First Post - West Clear Creek - Tramway Trail

This beautiful canyon offers natural springs, secret side canyons, and ample pools for fishing and swimming. Unlike its dammed sister East Clear Creek (dammed at Blue Ridge Res. and again, in Winslow) this creek offers clearer water, bigger pools, chub fishing, and to me what seems like more resilient trout overall. Having spent several nights here in upper W. Clear in the past, this trip was focused on hitting up all the highlights. Your going to have to bushwhack no matter what, especially if you plan to make it far downstream.

Century Plants in bloom at the top of Tramway Trail

The one mile decent into the canyon can be a little rough on the knees, but goes by quickly. It leads you right to a campsite with access to a small beach with a steep rock face. Not preferable unless you want people walking through your site randomly. I haven't seen much upstream in the past so I normally head down. Be ready to get your shoes wet, it's inevitable. At about half a mile down, you reach a large pool where the creek takes a hard left. Elevated above the trail is a camp site that includes rock chairs, a grate for cooking, and even an ammo can filled with random supplies. If the ammo can has not been left in plain site look around for it, you may be able to find a beer or 2 left by previous hikers. If you take something out (like a spork or a bottle of Patron like me) put something else of equal value back in there… It was hard to match a bottle of patron, so I left some food.

View of a segment of the pool and rock face next to the campground

This pool is usually filled with roundtail chub that average around 6-9 in. Yet, this time I hooked up with similar sized trout as shown below. The fight and colors these little guys host make me think that they are offspring of past stockers that have lived a happy wild life in this creek. I began by using a brown mayfly pattern with a small golden spinner located at the top. I saw a few on my way down the main trail. I switched to a few different jigs to see what would hit better.

Below is a picture of a roundtail chub pulled up from the same pool. This fishes population is steadily falling due to habitat loss (creek habitats such as this one in the SW) are declining. It is a candidate for the endangered species list yet fish and game still consider them sport fish. They have certain season so be careful.  Having eaten one in the past the meat is white and bland, perfect for some backpacking tacos, but trout is much more appetizing.

After setting up camp, fishing and pumping some water, I began my hike. 

As you follow the trail downstream, one of the first cool sights you encounter is this little cave alone the creek. Not sure if a spring emerges, or what could cause it, either way its pretty cool.

A few large boulders located along the creek prompted me to cast right next to them hoping to hook up with a fat brown trout. Although the water is only 6 in. deep at some spots, don't let it trick you, some of the largest creek trout I've reeled in were in extremely shallow water. If using a spin caster be ready to reel the second your tackle hits water to prevent snags, and seem more appealing to the fish. Bugs that hit the water don't usually drop to the bottom so mimicking their behavior is vital. I switched to a panther martin spinner with a rainbow pattern. I have found it difficult to hike large segments of this creek with my 9 ft. fly pole set up. Below is a picture of a beautiful looking little brown trout I pulled in by casting along one of the center stream boulders. 

The german brown above was caught at the base of the rock seen below. When hiking on the trail, you find yourself looking at the pool just like this picture below. I have found that casting up against the creek (so the tackle is brought down with the water) produces much better results. This is the third brown (maybe the same one) iv gotten is this exact spot.

Hiking along the trail

Within an estimated mile from the base of Tramway trail, you finally reach a camp favored by most people. It can be easily spotted by the natural spring that emerges from the side of the canyon, creating little waterfalls, and hanging gardens along the creek. The campground found here used to have a swing and lots of shaded room making it rarely available. 

Where the spring water meets the creek is a popular hang out for trout in the mid summer since the water is coming out at a pretty cold temp. 

Here is the actual spring once you follow the water up. 

Making my way further down the creek and casting different segments,  I pulled in a few more dinky trout. The one shown below is a small brown demonstrating its classic fiery dots down the center.

Not too far down the trail from the springs, you see a thin side canyon to your left. 

View of the canyon from the trail. Doesn't look like much from the trail but definitely worth checking out

Follow the little side trail and you will come to the stream crossing as seen below. I would drop my pack off because if you do fall off of the tied up tree bridge, its about stomach deep.

After you cross the creek, you need to hike through a ton of poison ivy, but it eventually opens up to a spectacular oval canyon with a seasonal waterfall.

Looking up the sprinkling waterfall

This picture was taken a few years ago and gives you a better idea of what the side canyon looks like

 These pictures (above and below) show a peach tree that is a good indicator that you are near the entrance of the "secret canyon" 

After getting back on the main trail, I casted a few more pools, pulling in another small brown, a little bigger than the last one. Another estimated .8 miles after the springs you reach a nice pool that hosts a ton of fish.  

Taken from the other side of the pool, with the little lady modeling for a pic

 Once you find your way around the first part of the pool and climb a few boulders the other side has a ton of visible fish as well, but trying not to spook them can be pretty difficult.

Catching a few chub and rainbow. Knowing this would be the time to fish, and that I would be making my way upstream to camp for the night, my hopes for a fatty were high. I hooked up with countless dinky rainbow until I felt the tug of something a bit bigger. Jumping out of the water, I saw her stunning pink brush streak along her side. 

As stated before I caught her in around 6 inches of water, that was about to flow into a pool where the creek bends. This tends to be the most common place for trout to hit, for they seem to expect bugs to fall from the vegetation surrounding the faster moving water.

She isn't amused with my trout

One more picture better showing its size, unfortunately this is a good size for this creek. Go fish a lake, larger creek, or attempt to hit one of the browns that have moved on to lizards and mice, that usually bite at night.

Other entrances to this canyon include maxwell trail, an unnamed trail that pops you out to the "hanging gardens" (pictured below), and calloway trail (possibly 8 mi?) Calloway is very overgrown with hard to find creek trails especially after a long wet summer, but may be prettier and more secluded.  Maybe a mile past the pool pictured above you reach the hanging garden trail.

 Above and below show different angles from the hanging gardens. From here the wading gets deeper and the trails become more narrow.

As you hike downstream the canyon becomes thinner

Nice picture of the creek when hiking between hanging gardens and this next beach pictured below.

Panoramic picture of the pooling section of the creek along one of my favorite campsites. This is about 1/3 of a mile below the hanging gardens.

 Full and healthy brown/german

 Wading through the waters after a summer monsoon.

 A rainbow with a belly full of crawdads.. 

Petroglyphs at the campsite

After hiking several miles down from the hanging gardens, almost approaching Calloway Trail, and wading through some deep waters, we found a little campsite. It was getting dark and we had not seen a good site in the few hours of hiking and bush waking downstream. We didn't take any pictures due to the several pools we had to wade through with our gear. At the site we found, some rock benches, table, and fire pit had been developed and we set up around that. These petroglyphs were 8 feet to the right of the fire pit. We noticed some big cat poo, as well as heard some rocks fall from the canyon tops so we had our senses heightened all night. 

From here we hiked our way out, early the next day. Some other places to access this creek exist near Camp Verde before in converges with the Verde River. I have not had a chance to explore this part yet expect to in the future.