CEDAR MESA

Cedar Mesa, Tonto National Forest.

Mogollon Rim seen from Forest Road 322

Cedar Mesa is the kind of place you just don’t stumble upon. The desolate, flattop spread resides at the end of a ridiculously undulating road at the base of the Mogollon Rim south of the community of Pine.  

Gate on Cedar Mesa

It takes effort to get to it but the payoff is a pleasant, uncrowded diversion from the old standard hikes in the area.

Milk Ranch Point, a prominent nose on the Mogollon Rim

The hike follows Forest Road 322 that begins at a dirt pullout along heavily-travelled Control Road (Forest Road 64) near where numerous trailheads and cliff-climbing routes provide connectivity with major travel corridors.

Hikers walk the rough road to Cedar Mesa

The road is an easy snare for curious hikers wondering where the heck it goes. Open to both motorized and foot travel alike, the rough dirt two-track in Tonto National Forest reveals its colors immediately with a steep ascent to a crest where visitors are treated to the first set of magnificent views and a welcome breath-catching moment.

The hike’s ubiquitous landform is the imposing rock jetty of Milk Ranch Point, that towers to over 7400 feet. Patches of vivid green foliage clinging to its escarpments expose the locations of Red Rock and Pine springs that serve as reliable water sources along Highline Trail which is part of the state-traversing Arizona Trail. From here, the climb continues on a milder slope, gradually exposing bigger and better vistas of the Mogollon Rim--a wall of uplifted rock that spans roughly 200 miles from New Mexico to the Sedona area.

Follow the fence line on Cedar Mesa to extend the hike

Although the difference between the hike’s high and low points is only 358 feet, the out-and-back route’s constant ups-and-downs adds up to more than 1000 feet of elevation change. As the road moves southeast through forests of cypress, pinion pine and a fringe of manzanita, the peaks of the Mazatzal Mountains appear as hazy purple mounds on the western horizon.

A baby horned lizard blends in with the local rocks.

At the 1.2-mile point, the route heads left at a 3-way junction where the road narrows as it descends through a rocky corridor fringed with scrub oak, Alligator junipers and a smattering of Ponderosa pines.

Mazatzal Mountains on the horizon

This is where the first good glimpses of the destination come into view---a low slung mesa fleeced in conifers with three quad-burning dips-and-climbs in between. From here, the Payson airport, a brush pit and the chiseled watershed of the East Verde River and its tributaries are visible to the south. Once over the last major hump, the trail emerges on Cedar Mesa proper, encountering a gate at the 2.6-mile point.

Hikers contemplate the undulating route.

The hike features beautiful Rim Country views

 Although the road disappears beyond the fence, it’s possible to extend the hike by exploring on the irregular-shaped mesa that’s just over a mile across.  Vegetation on the sparse, breezy plateau is a homogeneous labyrinth of junipers, so a good sense of direction or GPS skills are essential to avoid getting lost. An easy way to wander and stay found is to follow the barbed wire fence line that encloses the summit for more spectacular Rim views from a seldom-visited, hard-won platform.

The route has many ups and downs.

LENGTH:  5.2 miles roundtrip

RATING: moderate

ELEVATION: 5495 – 5853 feet (1183’of accumulated elevation change)

GETTING THERE:

From the junction of State Routes 87/260 in Payson, go 12 miles north on SR 87 to milepost 265 (2 miles north of Tonto Natural Bridge State Park), turn right on Control Road (Forest Road 64) and continue 0.8-mile to the parking pull out at Forest Road 322.   

MILK RANCH POINT

MILK RANCH POINT

Pine-Strawberry 

Highline Trail

Back in the 1880s, Rial Allen ran cattle along the East Verde River and operated a dairy on Milk Ranch Point. The Mormon settler, who was also a founder of the town of Pine, produced cheese, butter and milk for the locals and crews working on the Atlantic & Pacific railroad.

The Allen family left the area in 1891 and today, there’s nary a trace of the dairy that helped sustain waves of hardy pioneers who came to establish communities in the Tonto Basin.

Milk Ranch Point promontory, which hovers above the hamlets of Pine-Strawberry, is part of the Mogollon Rim, a 200-mile uplifted shelf that marks the division of the Colorado Plateau and Arizona’s Basin and Range zone. The imposing geological feature is a scaffold of pine and fossiliferous sediments squeezed into fractured vertical cliffs that rise to over 7000 feet.

There are two popular ways to get to the wind-ravaged peninsula---the hard way and the harder way.  With a vehicle robust enough to survive nasty forest roads, you can drive right up. Or, you can choose the harder option and make the 8-mile roundtrip hike that climbs nearly 2,000 feet.

Deers Ears bloom May - August

The hike begins at the Pine Trailhead on the Highline Trail #31 which is also part of the Arizona Trail. This easy, 1.5-mile segment passes through washes, juniper woodlands and damp forests of maple and oak as it makes a gradual ascent on a well-maintained trail. At the Donahue Trail #27 junction, the hike changes into a more aggressive climb on steep, yucca-fringed switchbacks. Over the remainder of the journey, a few scattered junipers and pines offer welcome shade on the trail’s exposed slopes. The route is tougher than it looks, so bring more water than you think you’ll need plus sun protection and energy snacks. The sweaty trek pays off with ever-improving views of  landscapes romanticized in the novels of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour.  On top, volcanic boulders tossed among tall pines and manzanita shrubs provide ample rest spots to take in views of a cabin-dotted valley below and layers of mountain profiles melting into the horizon.

Top of Milk Ranch Point

LENGTH: 8 miles roundtrip

RATING: difficult

ELEVATION:  5400’- 7332’

GETTING THERE:

Pine Trailhead (south)

From the intersection of State Routes 260/87 in Payson, go 15 miles north on SR 87 to the Pine trailhead on the right. The trail begins at the Arizona Trail gate and map kiosk.

Rim access (north)

From the Pine trailhead, continue north on SR 87 to Rim Road (Forest Road 300). Turn right and continue 1.3 miles to Forest Road 218, turn right and go 3.8 miles to the trailhead at the junction of FR218 and FR 9385R. A high-clearance or 4x4 vehicle is necessary and the and may be closed when wet or snowy.

INFO:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coconino/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=54970&actid=50