Located north of the city of Cottonwood and west of Sedona, Black Mountain is a flat-top mesa featuring an old mining road that goes near the summit. While the road makes for an easy hike overall, the real treat is the views of the spectacular red-and-white cliffs of the Coconino Plateau, which run nearly unbroken for about 25 miles, forming a beautiful sweeping vista from many vantage points along the hike. This is the same geology that provides all the pretty “red rocks” that surround Sedona. Black Mountain is itself a mesa formed by erosion, a remnant appendage of the Coconino Plateau now separated by a low pass with Casner Mountain (another mesa) emanating off of the plateau.

I left the Phoenix area around 10 a.m., making the two-hour drive into Cottonwood, where I got some drinks before leaving the highway for Black Mountain. Black Mountain is visible as a broad blocky mesa, not as colorful as the nearby redder-colored mesas and hills (hence its name, “Black”, I assume). The day was dry and cloudless, pleasant but slightly warm. From Cottonwood, I followed AZ-89A north about two miles to Bill Gray Road (Coconino Forest Road 761) near a big church on the north side of the highway. I passed by the church and got onto the actual forest road. The road itself was very sandy, enough to cause me to yaw in places. Whenever someone came the other way, their dust cloud was enormous. In fairness, so was mine, so we both suffered. Despite the sand, I did not need four-wheel drive, and I drove about 9.5 miles north through high-desert scrub and occasional rocky formations until I was below Black’s bulwark. I was at the junction with FR-761A, also signed as “Sacred Mesa Drive” across the way to some residence. I went left on 761A for about a mile, needing four-wheel drive to manage the rocks. I parked underneath a powerline, directly underneath Black. It was 12:30 when I started the hike.

For the hike, I walked up 761A for about 0.3 mile, then left onto FR-761C, which wiggles up to the mesa-top. This segment made three long switchbacks up the side of the mesa, emerging onto the mesa-top after another 1.5 mile by my reckoning. The hiking was easy, with great views north and east. The warmth wasn’t much of a problem and there were very few insects.

On top the mesa, I walked the road for about another mile as it very gently rose to gain onto a rise marked with spot elevation 5,985 feet on the map. The road was great to follow as the brush up here was very thick and wooded with low pinon-and-juniper, cactus and grasses. I walked and walked, eventually descending off this 5,985-foot hilltop, but the road started to meander away from the real top, which I could see off to the west. Instead, the road bent south. I followed it for about 500 yards out of curiosity but quickly determined it was going somewhere else, not the top (as was shown on the map). So I returned to where I could again see the real top.

The last half-mile to the summit was cross-country, through the same wooded terrain, but open enough to allow me chances to track my location. It would be very easy to get off on a wrong bearing on top this big mesa, which covers about four square miles. After a few minutes, everything “felt right” and I knew I was at or near the top. Not surprisingly, it’s very broad and wooded, but after a few more minutes I found a cairn, with some great viewpoints north and west. I was amused to be the first person to sign in since 2009, the piece of paper containing the usual names I see on these remote peaks: Vitz, Macleod and Lilley, Nicholls, Scouras. So I added mine, for the amusement of the next visitor in about 2014.

The views were tremendous: the big volcano peaks on the Coconino Plateau stood high above the rim: Bill Williams, Sitgreaves, Kendrick and Humphreys. The sky was bright blue and the day gorgeous. Plus, it was slightly cooler up here. I figured a three-mile one-way hike, which I covered in slightly less than two hours, with 1,400 feet of gain. For that effort, I took ten minutes to relax at the summit area. Given I was expecting a view of trees, the views here were very lovely.

The hike down was quick, and I had no trouble finding my way back to the old road. The sun was a little lower in the sky by now, making for some wonderful light conditions for photography, the red rocks standing out impressively. Toward the bottom, two guys in an older LandCruiser were rumbling up the road to the top. They were hunters and we had a short chat. They were cool. Back to my truck, more hunters were here and there on their ATVs. While this area may not see many hikers, it is definitely popular with the hunters. The whole round-trip journey covered slightly less than three hours.

Back in Cottonwood, I stocked up on supplies, had a dinner, then drove southeast toward tomorrow’s objective, Hackberry Mountain in the Verde River Valley. I enjoyed my day on Black Mountain. While I doubt I’ll rehike it, I would like to hike up Casner someday and explore the roads that lead down into the Sycamore Breaks to the west. The country is gorgeous up here, naturally.