Hiking down the Rim (day after Thanksgiving)

My mom and I did our annual day-after-Thanksgiving hike at a new place along the Mogollon Rim, the huge escarpment that bisects central Arizona east-west. We dropped off my car at the parking lot at the confluence of Horton and Tonto Creeks below the Rim, and had my dad drive us up in my parents' vehicle above the Rim to drop us off at the intersection of the Rim Rd. (FR 300) and FR 76. This forest road goes down the top of Promontory Butte, a large section that juts out from the Rim. On the drive over we had awesome views of fog and low clouds across the landscape below the Rim, stopping to take photographs at the Military Sinkhole overlook. For the hike we did not have a topo map, just a very simple USFS map of trails along the Rim. Supposedly, the Promontory Trail starts at the end of FR 76B and goes down to the Highline Trail, the east-west trail that traverses ~50 miles of foothills immediately below the Rim. Last year when we did a loop of Horton Creek, Highline, and Derrick trails we saw the lower trailhead for Promontory Butte along the Highline just west of the turnoff for the Derrick Trail. After walking the couple of miles down FR 76 and 76B, we reached the edge of the Rim, but did not see any signs or rock cairns marking the trailhead. We searched the edge of Promontory Butte ~1/4 mile east and west of where FR 76B petered out unsuccessfully.

Realizing we needed to get down somehow, we began looking for the easiest way to descend the steep dropoff of this escarpment. At first we had been eyeing a rocky chute near where the forest road ended, but as we were checking it out we started hearing some loud crashing around in the brush below this point by some animal(s). Based on how loud the noise was, we suspected it was either elk crashing through the vegetation or a bear knocking over rocks in search of food (later on in the day we found fairly fresh tracks of at least two bears, so there was a very good chance that what we heard were the bears). At the time thinking it a bad idea to take that route due to its steepness and the possibility of running straight into a bear, we went a little east of this point and found a much easier slope. The slope was by no means 'easy' to travel down though, as there were lots of spine-covered buckbrush (Ceanothus fendleri) shrubs, loose rocks and soil, and huge fallen logs to deal with. The going was slow and most of the way we had to slide down on our butts and heels to avoid toppling over given that we were top-heavy with full daypacks. We eventually found the Highline Trail and thought that the scenery looked familiar, and so naturally thought that we had come out between the Derrick and Horton Creek segments that we had seen last year. We thought that we would be able to get to Horton Springs and take the Horton Creek trail back to our car as we had originally intended. HOWEVER, we had come down on the Highline Trail much further east than we had thought and traveled a couple of miles before coming to the Derrick Trail at around 3:00pm. From this point it would be either 3 miles down the Derrick Trail to our car, or ~6 miles if we continued across to Horton Springs and took that trail back. Given that we had only a couple hours of daylight left and our knees already were aching from descending the Rim, we decided to take the Derrick Trail. We got to our car just before dusk and just as we were about to get in the car, we heard the single-double tap call notes of a Pacific Wren (formerly 'western' form of the Winter Wren) along the creek below the parking lot. We had hoped to find this bird had we made it across to Horton Spring, so it was fitting that this was to be our last bird of the day! Altogether we figured that we must have done at least 8 or 9 miles on the hike. A great way to work off the fat from Turkey Day! Pics from the hike below:

Views from Rim-overlook at Military Sinkhole vista:

Views of the start of FR 76 at the dropoff point:

Starting off we came across a small flock of birds, mostly containing Red-breasted Nuthatches:

Habitat throughout the hike varied from mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forest with some aspens above the Rim, to pine-evergreen oak forest and chaparral below the Rim. The slope of the Rim had lots of beargrass (Nolina microcarpa), Gambel oaks (Quercus gambelii), and Fendler's buckbrush (Ceanothus fendleri). The ungulates in the area must be happy with the choices for forage, since the understory of the forest here had really nice patches of Arizona fescue (Festuca arizonica). In the mixed conifer forest above the Rim along FR 76 we were amazed to see lots of southwestern white pines (Pinus strobiformis) among the firs and aspens:

More habitat views along FR 76 and 76B:

Despite the recent cold temperatures and snow that late fall has brought to the area, some flowers from summer are shouting "I ain't dead yet!", such as this aster (Machaeranthera sp.):

Cool hollowed-out Gambel oak:

The edge of Promontory Butte on the Mogollon Rim:

At the top edge of the Rim, we saw several evergreen oaks that I think might have been canyon live oaks (Quercus chrysolepis), although some oaks are hard to tell since they hybridize with each other and can show intermediate phenological characteristics of two species. The first photo might be a hybrid cross between Q. chrysolepis and Dunn/Palmer's oak (Q. dunnii, or Q. palmeri):

...and an oak I thought looked more like a Q. dunnii / Q. palmeri:

The 'easiest' way down (it's a lot more difficult than it appears):

Agave collecting pine cones:

Oak with hollow at base of it where it appears a small mammal has been stashing acorns:

Upon reaching the Highline Trail, we notice fairly fresh tracks of at least two black bears in the mud on the trail. Based on the size differential between the fore-paw prints that we saw, there was an adult and a young one. Here are shots of both the fore- and hind-paw prints, with my foot for size comparison:

The stretch of the Highline Trail we came out on after descending the Promontory Butte:

Bigtooth maples (Acer grandidentatum) in a drainage that the Highline Trail crosses:

Huge snag above the trail:

Fall colors of a geranium (Geranium sp.):

Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos sp.) along Highline and Derrick Trails:

wavyleaf oak (Quercus undulata, or Q. gambelii X turbinella)??:

Views from the Derrick Trail. The forest here has been thinned quite a bit in recent years in the effort to prevent high intensity fires, which is evident in some of the photos below:

Here is a recording of the Pacific Wren calling at the confluence of Horton and Tonto Creeks at the end of our hike. The call note of this species has been described as being tonally similar to that of a Wilson's Warbler, but delivered with single and double tap notes strung together: