crawler#976
Expedition Leader
From Chino Valley, AZ, I headed north approx 14 miles on Hyw 89 to a right turn onto FS Road 4. It's a typical mesa top road - nuthin but rocks when dry, bottomless mud when wet. While on FS 4 I stopped to admire upper Hell Canyon - one of the major obstacles to travel in the early days. It forms a huge U shaped series of canyons that eventually joins the Verde River east of Paulden, AZ.
Topographical Hill is easily seen from FS 4 - at one point it's less than 2 miles away, but can't be reached by vehicle due to another small canyon. Once FS 4 meets the Bill Williams Loop road, it's only a 1/4 mile to the first road on the left. It leads into a pretty good-sized chunk of private property and is gated onto and out of it. Shortly after leaving the private property I came across a very large group of Elk - I estimated it to have well over 50 animals in it. Unfortunately my little digital doesn't do very well on distance photos...
Once near Nagiller Tank the hills become easily identified from the research done by: http://www.southwestexplorations.com/topohill.htm
Since I was by myself I chose not to undertake the longer hike (for me a half mile is a killer on bad knees) so I drove up to the saddle of the hill south of the camp. It afforded me a great overview of the area. From the saddle I could see on the horizon where Whipple camped on 17 Jan near Walnut Creek, AZ. It's astounding to me to think I could have left where I was and driven to that location via I-40 and Williamson Valley road south of Seligman AZ that afternoon...
On the way up the hill I found a rare example of an Arizona Wool Tree in full winter bloom. Someday these plants will be grown and harvested like sheep.
After leaving the camp, I headed east on the Bill Williams Loop road to one of the few natural lakes in AZ. Coleman Lake is at 7200' and had only a small amount of snow on the ground considering this time of year it's usually well over a foot deep. I then returned via Perkinsville road after a total trip of 108 miles in 9 hours. Made for a great day!
Mark
Topographical Hill is easily seen from FS 4 - at one point it's less than 2 miles away, but can't be reached by vehicle due to another small canyon. Once FS 4 meets the Bill Williams Loop road, it's only a 1/4 mile to the first road on the left. It leads into a pretty good-sized chunk of private property and is gated onto and out of it. Shortly after leaving the private property I came across a very large group of Elk - I estimated it to have well over 50 animals in it. Unfortunately my little digital doesn't do very well on distance photos...
Once near Nagiller Tank the hills become easily identified from the research done by: http://www.southwestexplorations.com/topohill.htm
Since I was by myself I chose not to undertake the longer hike (for me a half mile is a killer on bad knees) so I drove up to the saddle of the hill south of the camp. It afforded me a great overview of the area. From the saddle I could see on the horizon where Whipple camped on 17 Jan near Walnut Creek, AZ. It's astounding to me to think I could have left where I was and driven to that location via I-40 and Williamson Valley road south of Seligman AZ that afternoon...
On the way up the hill I found a rare example of an Arizona Wool Tree in full winter bloom. Someday these plants will be grown and harvested like sheep.
After leaving the camp, I headed east on the Bill Williams Loop road to one of the few natural lakes in AZ. Coleman Lake is at 7200' and had only a small amount of snow on the ground considering this time of year it's usually well over a foot deep. I then returned via Perkinsville road after a total trip of 108 miles in 9 hours. Made for a great day!
Mark
