Destination: Mazatzal Wilderness in Central Arizona
Intended route: Verde River Trail to Dutchman's Grave to Red Hills to Midnight to Willow to Verde River.
When: 3 days in mid-March, 2010
Who: Me, two friends, and Bo The Dog
Sorry, but I lost the photos for this trip....trust me, it's great.
This was my fourth trip to the largest Arizona Wilderness Area you've never heard of. It's a rugged, isolated, and seldom visited expanse between the Verde River and Payson. As summarized on www.toddshikinguide.com:
Mazatzal Wilderness Overview - Tonto National Forest
The Mazatzal Wilderness is a very large area (250,000 acres) encompassing the north western section of the Tonto National Forest. The wilderness was established in 1940 and expanded to its present size in 1984. The name is correctly pronounced 'Mah-zaht-zahl' sort of like 'Matzo ball' not to be confused with the Casino which is pronounced 'Ma-te-zel' ..... go figure.
Elevations range from 1,600 feet at the Verde River to Mazatzal Peak which tops out at 7,903 feet (expect snow in the winter). The plant life is typical for this portion of Arizona with Lower Sonoran vegetation at the lower altitudes, grassy chaparral as you climb the slopes and mixed conifers towards the upper regions.
The Mazatzals provide a terrific opportunity to really get away from civilization (with the exception of the Bernhardt Trailhead where most people visiting the area may be found). The drawback is that many trails are seldom used, making them quite overgrown and difficult to follow. If that weren't enough some of the trailheads may be hard to get to as well. The good news is that with the less enthusiastic individuals having been turned aside by the daunting remoteness, stupefying adversity and the alluring sounds emanating from their TV, the place is all ours (unless you count the cows that have trashed some sections). |
We started out from Sheep's Bridge on the Verde River Trail before turning off at Dutchman's Grave. We climbed a mesa which provided great views of the Mazatzal peaks ahead of us and the Verde River Valley behind. Sonoran desert is the dominant vegetation type here. The trail then dropped off the mesa and met the Red Hills Trail where we turned north and made camp at Gosselin Spring next to the ruins of an old cowboy shack.
The next morning we continued on the Red Hills Trail as it climbed steeply to the mesa above. Due to an extremely damp winter nearly every creek was running hard. About 500 feet before the mesa levels off, a developed copper mine appeared on our right. We took sometime to explore this bit of human history before slogging on to the top. The trail traverses the mesa passing several more open pit copper mines from sometime in the mid-1900s before we were forced to climb yet another mesa.
Now, this is where Todd's bit about overgrown trails comes into play.....the trail was basically non-existent.....part of this was because of the 2004 Willow Fire, but mostly due to the fact that this trail leads into one of the most remote parts of one of the most remote wilderness areas in the southwest. We struggled downhill eventually into a mess of a creek system. After much effort, we finally found where the trail picked up and climbed out of the waterway.
It was approaching 4pm at this point and we had no idea how far we had actually gone. Turns out not very far at all.....on top of this, the overgrown trail now became a trail on paper only. Three of us and the dog (who can usually find the trail before we can) spread out, scouting the hillside for over an hour. At 5pm, we had to call it a day.
Retreating back to the previous creek to make camp, we realized that there was no way we could complete the intended loop in the time we had. The next day, we returned to Dutchman's Spring for the night before heading home the following morning. Was the trip a wash? Maybe. But in reality, we knew this place could easily spank us. The remoteness and beauty of the desert is a reward in itself. I'd love to go back in the future with GPS coordinates and GPS unit in hand, plus and extra day to do what we thought would be a 3 day loop.
