Hike of the Month

Hike Like of the Month

When you hike up Horton Creek, you enter an Eden tragically lost by an Arizona pioneer. Fittingly, Horton Creek today is somewhat invisible and that fact tends to keep away the crowds that congregate nearby. On weekends only a few find the delights of Horton, and on weekdays, a hiker might have the hidden haven all alone. And nowhere will the modern walker join the company of a more kindred spirit.

For as a teenage boy in 1863, L.J. Horton with his sickly dad walked all the way from his home in Michigan to the promised land of California. By 1881, Horton, then married and 33 years of age, drifted into Arizona to establish a freighting business. As early as 1882, he located a ranch 20 miles to the east of Payson, on a tributary of Tonto Creek. In the copious manuscripts Horton later left posterity, he described a lush refuge of grapevines and black walnuts, acres of wild irises and native vegetables, flowing milk and free honey and unflagging neighbors.

By 1887 Horton "was milking 31 head of cows. I had not sold a steer or cow. I had kept all of my five years' increase. My freighting business paid all the expenses." He took an inventory and counted 211 head of beef cattle on his range just before journeying south for a few months.

"I returned early in the spring... 1888, heavily loaded with supplies. My trail wagon was loaded with fruit trees and shrubbery to beautify my place. All looked the same except that I saw no cattle. Neither did I see any signs of cattle around the salt lick... I rode and searched the range for three months and failed to discover any cattle or any evidence. In July I gave my shrubbery to a neighbor.

"Once more in my life, like the blowing of a leaf, I am cast back with only the blind future to guide me. I never in all my wanderings had found a place that I learned to love so well."

Rustlers not only stole the cattle but robbed Horton of the ability to make a living as a rancher. He was forced to abandon his claim and go back to freighting.

To share Horton's loss vicariously, take Forest Service Route 289 one mile northward from its intersection with State Route 260 a bit east of Kohl's Ranch. The Horton Creek Trail, easy to moderate in difficulty, well-marked with signs, ranks as one of the more enjoyable of the Mogollon Rim country. From the trailhead at Upper Tonto Creek Campground to trail's end, the distance and

Text by Don Dedera

elevations are 3.4 miles from beginning (5,360 feet) to Horton Creek Springs (6,420 feet).

IN QUEST OF HORTON CREEK, LAND OF RUSTLERS AND BROKEN DREAMS

In the frontier days of Horton, his creek flowed aboveground to spill into Tonto. But early in this century, the creek apparently cut its way through limestone to disappear into caverns that likely feed springs along the bigger Tonto Creek. So the first half mile of hiking is past what appears to be an unpromising and barren dry wash.

But arriving at the water, you'll encounter verdant creek-side vegetation, vistas of the Tonto Basin, and picture-postcard waterfalls. By legend, lunker German brown trout still hide in pools improved during the 1930s by Civilian Conservation Corpsmen. Exactly where Horton built his cabin and corrals is unknown, but several meadows with rock ruins are possibilities.

This trail intersects with the Highline Trail and joins the steep, very difficult Horton Springs Trail another 1.4 miles to the top of the Rim. Whichever your choice, when you emerge from your journey to Horton's lost homestead, you'll fully appreciate a footnote he scribbled on his manuscript after having promised a prominent rancher in the area that he could have any remaining cattle he found.

"In 1891 I got a letter from Mr. [Jesse] Ellison saying, 'Horton, I do not believe you have any cattle here. I herewith enclose eight dollars for one old cow.' "That was all I got out of that five years' struggle."

Editor's Note: This hike was excerpted from Arizona's Mogollon Rim, an Arizona Highways book by Don Dedera, available for $8.50 plus shipping and handling. A new, companion hiking map costs $3.95 plus shipping and handling. There is a $2 savings if the book and map are purchased together for $10.45 plus shipping and handling. To order, telephone toll-free 1 (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area call 258-1000.

WHEN YOU GO

Getting there: Horton Creek (its mouth is a dry wash) joins flowing Tonto Creek on the east side of the narrow bridge about one mile north of Kohl's Ranch on the Tonto Fish Hatchery Road. Kohl's Ranch is a resort 15 miles east of Payson on State Route 260.

Where to stay: Overnight Forest Service campsites perch above Tonto Creek. Kohl's dates back more than a century as a comfortable stopover. Several alternative commercial lodgings and public campgrounds await at Christopher Creek, five miles east of Kohl's. Payson, today a mountain town of 8,000 catering to tourists, counts a score of motels and maybe 30 tummy-filling eateries ranging from fast-food to full-course.

What else to see and do in the area: The six-mile motor from Route 260 to the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery tours a transition from juniper-oak to ponderosa pine to fir-spruce zones along a storied waterway. Self-guided loops beckon visitors to one of Arizona's more efficient trout nurseries. Tonto Creek usually is fished with spinner and bait gear. Along Tonto Creek beckons Bird-watcher's Heaven: jays, nuthatches, flickers, warblers, and juncos.