Never having been familiar with a compass or GPS, I prefer saying “right or left” instead of “north or south”. When I pre-hiked this trail in mid-August I had no GPS guiding me. I used the instruction from the book Day Hikes and Trail Rides in Payson’s Rim Country by Roger and Ethel Freeman. This instruction is very helpful for me in step by step: turn right or left.

The trailhead is across from the Tonto Creek Hatchery and it is easy to see with a sign. The first half mile is a relatively easy walk through tall grass; however, we have to look out for fallen branches and small stones under the grass.

Eventually, the cool grass parts and the real climb begins.

The trail is easy to follow and marked by different sizes of cairns.

What a trail: short and steep, ascending 1400' in about 2 miles. The panoramic views are excellent along the way and make us eager to hike on up to see more.

Hiking down from the Rim top, the trail becomes much less developed. We have to watch carefully the cairns along the path to FR300.

At 10:40 AM we reach the place where the trail exits onto FR300 and continues into the Coconino National Forest by the Baby Haught Trail #98. Bill and Jim asked me if I’ve been on that trail. I told them that I did not continue on past the forest road on my last pre-hike, but I have read that there is a nice lake at the trail’s end in within about 1.5 miles.

Bill sees a babe in the woods.

First of all, the trail is flat and well marked with cairns, marked-tree sign and ribbons. Unfortunately, the marked-tree is discontinued and there are no more cairns after about a mile. We made the wrong turn to animal path that we think is the right trail.

We go back to the trail with the last cairn and find a cairn uphill. No matter how hard it is to climb straight up, we want to see the lake.

Bill looked up his GPS map and told us it’s 2-3 miles to the lake. Eileen looked at her GPS and showed us the blue-color-lake just around the corner. We keep hiking about 15 minutes along the road and end up the canyon. OK, final decision: we’re going back. We hike back the way we came. The trail was covered with loose stones, rocks making it quite easy to slip, slide. We went down at a slow pace to prevent injury or sliding down the mountain.

Late blooming wildflowers:

Colorful inedible mushrooms:

We stop at Buffalo Bar and Grill for refreshment before we head home.

Thank you all for your support on my second time in leading the hike. Happy Trails to all.