Amazing, Spectacular Arizona Trail Thruhike: Webber Creek-Milk Ranch Point East

In the land of Arizona
Through desert heat or snow
Winds a trail for folks to follow
From Utah to Old Mexico

It’s the Arizona Trail
A pathway through the great Southwest
A diverse track through wood and stone
Your spirit it will test

Oh, sure you’ll sweat and blister
You’ll feel the miles every day
You’ll shiver at the loneliness
Your feet and seat will pay

But you’ll see moonlight on the borderlands
You’ll see stars on the Mogollon
You’ll feel the warmth of winter sun
And be thrilled straight through to bone

The aches and pains will fade away
You’ll feel renewed and whole
You’ll never be the same again
With Arizona in your soul

Along the Arizona Trail
A reverence and peace you’ll know
Through deserts, canyons, and mountains
From Utah to Old Mexico
-“The Arizona Trail,” Dale R. Shewalter

The Highline Trail began as a way of connecting remote ranching areas below the Mogollon Rim. It continues to serve as a major transportation corridor today, stretching 54.7 miles. The Arizona Trail doesn’t overlap the entire length but it does overlap more than half. The Mogollon Rim, as perhaps noted previously, is the southern border of the Colorado Plateau and the driver of phenomena such as the southwest monsoon in the same way that the Tibetan Plateau drives the Indian Monsoon – albeit with less dramatic effects since the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas are much higher than the Mogollon is. More to come on this in a separate entry, perhaps.

Having filled up on water and eaten lunch, the trail ascends from Webber Creek and the Geronimo Trailhead toward Milk Ranch Point, jutting out from the Mogollon Rim. This is a much more consistently wooded & shaded stretch that appears to have been spared by the Dude Fire of 1990 and February Fire (2006). It also seems to be wetter here – there are still touches of green in the ferns as the trail ascends. Gamble oaks, maple and ponderosa dominate the trail through this stretch, and the light filtering through the canopy and the leaves is magical. Basalt outcrops emerge, a contrast to the red soil of the passage to this point. The tread on this stretch is more similar to the area above the Mogollon than it is to the prior stretch of the Highline below it, in a sense.

As the trail winds toward the southernmost reach of Milk Ranch Point, it passes by Pine and Red Rock Springs, two unreliable sources. Views open of the Mogollon to the East, and both agave and yucca reappear in places. There are also continually improving views of the Mogollon to the East, looking directly down the rim. The greater sheltering of these areas from recent wildfires is evident as well; unburned areas present in immense ponderosa and mature oaks in full fall color.