OVER THE MOGOLLON MESA 77 



The Verde Trail was formerly the military 

 road connecting Fort Apache and Camp 

 Verde, over which stores were hauled from the 

 former to the latter post. After the abandon- 

 ment of Camp Verde the trail fell into disuse. 

 We turned into it near the place where Blue 

 Lake was supposed to be and followed it west- 

 ward for many miles. Innumerable aspen 

 trees along the old trail bear names and dates 

 cut in the bark by soldiers who traversed 

 it in the days when it was a military road. 

 Some of these bear the regiment number and 

 troop of the soldier that cut them. Dates went 

 back into the early 70's, and I believe one or 

 two as early as 1869. 



Desire for water led us to deviate once and 

 descend a steep, rocky road which dropped to 

 the head of Canon Creek, directly above the 

 point where the canon "boxes" with perpen- 

 dicular walls on either side several hundred 

 feet high. Suddenly, as we descended, a beau- 

 tiful green basin, enclosed on all sides by pre- 

 cipitous mountains, opened before us, and pres- 

 ently we came to the clear, fine waters of Canon 

 Creek, pouring down over a rocky bed to 

 course through the creek's picturesque canon, 

 later to join Salt River. 



Here we found Ramer's cattle ranch — lo- 



