such as might have been left from an old roadway. We were in any case obviously at the end of Thomas Point Trail proper and were just looking for an old road (FR 9498), which we planned to follow for a short distance before turning north to connect with Telephone Trail for the descent back into Oak Creek Canyon

Thomas Point Trail at the rim. A trail of sorts leads on through the pines 

and intersects with FR 9498 near Thomas Point Tank.

We found the best way to reach Telephone Trail at the rim was to walk through the trees from the rock wall marker in an easterly direction to reach an old road that (when we hiked it) showed signs of recent travel by wheeled vehicles. We followed this road (FR 9498, though not signed as such) for something like a mile, first going generally southeast, then turning northeast and finally east before leaving FR 9498 to turn north to go around the head of a wash on a very faint old roadway. After about a hundred yards, this old road bears to the left, heading in a northwesterly direction to connect with Telephone Trail at the rim about a mile ahead. As when we first topped the rim, the trail was marked by an opening in the trees showing where an old road must have run.

We missed the turnoff from FR 9498 at first and arrived at Telephone Trail by a longer route. Realizing we had gone wrong, I decided to return closer along the rim to Thomas Point Trail so as to provide a GPS track for a more direct route between the two trailheads. George, having already hiked the Telephone Trail anyway, agreed to go back with me. Leaving the rest of the party to descend by Telephone, and heading back south along the rim, we found the return trip to Thomas Point Trail be just a pleasant stroll. We then descended back into Oak Creek Canyon.

By the time George and I had returned to Hwy 89A and hiked the half-mile up the road to where we were parked, the others had returned and and been waiting for around 45 minutes.

The hiking distance for the entire loop (starting and ending at where we parked between the trailheads on Hwy 89A) is 4.6 miles. The maximum elevation was 6428 feet and the total ascent was 1178 feet.

The included map (below) shows the suggested route for this hike. Along the rim, it includes the path George and I followed on the way back.

Coleman-Gaddes Loop

Undeterred by the threat of rain, eight of us gathered to hike on Mingus Mountain on July 9, 2011. Our plan was to hike up Gaddes Canyon on Trail 9073 and then turn off and follow a faint unnamed trail up the north wall the Canyon to connect with Coleman Trail for the hike back down. Lynne Tingley had led us this way a few years ago and we were pretty sure that we had identified the turnoff while on a recent hike down Gaddes.

We left the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood at 0600, hoping to beat the showers that were predicted for after 1100, drove through Jerome to the top of Mingus Mountain on Hwy 89A and turned left on Forest Road 104. We then turned right on Forest Road 413 (the road to Cherry), drove around to the south of Mingus and parked at the Black Canyon Trailhead, just across FR 413 from Trail 9073 trailhead, in the mouth of Gaddes Canyon.

We donned our packs and stopped for a group photograph before heading up the canyon.

Left to right: Name Withheld, Betty Wolters, Miriam Sterling, Dolly Yapp, 

Gordon Bice, Kwi Johnson, Kenneth Anderson

Following Trail 9073 up Gaddes Canyon we found that the recent rains had led to rapid growth of the foliage along the trail and that it was still wet from yesterday’s rain. Our pants legs were soon soaked from about the knee down. However, the temperature was in the seventies and we were not uncomfortable. We followed the trail up the canyon for about 1.8 miles, crossing the wash ten times, before we found the trail we were looking for leading up the north canyon wall. I had estimated that it would be between 1.6 and 1.7 miles. However, Ken provided me with a cleaned-up GPS track of the hike and, upon isolating and measuring the section from the trailhead to the turnoff, I found it to be 1.8 miles. It is located at: 34° 40.907'N, 112° 7.866'W. At the turnoff, Trail 90737 is located on the south side of the wash and a large, partially decayed, downed tree is located directly across the wash and lying parallel to it.

Crossing the wash (for the eleventh time) and going around the root end of the downed tree we found that we had to turn right for a few yards to locate the trail leading up the wall. It is pretty faint at first then becomes more clearly defined and quite steep for about 0.3 of a mile. As we neared the end of the steepest section of trail we lost it temporarily, following some misplaced cairns, and had to retrace our steps for 50 yards or so. Luckily David had noted cairns marking the correct trail, so we weren’t lost for long.

After following the unnamed trail for about three quarters of a mile, we came to Dry Lake Tank. We had climbed almost 900 feet along Trail 9037 and about another 400 feet on the unnamed trail and were now some 1300 feet above our starting point at FR 413. This was the high point of our hike and Coleman Trail was only about 0.2 miles away at a bearing of 122 degrees. We headed in that direction and found ourselves following the faint trace of an old road with cairns marking the way. A little more than a hundred yards from the tank we crossed an old road (a now little traveled section of road FR 104 that ends at an old heliport) and continued straight ahead to connect with Coleman Trail just 0.2 miles from Dry Lake Tank.

Connecting with Coleman Trail we followed it as it zigzagged down the mountain to connect with FR 413 about half a mile north of where we were parked at Black Canyon Trailhead. Although it was only a little after 1000, we stopped along the way for lunch; after all we had eaten breakfast between 0500 and 0530 in order to gather and leave at 0600. We didn’t linger long over lunch because we wanted to be back at our vehicles before the predicted showers arrived. We were soon on FR 413 and heading toward Black Canyon Trailhead. We noted a very pretty Century Plant along FR 413 between the end of Coleman Trail and out Black Canyon Trailhead (right).

The total length of the hike was 5.4 miles according to the cleaned-up GPS track provided by Ken. The maximum elevation was 1405 feet ant the total ascent was 1297 feet.

The included map (below) shows the GPS track for this hike.