A Day In The Wilderness

  I spent all this morning and most of the afternoon backpacking in the Thumb Butte Basin area. I started at the main day use area parking lot at the base of Thumb Butte along Thumb Butte Road. After leaving the parking lot, I entered into the Prescott National Forest via Forest Trail number 33. I followed the West section of Trail 33 to its junction with Trail 314. After the 1/2 mile hike on Trail 314, I turned South on to Trail 326 and continued to follow it to Trail 323.
 
  Trail 323 began with a fairly level hiking surface but quickly entered into a moderate sized stand of Ponderosa Pines, where the trail began to quickly drop in elevation down to its intersection with Trail 321. I turned South onto Trail 321 and followed it for about 300 feet before leaving the trail and scrambling down a hill to Butte Creek. Butte Creek had water in it and had a slow but steady flow of water. I sat for a short time along the banks of Butte Creek near a small waterfall. The sound of the water flowing over the rocks in the middle of the stream was peaceful sounding. It is sounds and moments like this that make me enjoy the solitude of the wilderness the most.

  After spending some nice alone time along the stream and re-gathering my thoughts and motivation to continue on, I followed Trail 321 back to Trail 323. I retracked my route back along Trail 323 through the stands of Manzanita bushes and Pinyon-Juniper forests to Trail 326. Instead of turning back North on Trail 326, I decided to turn South and follow ways. After about another 3/4 mile track on Trail 326, I came to the junction with Trail 392. I then chose to follow Trail 392  North for 1.5 miles back to Thumb Butte Road.

  Trail 392 was a very scenic and amazing trail to hike. Trail 392, traveled through stands of Chaparral, Pinyon-Juniper and Ponderosa Pine for approximately the first 1/4 mile from its junction with Trail 326. Trail 392 entered into another moderate size stand of Ponderosa Pines which had appeared to have been touched by a wildfire fairly recently in the past. Most of the old-growth Ponderosas were charred black from the ground up approximately 6 feet. There also were many dead Ponderosa Pines laying on the forest ground which had also been burned during the wildfire.

  After making a few small switchbacks around a dry stream bed in the middle of the charred Ponderosa Pine stand, Trail 392 quickly climbed up a small ridgeline to the top of a cliff which overlook a large valley to the North of the trail. At the crest of the hill, the valley below which was filled with large old-growth Ponderosas lied approximately 75 feet below. It was at this point that Trail 392 began to become extremely scenic and fun to hike along. The trail quickly began to make several switchbacks down the hillside to the heavily forest valley floor below.

  Once reaching the bottom of the steep switchbacks, Trail 392 ran through the center of the large old-growth Ponderosa Pine forest to meet up with the beautiful Miller Creek. The approximately 1 mile to 1 1/4 mile remainder of Trail 392 followed along the banks of Miller Creek. Miller Creek appeared to have had more water and a faster flow to it than what Butte Creek had earlier during my adventure through the Wilderness of Thumb Butte Basin. Aside from a few short stops along Miller Creek to obtain photographs, I continued at a decent pace North on the Trail to its intersection with Trail 367.

  Once reaching Trail 367, I turned East to head back to my vehicle which was just short of another 1 1/2 miles from my current location. Trail 367, continued along the banks of Miller Creek for the remainder of it's route. Trail 367 varied greatly in elevation going from stream side up to the tops of hills which stood 35 to 40 feet above Miller Creek. The entire hike was peaceful and beautiful but I would have to say that the sections of Trails 392 and 367 were by far the most astonishing and refreshing. The trails followed along the banks of free flowing Miller Creek for a total of about 2 miles and crossed the stream 7 different times over those 2 beautiful miles.

  The wind began to pick up while I was hiking along Trail 367 and the large Ponderosas began to make eerie creeking sounds overhead as they swayed with the wind gust almost as if walking through what one would imagine a haunted enchanted forest around the time of Halloween would be like. A large portion of Trail 367 was covered with tens to hundreds of thousands of dead downed leaves from the surrounding Oak trees. I couldn't help but to imagine what the path along this trail must look like during the Spring when the leaves are a bright green and during Autumn when they have changed to deep reds and golds.