HikeArizona.COM

I have been out to a place called Diamond Point. It's located off Highway 260 east of Payson. You turn at Tonto Village and follow the dirt road up to the top. There is a "trail" there that leads down to a cave, some pretty woods and it keeps going for I don't know how long.

What I want to know is is there a bona-fide trail here or is this just something boyscouts have bushwhacked? Anybody know?

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It was called boy scout cave, it was part of a land navagation exercise. Their is another location called boy scout cave that is actually a mine prospect. It has been mentioned in several hiking publications.

Although it may not look like it now I believe it's old jeep roads.

I'll look it up

I went up to Diamond Point years ago to check out Preacher Canyon below but I didn't explore the area. Darnit, guess I'll have to go back someday :P Looks interesting

here's the map of the area
http://hikearizona.com/t2002/pay/diamondpoint.jpg

Thanks for the info. I know it's a jeep road then it branches off to the trail that goes by the cave. I've hiked well beyond the cave and then eventually turned around because I was alone and didn't know the trail. Heaven forbid I get lost and have to fire off a flare and start a 100,000 acre forest fire.

As soon as it wets up, I think I'll go back for a look see.

Joe, what topo program do you have? Mine didn't show the cave, or the trail.

That's from TOPO!

Very good for detail as it is copies of the actual topo maps. However a pain in the bee hind if you are looking at several areas as there are 8 CDs for the state.

Seems like a friend of mine told me a few years ago that was a great area to find quartz crystals (hence the name "Diamond Point"). We were going to go up there sometime, but never did.

We just went up there yesterday (no joke!) We went in a standard pick up truck not lifted, roads are fine, my little passenger car could have made it up the look out road.
The 4X4 road down to the cave certainly requires a stronger car/jeep, LOTS of mud to romp through if we had a 4x4 though haha would have been fun.

also, at the fork in the road you can take your jeep down to the right toward the cave or park it and walk a few yards to the left (following a barbed wire thats flagged above your head) it leads you to a sinkhole. Supposedly this sink hole can be used to connect to the main cave, I don't know if this is true and would NOT recommend trying it but it is still a very neat area to check out.
I also wouldn't suggest climbing down into the sinkhole (like I did) I used some giant oak tree's roots to lower myself down and climb back out but the ground in the hole is very mushy and layered with needles and rotting wood and who knows what else...BE CAREFUL and BE SMART! Totally worth the trip ENJOY!

I take my old 74 Cherokee out there all the time, I've found hundreds of Crystals and fossils in that area, I've lived in or near Payson since 99

Uh, whoa, talk about a thread that came back from the dead!

What is your "point"???

Nothing - just surprised to see a 2002 thread resurrected.

That was an attempt to be a play on words.... since the thread was on diamond POINT....

Have hiked to cave and explored for about 6 hours spectacular pond/puddles and vary tight spaces to crawl through and lots of small stalactites very mudy an little bit cold