Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek • Car Camp Trip • Arizona • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

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May 15 2015

Grasshopper

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Hamilton Crossing Trail #45 - Coconino NF

Payson, AZ

Hamilton Crossing Trail #45 - Coconino NF

Payson, AZ

Hiking		May 15 2015
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	4.90 Miles	774 AEG

Hiking	4.90 Miles	4 Hrs 50 Mns	1.28 mph
	774 ft AEG	1 Hour Break

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Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

Hamilton Crossing Trail #623 - Sitgreaves NF

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Oregon_Hiker

Oregon Hiker and I needed to come up with a few additional hikes to justify our recent 5/13 to 5/17 (4 night/5 day) vehicle camping and hike exploration trip to this northern section of Coconino NF off the east side of Hwy 87 north, approx 30 miles south of Winslow, AZ.

Using our valuable HAZ- TrailDEX, we found this Hamilton Crossing Trail #45 on HAZ with yet to be posted activity :-k

Being only a few slow driving miles from our planned Camp G/H, we added it to our planned agenda mainly since it allowed for a supposed trail access into the bottom of East Clear Creek Canyon Drainage which we had hoped to access.

Little did we know that this trail was a hidden gem with very scenic and wooded trail access into a very lush, riparian, and possibly perennial section of ECC. I rated this one a 4 of 5 and adding the additional value of it entering ECC close to the historic Hamilton Crossing at Coconino NF & Sitgreaves NF Pack Route TR 623 connection, it was a winner in my book :DANCE:

I enjoyed this trail enough to take the time to send the Coconino NF- Blue Ridge Ranger District an email to say :thanx:

and I later received a nice acknowledgment back from their trail planning staff

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] East Clear Creek Hamilton Crossing

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

1 archive

May 14 2015

Oregon_Hiker

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Hike to ECC Peak 6327, AZ

Hiking		May 14 2015
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	1.00 Miles

Hiking	1.00 Miles

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Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

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Grasshopper

GH planned this hike as a filler for a slow day during our 4 night car camping trip to this area. I didn't thoroughly check it out on a map before going but thought scoring a peak would be a nice addition to the hikes planned for this trip. It turns out that there are few real peaks on this vast plateau and just because the topo map shows an altitude number next to an x doesn't necessarily mean it's a peak. So I call this "GH's Hike to a Peak That's Not a Peak".

Actually, the purpose of the hike was to get some views down into East Clear Creek Canyon and to check out a rocky point that looked like a possible location for Indian ruins. Checking out an old historic ranch cabin site and a rancher's method for filling his stock tanks on our drive to the hike location was a bonus. When I say "stock tanks", I mean actual metal tanks taken from old railroad tank cars. I have no idea how these huge tanks were trucked to their current locations over the rough 4x4 roads but we saw them scattered for some distance all over this plateau. Even more puzzling was how these tanks got filled with water. We were at least able to solve that puzzle - see the photo set.

We drove from camp to the hike location in GH's Jeep and as we started down the final spur road, FR9710B*, the narrow dirt track soon disappeared but GH kept going. Unknown to me was that the GPS, which GH always keeps a close eye on while driving, showed the road going all the way to the top of Peak 6327. Finally after deciding that we couldn't really call it a peak hike if we drove all the way to the "top", GH parked the Jeep and we walked the short remaining distance. We were rewarded for our "efforts" with some great views into the canyon but saw no sign of Indian ruins.

*It should be noted that FR9710B is shown as a "road open to all vehicles" on the 2015 Coconino Motor Vehicle Use Map.

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Common Raven

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1 archive

May 14 2015

Grasshopper

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

East Clear Creek Views via Peak 6327ft, AZ

Hiking		May 14 2015
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Hiking	0.90 Miles	92 AEG

Hiking	0.90 Miles	45 Mns	1.80 mph
	92 ft AEG	15 Mns Break

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Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

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Oregon_Hiker

The access road FR9710B and Peak 6327ft that were not, but with nice views into ECC Canyon

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Indian Paintbrush

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Water Well

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] East Clear Creek

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

1 archive

May 13 2015

Oregon_Hiker

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

Payson, AZ

Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

Payson, AZ

Car Camping		May 13 2015
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Car Camping	5.40 Miles	15 AEG

Car Camping	5.40 Miles	4 Days
	15 ft AEG

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Grasshopper

GH and I headed to the San Francisco Plateau 30 miles south of Winslow for a four night campout. The plan was to use the camp as a base for day hikes we had planned in the area. The camp location was at a convenient cross roads about halfway between HW87 and East Clear Creek Canyon. The dirt road leading to the campsite was mostly level with only a couple of short hill climbs that were rocky enough to require good ground clearance but could probably be handled with 2-wheel drive when the road is dry. The wind was howling across the flat plateau as we pulled up to the planned campsite. There wasn't much protection from the wind except for some clusters of Junipers. We nestled our camp close behind/in the lee side of some Junipers counting on the wind continuing to blow in the same direction over the next four days, which it did. I took a short exploration hike around camp but didn't find much of interest except the long views across the vast plateau. Some of the largest Jack Rabbits I have ever seen were wandering around near camp on that first afternoon. The largest looked as big as a medium size dog (Blanco) and one had light blond hair - maybe an albino? Unfortunately I never got a picture of them.

We had a couple of good weather days for hiking but then got hit by heavy rain followed by a light snow fall on the third night. The roads got muddy but I had no problem driving over to check out Jack's Canyon on that day while GH stayed in camp getting his stuff dried out. Some rock climbers had fun driving in the mud into the Jacks Canyon campsite. A Ford Fusion sedan had gotten mired in the mud and somehow got pushed on to a dry high spot and abandoned. In another location a vehicle had gotten stuck up to the frame in mud when the driver ventured a little too far off the side of the road to avoid a mud puddle. They had dug it out and made it to the campsite.

While driving a short section of HW87 after leaving Jacks Canyon I saw a sign saying 21 miles to Winslow. I'd never been there so decided to go for a look and get some gas. Not much there of interest except the corner made famous by the Eagle's song, "Take It Easy" released in May, 1972. Unfortunately I couldn't get that song, or at least the few lines about Winslow, out of my head on this entire trip. Kept looking for the girl in a flat bed Ford with no luck until Sunday while doing some 4x4 exploring east of camp. Except this girl was riding in a 4x4 crew cab Dodge pickup that had stopped so she could get out and open a gate. She saw me coming up the road a quarter mile away and motioned me on while she held the gate open. Not wanting to ignore such a benevolent act and perhaps a little distracted by those tight cowgirl jeans, I drove past my planned turnoff before the gate, got a nice smile from the girl when I thanked her and then sailed on down the road with the words of that song running through my head. Went about 2 miles down that road in my oblivious state of mind before realizing I had missed the turn off before the gate.

Despite the one night of bad weather it turned out to be another successful outing to a new Camp GH location. We found some cool Indian ruins, climbed a peak that wasn't a peak, explored the Hamilton Crossing Trail into the bottom of East Clear Creek Canyon,and saw lots of awesome scenery on this high desert plateau.

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Cadastral Survey Marker

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] San Francisco Mountains - Kachina Peaks Wilderness

_____________________

May 13 2015

Grasshopper

Guides 48
Routes 510
Photos 9,555
Triplogs 578

79 male

Joined Dec 28 2006
Scottsdale, AZ

Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

Payson, AZ

Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek

Payson, AZ

Car Camping		May 13 2015
		Grasshopper • Triplogs 578

Car Camping	5.40 Miles

Car Camping	5.40 Miles	5 Days

Linked

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Hamilton Crossing Trail #45 - Coconino NF

Partners

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Oregon_Hiker

This trip was a few months in the planning to a new (for me) area south of Winslow, AZ, off Hwy 87 that I was totally unfamiliar. I have made numerous trips over the past years to our Mogollon Rim area off Rim Road FR300 to vehicle camp and day hike-explore for summer and early autumn visits, but never north on Hwy 87 past the Coconino NF- Blue Ridge Ranger Station at FR95.

With some valuable tips and advise from HAZ-ssk44, Oregon Hiker and I spent a considerable amount of time reviewing Google Earth, HAZ-TrailDEX Topo/Satellite Maps, and drawing up various drive and mostly "off-trail" hike plan options on HAZ-Route Manager to justify this five day trip (2 days driving with 3 full days to explore) to this interesting, higher elevation vast plateau area labeled on some maps as the San Francisco Plateau.

After deciding on our three days of planned day hike exploration areas, we settled on this "Camp Grasshopper - Hwy 87 No- East Clear Creek" location centrally located within the Coconino NF boundary, 5.4 miles in on the east side of Hwy 87 at 6385ft elevation. It always take me a few nonstop hours to setup my Camp Grasshopper and doing so at a new location is always more interesting

I'm happy to say that this new campsite location is a solid contender for others to consider and the grouping of fairly large and numerous Juniper trees provides a nice wind break which is often needed camping in this higher elevation plateau area of Coconino National Forest.

It should also be noted that this campsite location is .40 miles from a historic ranching homestead with now abandoned outbuildings (possibly "Red Hill Ranch"?) with an active ranching water well that is not run by an historic windmill but rather by a huge diesel generator.. [ photo ] that ran continuously for 24 hours a day for our 5 day stay. I mention this because when the wind blows in the direction of this G/H Campsite area, you will hear the distant hum of this pump generator.. not that annoying for our five day stay, but next might be introduced the ranging cattle herds

(we saw no recent signs of active cattle this stay).

In Summary (quoted from Oregon Hiker's triplog and I agree):

Despite having one night of bad weather it turned out to be another successful outing to a new Camp GH location. We found some cool Indian ruins, climbed a peak that wasn't a peak, explored the Hamilton Crossing Trail #45 into the bottom of East Clear Creek Canyon, and saw lots of awesome scenery on this high desert plateau.

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Campsite HAZ Food

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] San Francisco Mountains - Kachina Peaks Wilderness

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Rainbow Snow

_____________________

(Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!")

2 archives

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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