Foothills Rim and Monolith Gardens

Cerbat Foothills Recreation Area

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There is an extensive trail system at the edge of Kingman, Arizona, and so I am off for a general exploration of them starting at the Coyote Pass Trailhead. This trailhead is only accessible from the southbound lanes of US-93. There is a right hand turn lane, but little indication what it is for. There is a huge lot with trash cans and signs at one end and a bathroom at the other. The signs indicate that the trails are on a mixture of federal, state, county, city, and private lands and is generally run cooperatively between BLM and the city. Oh, and trails are maintained by the local mountain bikers. It sounds quite complicated to get set up, but they managed it and now there are trails for all to enjoy.

Signs at the trailhead and one of the monoliths in the garden.

I head down the trail in front of me toward something interesting. It looks like someone carved a door into the side of a particularly large air bubble in the rocks to make a store room. There is some hint of hinges in the past, but now it is covered in graffiti, so rapidly becomes less interesting.

The doorway at the bottom of the monolith.

The trail runs into an old road at the bottom of the monolith and follows it around to the right. There is a register and signs pointing the way as the trail divides for the Monolith Gardens Loop. They look rather new. I take the right, leaving the road, and soon there is a second junction. This one confuses me since it says it goes back to the trailhead, but I had seen a trail that wound along the other side of a small canyon and came up around the back. Soon after that is a third junction which I am looking for: Foothills Rim. I take a right again with a promise of easy climbing.

This way for Foothills Rim Trail.

Easy climbing does not even begin to describe what the trail does. I'm not certain it is climbing at all, but it certainly uses enough switchbacks to do it. I start wondering just how drunk the so-and-so who laid this thing down was when he did it. Maybe it's because the moment the trail turns the least bit upward, it becomes a watercourse when the intense summer storms hit. Maybe it's because the mountain bikers got to choose and they figured the longer route would be more fun. One way or another, this trail has gotten excessive in its attempt to climb while never actually going up.

Of course, if I really wanted to go up, there's Hualapai Peak with a little bit of snow on it. It is one of those very high prominence peaks.

Somehow it does climb. The previously hidden city comes into view, particularly some industrial areas. Off to the south, there is a handful of windmills. Above, the high mesas get closer. Or monoliths. Whatever. The trail takes a sudden swing off to the side gaining yet more mileage, but this turns out to have a purpose of standing for a moment at the edge of a huge canyon before swinging right back to its previous slow climb.

Standing on the brink of the canyon. There is water down there from the recent light rains.

Getting up close to some of those higher mesas.

The trail crosses a utility road and then launches into the passage between a couple mesas. In particular, it launches into the stream area between some of the mesas. The bikes are familiar with it and there are tire prints to help direct my search for the next segment. I do suddenly turn up into the the mesa on the right and get up and personal with some of its features for my own nefarious reasons. (It's to sign a geocache, but that doesn't really require climbing up and around the, well, monolith as I do.) It has some interesting details in undercuts and cliffs and fallen shelves.

Somewhere here there is a trail. Lined up rocks and bike tracks are the best indicators.

The stark white layer is quite impressive with the way it has eroded.

The far side is marked by even larger cliffs and the fallen remains of a very large shelf. Across the way, the mountains take on a very different character.

Back on trail to take another try at finding it, it isn't too hard. Well, it does take a bit of attention to find it. It is made harder because it swings a bit more than anyone would expect. The drunk so-and-so is still laying it down. It weaves its way on to a spot with a bypass trail. I take the rim trail, explore a little off it, but never quite figure out what exactly needs bypassing. The Tech Ridge Trail spurs off, but I am barely through the loop I planned, so I bypass that. Pretty sure that's not what they meant. Maybe it's just an excuse to surround this particular monolith with trail.

Seeing people in the rocks.

Interesting shell-like structures as the bypass heads off to avoid something.

Just a little one, but there is a natural arch.

Exploration a little way down the bypass trail for more big holes.

Then it is off to the next thing. Wiggle wiggle wiggle. We wouldn't want to get there too fast. This, as it turns out, would be a bit that one might characterize as the rim of the foothills. The gentle slope comes up to an edge where everything drops off quite steeply into the next valley. There is a spur for one view, and then the trail passes another spot for a little different view. It is an expansive view full of items to catch the attention and want to hike next.

Visually following the power poles to the vast flat and then more mountains with interesting shapes.

I pass a connector and the trail really begins to thin. The only prints on it now are from the cows. Yeah, there's cows out here. I saw some before I started, but have not yet encountered them on the trail. The cows have their own trail, but I seem to be able to distinguish if they are on or off trail. I'm not sure how. Maybe I'm fooling myself. It swings inward, then out toward another viewpoint, so it certainly seems to be keeping in character as I meander over the high point of the day.

Another look at Hualapai Peak, now from base to top. The snow is not quite so evident as it was earlier, but it is still there.

A collection of canyons to the northeast have been revealing themselves for a while with the gentle climb.

The vast valley to the west has a slight interruption off southwest.

The trail swings back having reached its apex. There is another connector which looks to be even less used than the one I am on. It offers a different route rather than a shortcut between places. The trail wiggles out for a couple viewpoints over the lands to the south, then gets on to a very slow downhill. It gets really hard to stay on trail when I see it wandering off to the right somewhere and coming back to get all of 20 feet away and 1 foot down. But I'm sure it is a fun turn for the bikes. It is downright maddening for hiking.

Layers of towers as the rocks wear down.

Maybe I did get off the trail, because I run into the Monolith Garden Loop a couple hundred feet from the marked intersection. What I was on seems to get more use than what is marked. There is time, so I take the right to go around that loop too.

Heading out along the edge of one of those monoliths in the garden.

The hills south of the trail areas.

I had noticed a geocache that doesn't get much visitation off the trail a bit on one of the monoliths and it sits there as a teasing challenge. I can't help plotting how I might go about getting up it as the trail curves around its neighbor and then travels towards its base.

The trail comes down off the long monolith and through the valley between, now not in a maddening twist. There is a geocache on the top of the little bump to the right.

I can see a way up past the cliffs around its base and a possible way up the more significant cliffs around its top. I'm pretty sure I don't have enough water, but when I check there is still half of the 2 liters I started with. Time looks close, but not too close. I could do it and become the 4th signer since it was placed in 2012. The others made a special trip out here. So up it is. The first cliff is mildly protected by a scrub oak, but quickly put behind me. The long slope after that is just a trudge. I check to be sure I really have to climb up the last bit, but that wishful thinking is not rewarded.

At the bottom of the bigger cliff and looking back at those the trail passed near.

Getting up the main cliff requires putting the camera away and a little bit of class 3 climbing, but it too is quickly behind me. A little bit of rock scramble puts me at the top and a little searching not too far off gets me something to sign. The view is nice, but the camera gets neglected. Then it is down again. Down is a little harder, partly because not quite all my hand holds hold. The other three points hold as I find myself squeezing a now loose rock to the rough surface it was recently part of before getting my leg out of the way to drop it. Yeesh. Then back down to see the garden. The rocks of each layer seem to have their own distinct way of eroding giving an ever changing character for this hike. The themes repeat, but in quite different contexts.

Seeing people in the rocks again. Now a group stands apart from a large crowd.

The trail approaches the old road it started on, but avoids following it for the most part. With the road is a deep box canyon. It stands mostly in shadow now, but I am quite certain there is water below in it. There are certainly small pools. As the box end of it comes into clearer view, the very dark spot below it resolves into a deep pool. There is water here.

Looking down the canyon from near the box end.

Trail follows along the winding edge abandoning an old road down the middle. It is a better view now.

The trail winds along, but now not so much in a way that seems to be getting nowhere slowly. I pick loop or connectors according to whim as the light reddens and dims. Oh, and there is cattle to contend with. They are slightly skittish, which just makes me worry they'll do something unexpected.

Wandering through the "garden".

This area is well signed, although they forget that if you are taking a loop, you might need to know what is in the direction the sign faces, too.

Hualapai Peak doesn't look so cold now. The snow is still there.

I had not been expecting much of the area at first. It looks a little bit bleak at the start, but it really is a place that rewards a little exploring. Maybe not quite so meandering an explore as the trail insists on, but some wandering is quite nice. I climb the little hill back to the parking lot as it gets dark happy to have given the place a chance.




©2019 Valerie Norton
Written 12 February 2019