Verde River Hike (Cottonwood, Clarkdale: houses, swimming, horse)

[BriansPerspective]

Hello. Does anyone know if there is a trail that runs along the Verde River from where it crosses 89A up to the Dead Horse Ranch State Park? We are thinking about kayaking from Dead Horse to the 89A crossing. We would drop the yaks at Dead Horse, drop the car at 89A, hike back to Dead Horse, and then kayak to 89A.

[cacto]

Looking at the route you're proposing on Google Earth, it looks like your not even leaving Cottonwood(?). Looks like there's flat land along the river and streets and houses along it on the west side, so trail or not it's probably do-able.

[BriansPerspective]

Thanks. I looked at the Yavapai County GIS aerial photography and there appears to be a trail. We're going to give it a try.

[locolobo13]

When I saw the title I thought you were going to try the hike from Childs to Horshoe Lake.

Cacto's right. It looks like you won't be too far from the roads where you're going to be. Have fun.

[BriansPerspective]

Ok, here's the scoop. We drove to Owl Rd in Dead Horse Ranch park ($7 to get in) and dropped the kayaks by the river (locked to a post). We drove to a little side street (River Rd aka Haydorn Rd) at the 89A Verde River bridge and left the car (forgot to lock it - hehe). We tried to find a trail along the river, but after a few hundred yards, there were no tresspassing signs. We backtracked and walked the streets - 89A to Main to 10th, back to the kayaks. That wasn't so far (about 3.7 miles), but walking next to a busy road is not too fun.

On to the good stuff... We put the kayaks in the river and headed downstream. Mostly, we had smooth sailing (er kayaking) except for when the stream hit the 'riffle' areas. These are areas that would otherwise be very small rapids if there was enough water. There wasn't enough, so we either had to get out and walk the kayak through, or if we were close to making it, push with our hands or feet while still in the kayak. Our kayaks are the sit-on-top kind. We only draw about 3-5 inches of water. Nancy is lighter and draws less, so she was able to clear a few spots that I could not.

The Verde River Greenway Verde River Greenway: Home has a map http://azstateparks.com/parks/VERI/d...Paddle_Map.pdf of the river area that we paddled. You can go to USGS Current Conditions for USGS 09504000 VERDE RIVER NEAR CLARKDALE, AZ to check the flow rates. For reference, the flow rate was 64 cfs during our trip.

The trip was beautiful. The stream (it's not really a river here) was like another world from Arizona. It was cool and serene. We could see little fish swimming about. We saw great blue herons, ducks, red-winged black birds, and a kingfisher. A few daddy long legs tried to hitch rides when we ventured into the cattails while trying to find deeper water.

We would definitely do this trip again, although a higher flow would be beneficial. The ranger said that starting higher up the river (e.g., Tuzigoot or Flycatcher Rd) would not be good right now due to the low water flow. We also had a little trouble finding the take-out point, but we knew it was before the 89A bridge. For reference, there are a couple of pink ribbons tied to branches on the right side of the river at the take-out point.