ARIZONA SCENIC ROADS
Sedona-Oak Creek Canyon Chamber of Commerce
(520) 282-7722 or 1-800-288-7336. <br>
Scenic
Roads in Arizona home page(slow to load)
photos of Apache Trail, including Gila: Phoenix & Central Arizona (Images 98-109 Gila but also Tonto, Globe, Queen Creek, Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Hewitt, which are farthr east.
photos of Red Rock Rd. images 80-85
photos of Oak Creek images 92-97
photos Dry Creek images 19-24
photos of Wickenberg & Joshua Forestimages 31-36
Red Rocks: Sedona Arizona & Oak Creek Canyon
SR 179 (Exit 298 off I-17) to Sedona 7.5 miles
Everywhere you look, it’s breathtaking beauty. At the base of Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona is a showcase of red rock mountain buttes.... Oak Creek meanders alongside Sedona ...The drive up Oak Creek Canyon is one of America’s Top 10 scenic drives. A winding climb from Sedona through Oak Creek Canyon offers striking panoramic views of the flowing creek and lushly green forest. ...
Visit the historical spots - you’ll discover cave dwellings of the Sinaqua Indians carved into the limestone cliffs above the Verde Valley. ... canoeing the Verde River through shallow rapids, past native wildlife to a first-hand look at prehistoric Indian ruins..
Tour of the historic “stage coach” route where you’ll enjoy the views along the old Mogollon rim. And if you have little fear of heights, enjoy the jeep tours [rugged cliffs of Sedona/Oak Creek] Maybe not!
Accomodations: downtown Sedona or along the banks of Oak Creek Canyon. Or quaint, secluded places in the forest or amid the towering red rock cliffs. ...
Wildflower Inn Rt 179 Oak Creek $84
Super 8 Motel Sedona $109
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Red Rock Scenic Road
by Kathleen Bryant
Red Rocks Scenic Road Sedona
State Route 179 (the Red Rock Scenic Road), offers a 15-mile grand welcome to Sedona’s Red Rock Country, ... southern edge of the Colorado Plateau, a vast upland extending around the Four Corners area of the Southwest. The southern edge of the plateau, the Mogollon Rim, forms the escarpments bordering the Sedona area to the north and east. Mingus Mountain marks the western horizon.
Route 179, North - traces one of the oldest routes... Just past Milepost 300, you’ll catch the first glimpse of blocky, reddish Courthouse Butte in the distance, Not far from there, ancient traders carried their wares over a trail linking the Gulf of Mexico to the Four Corners region.
In the late 1800s, soldiers from Fort Verde rode to this remote area to fish and relax, nicknaming it Camp Garden. Settlers trickled in during the 1880s, establishing farms and ranches along the creek. Their route became known as Beaverhead Road, a rocky wagon trail when a trip to Flagstaff took up to six days. Between Mileposts 301 and 302, stands the former site of Beaverhead Station, a stop along the stage route from Prescott to Santa Fe used during the 1870s.
Nearly a century later, in December 1961, a hundred people gathered to watch a “motorcade” of mules, cars and planes celebrate the opening of State Route 179, which linked Sedona to Phoenix via the Black Canyon Highway. (Interstate 17 wasn’t completed until 1978.)
Red Rock Scenic Road officially begins at Milepost 302 on route 179, as it crosses Dry Beaver Creek. Remnants of the old Beaverhead roadbed and its wooden bridge are visible off to the right. Like many “creeks” in Arizona, this one is a rocky wash except during spring runoff, when it carries snowmelt from the higher plateau. Its path is lined by tall cottonwood trees and white-trunked Arizona sycamores. These taller trees mark a semi-riparian pocket surrounded by mixed grassland and woodland.
At 3,500 to 7,000 feet in elevation, Red Rock Country climate is moderate but varies from creekside to canyon to slope, depending on orientation to the sun and rainfall amounts. Differences in terrain, elevation and soils result in different plant and animal communities. Along the roadside, spiky soaptree yucca, crucifixion thorn, grama grass and prickly pear cacti provide a good habitat for lizards, snakes and roadrunners. On higher slopes, grassland intermingles with piñon-juniper woodland, where round-shaped, one-seed juniper predominates.
Red Rock Country...more than 500 types of plants; 55 mammals; 180 birds; some 35 snakes, lizards and amphibians, etc. Their 160,000-acre red-rock home lies within Coconino National Forest’s 1.8 million acres.
Near Milepost 303, 179 is joined by Forest Service Road 120 (the Beaverhead Flat Road), a scenic drive west through rolling hills toward Page Springs and Cornville.
A couple miles farther north on 179, a pair of gravel pullouts on the right are good places to stop for a look at the red-rock panorama ahead. The brilliantly colored sandstone buttes, spires and cliffs were formed by a succession of ancient seas, deserts, rivers and lava flows beginning in the Paleozoic era. More than 200 million years ago, a river carrying debris from an ancient mountain range near the present-day Rocky Mountains created a large floodplain. The resulting Hermit formation of mudstone, sandstone and conglomerate makes up the “floor” of Red Rock Country. Nearby road cuts expose deep red Hermit shale.
Rising above the shale floor are buttes and spires carved from the Schnebly Hill formation, a 700-foot thick series of mudstone, sandstone and limestone. Once coastal sand dunes, these horizontal layers of red and orange have been shaped by water and wind... Coconino sandstone, formed from ancient windblown sand dunes, rises above the reddish layers in tilted stacks of buff and gold. ...it merges in places with the reddish Schnebly Hill formation layers below it, leaving a landscape striped and blended in marvelous hues.
The scenic road continues toward the village of Oak Creek, an unincorporated area included in Sedona’s estimated 15,000 population. This area [aka Big Park], was open rangeland [cattle] until the 1970s - provided the backdrop for movie Westerns, including The Rounders (1964), starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda as a pair of down-on-their luck cowboys.
Just past the first stoplight in Oak Creek, on the left is the South Gateway Visitor Center, operated jointly by the Forest Service and chamber of commerce... learn the latest about road conditions, fire danger, passes, permits and hiking trails.
This a hiker’s paradise -has trails from short strolls to rugged backcountry treks. A good starting point for a Sedona hike lies straight ahead, just past Milepost 307. Here, the Bell Rock Vista and Pathway parking area provides an information kiosk, a shady ramada, amazing views and trails that loop around Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock. Take plenty of water, sunscreen, a hat and a map or hiking guide.
According to the Yavapai Indians, whose ancestors began roaming the area six centuries ago, Sedona’s red rocks are the bodies and blood of huge monsters. Shaman and hero Skatakaamcha slew the monsters, including a giant bird that lived on a mountaintop (some say Bell Rock) and attacked those who passed below. Enlisting the aid of a dove, a mouse and other small creatures, Skatakaamcha enticed the giant bird into carrying him off to its nest. There, he was able to kill it and save the people from further harm.
Red Rock Scenic Road hugs Bell Rock’s broad base before continuing north. Locals call the upcoming stretch of road the Roller Coaster ...the safest way to enjoy the eye-popping scenery is to take advantage of the numerous pullouts. The long red and gold curtain of cliffs to the right (east) form Sedona’s “backbone,” a rugged peninsula separated from the Colorado Plateau by Jacks Canyon. The highest points, Lee and Munds mountains, top 6,500 feet. A large parking area on the right offers access to the Little Horse Trail and Bell Rock Pathway, along with excellent views back toward Courthouse Butte.
At Milepost 310, a sign marks the end of this scenic route, though the vistas continue as the highway travels north through residential areas and forests. At Chapel Road, a right turn leads up the hill to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, designed by sculptor Marguerite Staude. The chapel’s stark vertical lines seem to grow from the surrounding rock. Completed in 1956, it took 18 months to construct at a cost of ~$300,000. From the walkway curving up to the chapel’s entrance, you can see the 3 rock spires known as the Nuns and the Madonna and Child. The mirror-image peaks towering above are called Twin Buttes.
Back on rt 179, basalt-crowned 7,122-foot Wilson Mountain is directly ahead. Sedona’s tallest peak was covered by lava flows a mere 6 million years ago. To its left is the long green expanse of Tabletop, (aka Airport Mesa) . ..the cliffs on your right near Morgan Road... provided the backdrop for several scenes in the film "Broken Arrow" (1950), starring Jimmy Stewart. To make Sedona look more like southeast Arizona’s Apache country, wax saguaros were added to scenes. Today, the 2-mile Broken Arrow Trail is a favorite of mountain bikers and hikers [it parallels a popular 4-wheel-drive route to Chicken Point].
The Kings Ransom Motel that stands there today was built on a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp that housed 300 young men during the Depression. Later, when John Wayne decided to film Angel and the Badman (1946) in Sedona...the old CCC barracks were converted into a lodge and mess hall for cast and crew, and a soundstage was built... This is also the start of Sedona’s Gallery Row, where you’ll find many of Sedona’s 80-plus art galleries and shops.
At Schnebly Hill Road, 179 makes a sharp left onto Oak Creek Bridge. Nearby once stood the home of T.C. & Sedona Schnebly, a kindly woman whose name graces the community. Her door was always open to travelers heading for the Munds Road, a local wagon route to Flagstaff. The trip took several days ... Eventually, travelers began to refer to the Munds Road as the Schnebly Hill Road. Present-day Schnebly Hill Road winds up to the Mogollon Rim. The views are amazing, BUT the dirt road is primitive and rocky. Unless you have a high-clearance vehicle, it’s best to see this one with a hired tour or on foot via the Munds Wagon Trail, a 4-mile hiking trail that parallels the road.
On the other side of Oak Creek Bridge in Sedona is Tlaquepaque (Spanish colonial-style complex) with sycamore trees. Abe Miller completed the village in 1978, after seven years and several trips to Mexico... Tlaquepaque is home to 40 shops, restaurants and galleries, an oasis of gardens and fountains. Once Sedona town life centered around Hart’s Store (corner of Brewer & Ranger Rd.)
Today, Sedona’s major intersection lies a couple of blocks north (at 179 and State Route 89A). Used to be called "the Y" by locals giving directions.
To the right, State 89A passes through Uptown Sedona on the way to Oak Creek Canyon (Arizona’s first officially state-designated scenic byway). To the left, 89A leads through West Sedona to the scenic Dry Creek area (179 ends there)
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photos Apache Trail/Gila area in Arizona. Phoenix & central Arizona, see Images 98-109 in the set of photos.
Red Rock Rd. and Oak Creek images 80-85, 92-97
Dry Creek images 19-24
image 31-36 Wickenberg & Joshua Forest
Also we should see: Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
Dry Creek Scenic Road
by Kathleen Bryant
Dry Creek
Dry Creek Scenic Road, a 6.5-mile portion of State Route 89A from Cottonwood to Sedona, crosses the Verde Valley on its way to Red Rock Country ... The journey takes less than a half-hour nonstop, but plan on adding at least an hour or two for each side trip. After crossing the cottonwood-shaded Verde River, the highway climbs east. Look back for views of Cottonwood, Clarkdale and Jerome, which clings to the side of Mingus Mountain. ...Side trips possible to Red Rock State Park, Cathedral Rock, Courthouse Rock and the back country.
scenic roads main page
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Apache Trail Historic Road
by Peter Aleshire
From Apache Junction to Roosevelt Lake -- Salt River route, with alot of it is rough, esp. beyond Fish Creek unpaved roads and beyond Roosevelt Lake, road goes E/SE tp Globe
The entire Apache Trail is 42 miles long [desert splendor, hairpins and descends to sparkling relief, along the way revealing the damp secret to millennia of Sonoran Desert survival].
State Route 88 offers a bumpy, back-door/Salt River route from Apache Junction, on the eastern outskirts of Phoenix, to Theodore Roosevelt Lake. From there, you can go on to the mining town of Globe.
The paved portion of the Apache Trail [up to mile post 220] leads past a ghost town, a gold mine, past Lost Dutchman State Park and after that, a winding road climbs into the Superstion Mts, where you can catch a view of Weavers Needle, then on to Canyon Lake (overlook milepost 208) and Tortilla Flat and then, towards Fish Creek.
The second half of the drive, on a hair-raising, wash-boarded dirt road, leads through the Sonoran Desert uplands then a roller-coaster descent to a robber’s refuge, past a lazy lake, through a river canyon and to the dam that fuels modern Phoenix. Patient drivers with no fear of heights are rewarded with 3 spectacular desert lakes and ...
The unpaved section of the trail provides magnificent views of twisted igneous mountains with dense forests of saguaro [and ferocactus?],yuccas - with several deep blue lakes along the way. Fish Creek Canyon is perhaps the most awe-inspiring section. The road hangs on the side of this high-walled canyon and winds its way along tremendous precipices that sink sheer for hundreds of feet below. Oops.
The road, completed in 1905 along the previous Tonto Trail to aid the construction of Roosevelt Dam, offers adventurers a fascinating route up the jagged course of the Salt River. The river first nourished a thousand years of Salado civilization... early Phoenix farmers pressed the federal government to build the dam that launched the "replumbing" of the West.
The journey starts in Apache Junction, on State Route 60 at the Apache Trail turnoff (State 88, also called Idaho Road). State 88 hurries through the outskirts of Apache Junction (retirement community and new subdivisions) nestled against the Superstitions Mountains. At Apache Junction, before the paved road climbs into the volcanic contortions of the Superstition Mountains, the route leads past the touristy ghost town of Goldfield [1890s 5000 people, $1.5 billion in bullion, flooded, played out by 1897] and then to the rugged Lost Dutchman State Park. The town revived a few years ago as a tourist attraction ...The Mammoth Steakhouse and Saloon caters to visitors, actors stage weekend gunfights and mine tours offer a whiff of the life of a hardscrabble miner.
Just past Goldfield lies the Mining Camp Restaurant. Take the marked turnoff and follow the dipping, swooping road up to the base of the Superstition Mountain. For a flat price, ... all the ribs, chicken, beans and cactus jelly you can eat. On Friday and Saturday evenings, a strolling singer provides additional Western flavor.
Five miles north of Apache Junction on the Apache Trail lies the small but scenic Lost Dutchman State Park ...picnic sites, miles of hiking trails into the rugged Superstition Wilderness. After a wet winter, the western slope of the Superstitions provides some of the most spectacular wildflower blooms in Arizona... the jagged slopes forged by an outpouring of lava and ash some 15 to 30 million years ago ...
The state park has... a variety of easy to moderate hiking trails, some of which connect to the more rigorous, rugged wilderness area. ..The Spanish dreams of empire shattered against these thousand-foot volcanic cliffs. The Peralta family of northern Mexico supposedly operated a gold mine in the range before attacks by Apaches drove them out.
But the most famous denizen of the Superstitions remains Jacob Waltz, the “Lost Dutchman.” Waltz worked for a time in the Vulture Mine near Wickenburg in the 1870s. He then wandered into the Superstition mts... he and his partner Jacob Weiser emerged from the mountains with nuggets and vague hints of a secret mine – although the volcanic terrain made the tale unlikely. .. Many followed him into the mountains seeking his treasure... He supposedly left a deathbed map suggesting the mine lay in the shadow of Weavers Needle, the volcanic peak in the heart of the Superstitions.
After leaving the turnoff to the Lost Dutchman State Park, the winding, paved road climbs into the Superstition Mts., with one stretch offering an excellent view of the top of Weavers Needle. After a stint of zigging, zagging, oohing and ahhing, the road delivers the explorer to Canyon Lake (stop at the overlook – Milepost 208),
One of four reservoirs along the Salt River, the Canyon Lake has a marina with rental boats - the best method of exploring the lake. Avoid summer weekends. Try a steamboat ride.. broad stretch of lake near the marina (Milepost 210), then, winds up in the river canyon that runs for miles upstream. ..fishing...The upper stretches offer some camping spots and cliff-side inlets. The upper lake also hides Skeleton Cave, the site of a grim battle in 1872. There, a cavalry patrol surprised and trapped a band of Yavapai Indians during the infamous Tonto Basin War.
...the Yavapais resisted fiercely. But they were nearly all killed when the soldiers bounced bullets off the cave roof and rolled boulders down onto the cave entrance from the cliff above. The skeletons of the Indians killed in Skeleton Cave lay unburied for decades...until the Yavapai tribe (of Verde Valley) reburied them.... the cave remains unmarked.
Just beyond Canyon Lake, the road runs past Tortilla Flat (Milepost 213), once a town of 120 when crews were building Roosevelt Dam, now only 6 people... has a campground, restaurant with gift shop and a country store with ice cream parlor. ....The store sits alongside Tortilla Flat Creek, which in 1942 flooded and destroyed all the buildings on the north side of the road.
The road climbs up onto a high, canyon-edged plateau, graced by yucca, ocotillo and saguaro cacti. Hot in summer, but in winter, springtime or at sunset, it seems magical.
The pavement ends (Milepost 220) and the well-maintained and graded dirt road begins. A 4-wheel-drive vehicle is recommended for the rest of the drive, but passenger cars driven very carefully can make it. At Milepost 222, the road takes a sharp turn into a white-knuckle adventure, with the steep, one-lane descent down Fish Creek Hill.... [don't go there]
Tonto National Monument is quite a ways beyond Fish Creek... It's a well-preserved Sinagua Indian cliff dwelling, looking down on Lake Roosevelt. You can walk around the inside of this two-story ruin. There is a visitors center and picnic area with lake views. A trail leads to the ruins. The work on Roosevelt Dam had one unintended fringe benefit ... it lowered the level of Roosevelt Lake during the project, and Arizona State Univ. archaeologists found a huge complex of buildings forSalado farmers who irrigated with canals. But, the indians had moved on in the 1400s ...
Gila-Pinal Scenic Road
by Peter Aleshire
gila-pinal scenic road
The scenic byway stretch of U.S. Route 60, known as the Gila-Pinal Scenic Road, runs between Phoenix and Globe. It's an easy drive along the flanks of the Superstition Mountains and into the silver- and copper-rich mountains around Globe. Here, volcanoes raged, civilizations withered, Apaches raided, the Dutchman skulked, prospectors plundered, schemers profited, and through it all settlers built homes, raised families and moved the territory toward statehood.
The drive connects to hiking trails, treasure hunts, a thorned Eden, a massive mine and spectacular scenery... It begins on U.S. 60 heading east from Apache Junction and runs along the edge of the Superstition Mountains, a contortion of stone and myth. The Peralta Trail, a good dirt road heading north off 60 about 8.5 miles east of Apache Junction, offers a door to the Superstitions. The bumpy dirt road winds another 8 miles to the Peralta Trailhead.
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Joshua Forest Scenic Road (Wikieup to Wickenburg)
by Noah Aleshire
Joshua Forest Scenic Rd. from Wickenberg north-east
This road goes for 54 miles along U.S. Route 93 northwest of Phoenix [it begins just beyond where route 71 crosses route 93]... running between the historic mining town of Wickenburg and the tiny town of Wikieup, the Joshua Forest Scenic Parkway crosses the blurred boundary between the Sonoran and Mojave deserts in western Arizona. Hardy creosote carpets the desert, while ocotillos thrust their straight barbed arms to the sky like a spring of thorns, frozen in midair. Saguaro cacti, the signature plant of the Sonoran Desert, thrive at the beginning and end of the drive, and great cliffs and canyons loom to the east and west. This scenic parkway is a part of the winding and hilly route between Phoenix and Las Vegas ....
At the heart of the parkway stands one of only three Joshua tree forests in the state. Joshua trees are to the Mojave Desert what saguaros are to the Sonoran – huge, perfectly adapted endemic plants that live nowhere else in the world. On this route visitors can see saguaros standing next to Joshua trees, the breathtaking union of two harsh, lovely deserts. When driving through the Joshua forests, remember that these plants aren’t trees but yuccas [which are members of the lily family]. They endure temperatures between 30 and 125 degrees, thriving with little rainfall, living for as long as 300 years; these giant lilies seem to have little in common with other members of their family, abandoning the grace and fragility of lilies for resiliency.
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