Jug Trail in Salome Wilderness

The Jug Trail in the Salome Wilderness offers waterfalls, running creeks, slot canyons and great views of Roosevelt Lake below and Four Peaks above.

Getting to the Jug Trail offers two challenges. The first is it’s about a four hour drive from Prescott, so that just meant camping out the night before at Roosevelt Lake, which offers its own scenic views.

The second challenge is crossing Tonto Creek near Punkin Center. You have to cross Tonto Creek to get to Forest Service Road 60 to lead to the Jug Trail trailhead. That can be challenging as snow runoff or heavy rain turns Tonto Creek into a river and people get stranded on one side or the other. This has been a problem for decades and a bridge is being built so people can get across it during these times.

Ron Turner, who works in the Tonto National Forest Supervisor’s office, showed our hiking group where to cross, but several other vehicles were also crossing at this point. High clearance vehicles are needed both for crossing Tonto Creek and for the bumpy forest service road.

Turner also joined us for the hike and was one of two Prescott connections for the Jug Trail hike. Turner worked at Prescott National Forest before joining the Tonto National Forest team.

The second Prescott connection is Carly Taylor, who works at Natural History Institute, and also was taken in by the beauty of Jug Trail.

Taylor pointed out that Jug Trail leads to Salome Creek, a perennial stream nestled between red cliffs full of saguaros.

“I couldn’t believe how lush and green the wilderness was in February after the winter rains, with lots of small herbs and grasses coming up beneath the ocotillos and the mesquite. It was a delight to dip my toes in that freezing snow melt water, surrounded by the wonderful people Wild AZ brought together for the outing. If you can make the treacherous drive through a flood-prone basin and up into the mountains on a dirt road, this hike is well worth doing for the beautiful vegetation and the stunning views of the nearby Roosevelt Lake and Four Peaks Wilderness, Taylor said.

During this hike, Four Peaks still had snow on it.

The Jug Trail outing was hosted by Wild Arizona, a non-profit that works to protect, maintain and restore Arizona’s 90 wilderness areas.

The Jug Trail is in the Salome Wilderness, which covers 18,350 acres and was established in 1984, with a low elevation of 2,600 feet and a high of 6,500 feet at the top of Hopkins Mountain.

The higher parts can get snow and the lower parts can be more than 100 degrees. Salome Canyon runs almost the entire length of the Salome Wilderness. Salome Wilderness has unique fauna and flora including coastal wood fern, which is usually only found along the coast.

Jugs Trail, which sits about 900 feet higher than Roosevelt Lake, is one of two trails in Salome Wilderness. The other is the Hells Hole Trail. The lack of other trails in Salome Wilderness is due to the ruggedness and the danger if it floods.

The Jugs Trail is a moderate seven mile hike that drops about 800 feet on the way in and climbs that much on the way out.

Hikers reach the wilderness sign a bit more than two miles in. After passing through a fence that is meant to keep cattle in, hikers can see the beautiful Salome Creek in the narrow canyon below with its cascading water. After just a few minutes, hikers come to a natural boulder overlook, which was the perfect place for lunch to soak in the sun and feel tranquil.

From this point on, your seeing Salome Creek alongside the trail and figuring how to get down to it. About a mile later, it’s easy to get down to Salome Creek and most of the hikers pulled their pants legs up and waded into the cool water. Salome Creek was cold, but enjoyable and relaxing.

Jug Trail is extremely popular among canyoneers as rappelling is the only way to see the largest waterfall. We didn’t do that as we enjoyed the trek to the creek and back. Salome is also good for fishing as it has brown and rainbow trout, speckled dace, longfin dace, roundtail chub and green sunfish.

Thanks goes to Wild Arizona volunteer coordinator Nizhoni Baldwin and Wild Arizona conservation associate Sam Baggenstos for leading this beautiful hike.

Here’s the link to the article in 5enses.

By Stan Bindell, Freelance Writer