BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

Beaver Creek Country
THE MORE ONE-LANE bridges you encounter in the backcountry, the more fun you’ll have. I’ve developed this theory over years of dirt-road travel, and it’s foolproof. A one-lane bridge means you’re in the middle of nowhere — the best place to be. It also means water and stories of days gone by.

Beaver Creek country northeast of Camp Verde offers all three, along with great hiking, visits to ancient Indian sites, a historic dude ranch and a picturesque country boarding school. Best of all, you can make these side trips without logging any extra miles, and you can do the entire road trip in a passenger vehicle.

To begin, drive 6 miles north of Camp Verde on Interstate 17 to the McGuireville exit and turn right onto Beaver Creek Road. This paved road winds through rural Rimrock, where horses populate front yards and haystacks compete for space with SUVs.
 

After 4.2 miles, turn right into the Montezuma Well section of Montezuma Castle National Monument. While not as dramatic as the castle itself, which sits a few miles south, this site is worth a look for its mystery and beauty.

Getting there requires a short uphill hike on a paved trail that offers dramatic views of the surrounding country. The well itself is dramatic, too — a 368-foot-wide natural limestone sink with cliff dwellings built into its side.

Ancient Indians, known as the Southern Sinagua, formed a thriving community here, beginning about a.d. 900. The well provided them something precious in the upper Sonoran Desert — an endless supply of water that still flows through the sink at a rate of more than 1.5 mil-lion gallons a day.

Its source? Scientists have no idea, but the sound you hear is most definitely Mother Nature chuckling as she keeps her glories beyond us.
 

While you’re there, be sure to hike the hill’s back side down to Wet Beaver Creek. It’s a short walk to a wonderful spot, shaded by sycamore and ash trees, and hidden beneath hanging boulders — the water spills off with all of gravity’s force from the sink down into the creek.

After leaving Montezuma Well, turn right onto Forest Service Road 119 and drive less than 3 miles to its intersection with Forest Service Road 618A. Turn right and follow the paved road past three popular hiking trails — Bell, White Mesa and Apache Maid — and Beaver Creek Campground. After 2.5 miles — crossing three one-lane bridges — FR 618A ends at a modified T-intersection with Forest Service Road 618.

From there, turn left toward Southwestern Academy, which is the last thing you’d expect to see in the middle of the Coconino National Forest. But there it is, a private high school of 27 buildings on 180 acres homesteaded under a grant from Theodore Roosevelt. In the 1920s, it became a swank hunting getaway for Andrew Mellon, the Pennsylvania industrialist who made one of America’s great fortunes in banking, iron and steel. In the early 1960s, it became a school.
 

Because it’s private property, the staff asks that those interested in visiting call at least a day in advance to arrange a tour. The beauty of the campus makes it a worthwhile diversion.

The school sits in a canyon called the Valley of the Sun, its western border shaded by high cliffs dotted with ancient hunting caves. Beaver Creek, one of Arizona’s last remaining perennial streams, trickles through the canyon. Stone from its banks was used to construct the school’s rustic, lodge-style buildings, some with timbered ceilings and chandeliers, and magnificent stone fireplaces.

The 1.3-mile-long road from the intersection to the school has two pullouts. I stopped at one and hiked down to Beaver Creek. The water flowed hard over the rocks, but not hard enough to cover them all.
 

Back at the start of FR 618, follow the signs to the V-Bar-V Heritage Site. Accessible after a half-mile hike, it consists of a sheltered rock wall containing more than 1,330 individual petroglyphs — etchings depicting everything from snakes and bear paws to walking, humanlike figures with backpacks. Archaeologists consider it among Arizona’s best rock-art sites, and some believe it served as a solar calendar for the Southern Sinagua who made it.

I met Ken Zoll there. A Forest Service volunteer, he’s been testing the calendar theory by taking photographs on the 21st of every month to record how the sun and the shadow lines frame the wall’s images. Researchers believe these images marked time by telling the ancients when to plant, for example, or when to conduct a religious ceremony.

Zoll, a Chicago retiree, delights in informing visitors about this evocative place. “When you explain all this to people, you can see their appreciation level rise for those who created it,” he says. “These were sophisticated, intelligent people.”
 

Back on the road, follow 618 south 4 miles to M Diamond Ranch, a working cattle operation that also offers trail rides, cattle drives and rodeos. Most guests come from Sedona, less than an hour away, and owner Peggy Ingham says that brings some genuine dudes, many unable to tell a horse from a load of wood. Her cowboys work hard to give them an experience that’s as authentic as possible, without making it dangerous.

More than a hundred years old, the M Diamond still looks down-in-the-dirt genuine. Its headquarters, an old stone home, stand on a scrub hill above the horse corrals that greet customers at the driveway’s end.

Ingham and her husband bought the place in 1999, and she pauses before describing the adjustment from Scotts-dale. “Let me put it this way,” she says. “If you like manicures, you won’t like it here. But we wanted our grandkids to know things other than suburbia, such as where their food comes from, and the importance of open spaces.”
 

From the M Diamond, drive 7.2 miles south on 618 to its intersection with State Route 260, 5 miles southeast of Camp Verde. This pretty stretch of corduroy road offers long views of flat-topped mesas and dark hills that bulge to the sky under dazzling afternoon light.

The adventurous might try a side trip on Forest Service Road 215 into West Clear Creek Canyon. Rougher and rockier than 618, this road plunges into a deep defile sheltered by tall mountains and soaring cliffs. The creek runs between these giants, decorating its bank-side trees with the best of fall’s reds, oranges and yellows. The Bull Pen Campground sits at the bottom, 3.1 miles down the road, where some fine hiking trails begin.

Including side jaunts, I drove about 32 miles on this trip, and crossed at least seven one-lane bridges. It reminded me of the late Arizona writer Sister Eulalia Bourne, who taught school in this captivating country. She wrote, “If you’re looking for a good time, or it’s health you seek, or peace and sweet contentment, just come to Beaver Creek.”

ADDITIONAL READING: For more adventure, pick up a copy of our book Arizona Highways Scenic Drives, which features 40 of the state's most beautiful back roads. To order, visit www.shoparizonahighways.com/100scenicdrives .
 

Tour Guide
Note: Mileages are approximate. 

Directions: Traveling north on Interstate 17 from Camp Verde, take the McGuireville exit (Exit 293) toward Montezuma Castle National Monument on East Beaver Creek Road. Drive 4.2 miles on East Beaver Creek Road through the towns of McGuireville and Rimrock to the entrance of Montezuma Well. At this point the pavement ends, and the road becomes Forest Service Road 119. Drive 3 miles to the intersection with Forest Service Road 618. Turn right onto FR 618 (paved road) and go past the parking area for three hiking trails — the White Mesa, Bell and Apache Maid trails — to the entrance of the V-Bar-V Heritage Site, which is 1.9 miles. There is a modified T-intersection at this point with a small desert island in the middle. Turn right to go into the V-Bar-V Heritage Site. To visit the Southwestern Academy, turn left and travel 1.3 miles to the campus. From the campus, backtrack and return the same way. From the V-Bar-V intersection, travel south on FR 618 for 3.8 miles to the entrance of the M Diamond Ranch. From that entrance, continue south for another 7.2 miles to State Route 260 and Camp Verde.

Vehicle Requirements:  High-clearance.

Warning: Back-road travel can be hazardous, so beware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of water. Don’t travel alone, and let someone know where you’re going and when you plan to return. 

Information: Coconino National Forest, 928-282-4119 or www.fs.usda.gov/coconino ; Montezuma Castle National Monument and Montezuma Well, 928-567-3322 or nps.gov/archive/moca; Southwestern Academy, 928-567-4581 or southwesternacademy.edu; M Diamond Ranch, 928-592-0148 or mdiamondranch.com.
The V-Bar-V Heritage Site is open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Friday through Monday; admission is $5.

Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial 511 to get information on road closures, construction, delays, weather and more.