Shannon Gulch
SHANNON GULCH FR 74 leads into Shannon Gulch More than 2,000 feet above where the East Verde River crosses State Route 87 north of Payson, snowmelt and rainwater that will eventually drain into Arizona’s rivers and streams begins with a journey through porous escarpments before spilling through springs at the base of the Mogollon Rim. The shrubby folds of Shannon Gulch Below the Rim’s vertical cliffs that rise to over 7,000 feet and make a 200-mile, east-west stretch through central Arizona, an edgy, almost claustrophobic territory of high mesas, dizzying gorges and backwoods is home to a maze of tributary creeks and drainages that feed into the East Verde River which in turn flows into the Verde and Salt Rivers, two of Arizona’s most important water sources. Mogollon Rim vistas from the road's highpoint A hike through this tangled, geologically and botanically diverse region is as much an origin story as it is a walk in the woods. Milk Ranch Point, promontory on the Mogol...