Length: 15.2 miles roundtrip

Difficulty: Moderate

Wilderness Area: Sierra Ancha Wilderness

Journal: "The Battle of Wounded Knee"

From Claypool (between Miami and Globe) take State Highway 188 northwest for approximately 15 miles to its junction with State Highway 288. Turn right onto Highway 288 and drive north for approximately 25.5 miles to FR 487. Drive 5.5 miles up FR 487. The small signed trailhead is on the right. FR 487 requires a high clearance vehicle and is closed from December 15th to March 15th due to snow.

Trail Description:

This trail was described in many write ups I had seen as being level and in good condition. Those write ups were obviously done before the Coon fire of 2000. The Coon fire destroyed 10,000 acres and really affected this trail.

From the trailhead, take the Parker Creek Trail #160 for .8 miles. This section very rocky and drops several hundred feet. In September 2001, there was evidence of recent trail maintenance. The junction with the Rim Trail is unsigned. Actually the remains of the sign post is a charred stump now. There are many cairns however and locating the junction is not difficult.

Turn left at the junction and follow the Rim Trail. This trail is mostly flat with one or two small climbs. Although the southern western end of the trail is well maintained, after a mile or so, the trail becomes overgrown in many places and following it becomes difficult. Fortunately there are many cairns and red ribbons that mark the way.

The Rim Trail starts out heading east and then turns to the north after about 3 miles. Approximately 4 miles from the trailhead, is the Moody Point #140 trail. According to the information I have the Moody Point trail drops 1 mile from the Moody Point Trailhead along FR 487, It then follows the rim trail for about .25 miles before forking off to the right and continuing 8 more rugged miles until it ends at the Leisure Canyon Trailhead. We found the first intersection (the on that goes to FR 287). We found the sign for the second junction, but could not find the Moody Point trail itself. The area near the sign was severely overgrown and despite a half hour of searching, we could not find this junction.

The Rim Trail continues north for 4 more miles until it dead ends at Edwards Spring. Because of an injury, we only made it as far as the second junction with the Moody Point Trail (4.25 miles). I did explore north another half mile later in the day, The trail remained good and mostly level.

Due to the injury we climbed out on the Moody Point Trail to FR 487 and then hiked the road .75 miles back to the Carr Trailhead.