Fall Overnight Backpacking in Chevelon Canyon

For Alyssa’s first backpacking trip, we chose an overnight trip into rugged Chevelon Canyon on the Mogollon Rim. We planned to hike down to the bottom of the canyon, then follow the creek to the inlet of the lake while fishing along the way.

We may have have also been swayed to descend into this particular canyon because it holds some of the best fishing in Arizona. Or so we’ve heard. And read. But last year’s day trip to this canyon had us scratching our heads. We’re used to voracious Sierra trout, eager to smack a bushy dry, but that’s not the case on these small gin clear spring creeks. We’ve yet to crack the Arizona fishing code, so we thought we’d give it another shot in the hopes of spending more time on the water and finally landing a fish!

We parked our car at Telephone Ridge trailhead and headed down into the deep canyon with backpacks full of camping and fishing gear.

The initial hike down is a short 1/2 mile that loses 700 feet of elevation gain. Going down is the easy part, its coming out that gets you.

On this warm fall day, the leaves were shining yellow and orange in the morning sun. It was one of those fall days where it seems like summer will never end (does it, in Arizona?).

When we finally reached the creek and started downstream towards the lake, the trail immediately disappeared. We were left with nothing but the stream and dense riparian vegetation.

For a while we walked on the edge of the creek bed, until we could find a reasonable place to cross. That lead us to into the forest where we found some sporadic use trails that would come and go. It was frustrating to walk on a perfectly good path for 300 yards only to have it abruptly end with no clear path forward. We would wonder around until we located the next strand of trail further down stream.

The going was insanely slow and particularly annoying with full packs on, but after 2 hours of hiking where we covered maybe 2 miles, it dawned on us. One of the trails that we found abruptly ended in a visible elk path, which we managed to follow for while until it magically connected with what looked like a human footpath – what?!

At this point it was clear that the fastest way through this canyon was going to be to the game trails – the elk in the canyon know the best routes, why not just follow them? From then on we tracked those giant footprints in the dirt which improved our speed dramatically.

We found a flat spot with a previously used fire ring just above the creek about 1/4 miles shy of the lake inlet and called it quits. The days are short in October, so there was only a couple hours of daylight left. Maybe we could catch a fish, finally?

We walked downstream to the lake inlet, and Cory tried a few spots along the way. I had one rise to a chernobyl ant, but didn’t set the hook in time because of the glare in the afternoon sun, dammit.

We had never been to the inlet proper and thought there might be a decent spot to fish where the current flowed in, but that’s not the case at Chevelon. The creek was barely a trickle and the point at which the creek ended and the lake started was indistinguishable. It was a large flat, slightly shallow section in which we spooked every fish into their hiding spots under rocks.

Tired, hungry and once again skunked we retreated to our campsite and made a fire and dinner. Did I mention the days are insanely short in October? It sucks when the sun goes down by 6pm and doesn’t rise for another 12 hours, but I digress.

The next day we opted to head straight back to the car without fishing because we were worried about the hike, but by following the game trails we cut our hiking time in half going back out. Despite this we still kept the rods in the packs and hoofed it up the 700 ft tall hill back to the car; a shower sounded really nice at that moment…

Four years of living in Arizona, and we still haven’t caught a fish in Chevelon Canyon… until next time…