Workman’s Creek Recreation Area
Hiking in Workman’s Creek Recreation Area | Tonto National Forest, AZ | December 2023
Since we were enjoying our time in Tonto National Forest so much, we decided to spend another full day here and explore more places we had never been. For today’s adventure, we decided to drive further North on AZ-288 to check out some new-to-us hiking areas. As always, we were awestruck by the Arizona highway views, especially as we ascended out of Tonto Basin and were overlooking deep canyons, Roosevelt Lake, and 4 Peaks in the distance. The road eventually turned from paved to dirt, but was still in good condition (and is still technically a state highway). We wondered about its condition going all the way up to the top of the Mogollon Rim, but if that drive is possible, it’ll have to wait for another trip. Instead, we turned off the highway and followed a gravel road up into Workman’s Creek Recreation Area.
We had originally been interested in this area because of Aztec peak, a peak on Curtis’ prominence list, but we knew that the road would eventually be too rough for our van and the hike too long for Charlotte. Instead, we drove as far as we felt comfortable, and ended up parking at one of the several abandoned campgrounds and recreation areas. Camping used to be allowed out here, but because of some Uranium mining from the mid-20th century, the forest service thought it better to keep access to day-use only.
We started our walk in the forest, surrounded by tall pines and following the forest road. The stream to our right would have been a nice feature during a wetter season, but was only a trickle today. As we made our way up, the trees thinned and we enjoyed some great views of rock walls, and looking down into the ravine we had just walked up. We set a goal of reaching the waterfall at the end of the canyon, which turned out to be surrounded by ice and snow (unfortunately I don’t have good pictures because the lighting wasn’t right, but it was tall and beautiful and worth the walk on its own!). At this point, Charlotte seemed to want to continue our walk, so we followed her lead a little bit further. On the map, it looked like we were approaching a saddle and hoped that we might have views to the East and towards Aztec Peak, but the saddle ended up being much further than we thought, so we eventually stopped, had a snack, and then began our walk down.
Our return hike was shortly interrupted by a pack of Jeeps — 12 Jeeps total, all driven by a pair of older snowbirds. We stood to the side and counted as they drove by and made note of where they were all from based on the license plates. Based on the brief conversations we had in passing, it sounded like they had just come up all the way from Phoenix for the day. Jeep culture is a little weird. The rest of our walk back was much quieter, though dusty with all the dirt kicked up by the Jeep gang. We made it back to the van, had some snacks, and then made our return drive back down to lower elevations and warmer weather.
On our drive back, we stopped at some of the overlooks to admire the views some more. We could have camped at one of the overlooks, but decided we preferred our spot off of Cherry Creek Road over being right off the highway. Thankfully our spot was still available to us when we arrived. We claimed it and settled in for a third night here. We brought out a sleeping bag to make a comfy spot for Charlotte and I, and then Curtis set out for a hike further up the road.
Curtis: Having sat within sight of a peak that would progress my hiking goals for 3 days was wearing on me, and since we had gotten back earlier than anticipated, I decided that I would just walk the road as far as I could. I followed Cherry Creek road heading East into the foothills. I made pretty good time on the wide flat track and soon reached a saddle looking out to the East. If I had only left an hour earlier, maybe I could have reached my peak, but I knew better than to try a bushwhack after dark. So instead I settled on scrambling up a short mesa much closer by. I reached the top and stood on the cliffs overlooking Tonto Basin. I could just barely make out the van and realized I had come a long ways in a short time. Jess texted and asked me to start heading back so I retraced my steps and was back at camp before sunset.
Jess: That evening, we enjoyed the best sunset we had seen here — there were more clouds in the sky than the past couple nights, and they all turned pink as the sun set below the mountains to the West. Curtis’ cousin Gen came out to join us that evening in her truck camper, as she headed out to Colorado. Being a Friday night, the area was busier than it had been the past couple nights, and it was also windier, but we still enjoyed our last evening in this area and would definitely consider coming back to camp here again someday.
