Fossil Creek

I made a trip down into Fossil Creek with my sister and her family and my youngest son. I hadn't been to this creek in quite some time, the road is long, dusty, windy, steep and scary - but despite all of that, it is a beautiful place.

Fossil Creek of course is more than a series of swimming holes and a beautiful creek leading to the Verde River, there is a lot of history here. A dam was built on it at one time in order to provide electricity to surrounding communities, including the one I currently live in. That dam was also recently decommissioned and the creek is flowing freely. The town of Strawberry and Payson still show historic photos of the old days along the creek, you can check out their site at hhttp://www.pinestrawhs.org/childsirving.htm.



The road, as I said is narrow and it seems only one car can fit and well, I'm not sure where the other car is supposed to go as the drop off is steep and into a canyon that must be thousands of feet deep. We go during the week in effort not to encounter a lot of traffic. But no, we come around a blind corner and there is this huge semi - yes a semi out there, hauling large commercial dumpsters out of the canyon. He took up the whole road. I couldn't see ahead so I don't know what my brother-in-law did, but I knew for me, I would have to back up and get out of the way. Backing your dusty truck up on a narrow dirt road with a drop off is very scary. I instinctively squeezed my truck as tightly as possible to the mountain, taking his side of the road as I couldn't see well enough to back up to the edge. He was able to get by. I later thought about how it felt to be him, now that is a job I would not want.


We finally made it to the trail head and then hiked to the waterfalls. Along the way the kids jumped in and swam as they were far ahead of us older folks. The nice thing about this trail is that it follows the creek so when it gets too hot you can jump in and cool off.


The main waterfall was beautiful. The rocks around this stream are beautiful - they are hard to describe and I will have to research it a bit more, but they are fossilized with crystals growing in them. They make odd formations and are quite fascinating. We had the whole place to ourselves - which is rare. As we were leaving, more people were coming in.

The boys had a great day, I spent some time with my sister and so, yes, despite the crazy road in, the trip was worth it.