HIKE OF THE MONTH

hike of the month Dripping Springs Offers an Easy Day-hike Destination Beneath the Mogollon Rim

On a glorious summer day beneath the rocky brow of the Mogollon Rim near Pine, I lay back against a hillside and listened as Dripping Springs played a concerto of water music just for me. Year-round the seep trickles over sandstone, tinkling like a distant piano in a quiet pine forest. Three band-tail pigeons added basso coo-coo notes before they flushed from a black walnut tree rooted in the moist soil. Later, and farther up the trail, I spotted black bear scat. Others also enjoy Dripping Springs. But only I come for the music. Dripping Springs is one of three principal seeps along Pine Canyon Trail No. 26 in the Tonto National Forest, each with its own seasonal song. The trail is a 10-mile stretch of the legs through ponderosa and oak forest. Parking circles are located on both ends, so if you plan carefully with a friend, you can arrange to walk from one vehicle to another.

I started from the Pine Trailhead a mile south of Pine on State Route 87, about 106 miles north of Phoenix. Pine Trailhead serves several trails, including the nationally designated Highline Trail No. 31. The trail to Dripping Springs turns north. There's a map at the trailhead showing the way, and also a stock corral for riders. The lower end of the trail to Dripping Springs is homely for a quarter-mile along an eroded truck track through low chaparral. Finally it arrives at an unnamed seep where the pine woods begin. Once tapped for water, the nameless spring is now free to make its music in a grotto before escaping into Pine Creek Canyon. Right there, Trail 26 turns up the hill, so watch sharply. Two "blocks" farther and you arrive at Dripping Springs. A sign marks the spot. The constant flow nourishes a thicket of water-loving flowers and plants. Parsnip Springs, one of the other seeps, is five miles farther along. Like the other two, it mimics a leak in a barrel, pulling water from underground deposits under the Mogollon Rim overlooking Pine, Strawberry, and Payson. In the 1920s, author Zane Grey rode this and the other trails. He may have watered his horse at Dripping Springs, an easy day-hike destination of two miles. The trail levels out past Dripping Springs, continuing laterally across a forested hillside scented with the perfume of fallen pine needles and oak leaves. From the base of the Mogollon Rim, the trail climbs until you're up and over and out at the other trailhead on State 87, about a mile past the State 260 junction to Camp Verde. To reach the Dripping Springs area from Phoenix, take State Route 87 to the Pine Trailhead, just south of Pine on the east side of the highway. For more information about the trails and weather conditions, contact the Tonto National Forest's Payson Ranger District, 1009 E. Highway 260, Payson, AZ; (520) 474-7900.

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