Chevelon Canyon

Chevelon Canyon covers 5,573 acres on the southern margin of the Mogollon Plateau in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, Coconino and Navajo counties, Arizona. The terrain is mountainous and montane, shaped by a dense network of canyons cut into the Plateau's edge: Chevelon Canyon itself, the parallel forks of Palomino Canyon (North, Middle, and Main), Alder Canyon and its East and West forks, Long Tom Canyon, Larson Canyon, Horse Trap Canyon, Deer Lake Canyon, and Circle Bar Draw. Telephone Ridge, Larson Ridge, and Chevelon Ridge separate the drainages on the surface. The Long Tom Canyon–Chevelon Canyon headwaters feed Chevelon Creek, which descends north toward the Little Colorado River, while Larson Spring Tank, Clay Tank, Point Tank, and Ridge Tank hold water on the ridge surfaces between drainages.

Vegetation stacks across elevation, aspect, and canyon position. The ridges and upper benches carry Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland; cooler, higher north-facing slopes support Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest and, on the highest exposures, Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest. Where the Plateau breaks into the canyons, Sky Island High Mountain Conifer-Oak Forest and Sky Island Pine-Oak Forest meet Rocky Mountain Gambel Oak Shrubland in mosaic patches. Lower canyon walls and warmer south-facing slopes carry Colorado Plateau Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Sky Island Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Sky Island Juniper Savanna, and Sky Island Oak Woodland. Arizona Plateau Chaparral occupies hot, exposed faces below the rims. On the canyon floors, Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland traces Chevelon Creek and the perennial reaches of its tributaries, while Rocky Mountain Subalpine Meadow, Northern Rockies Subalpine Grassland, Intermountain Semi-Desert Grassland, and Intermountain Semi-Desert Shrub-Steppe occupy openings in the surrounding matrix.

This vertical structure creates a continuous gradient of habitats. Spruce-fir, mixed-conifer, and ponderosa pine on the cool plateau give way down-canyon to oak-pine forest, then pinyon-juniper, juniper savanna, and chaparral. Streamside woodland along Chevelon Creek and its tributaries holds shade and moisture year-round, supporting cool-water aquatic and riparian communities tied to the canyon's perennial flows; the surrounding meadows and grasslands provide forage and edge habitat where canopy gives way to open ground. The unfragmented canopy across the Plateau allows free movement among these community types. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

Moving down off Chevelon Ridge, a visitor crosses through ponderosa pine onto a steep oak-pine slope, then drops into a narrowing canyon where the air cools and gambel oak gives way to streamside woodland along Chevelon Creek. Pools form between sandstone walls; the creek runs over gravel beds and disappears into shadow where the canyon tightens. Climbing back to Telephone Ridge or Larson Ridge, the view opens across the parallel Palomino and Alder canyons, with juniper savanna spreading toward the Plateau's edge and the Mogollon Rim descending southward into Rim Country.

Chevelon Canyon is a 5,573-acre Inventoried Roadless Area within the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in Coconino and Navajo counties, Arizona. The area is managed within the Black Mesa Ranger District and lies in the Southwestern Region of the U.S. Forest Service, draining the Long Tom Canyon–Chevelon Canyon headwaters into Chevelon Creek. The area is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Five American Indian tribes represented by nine separate tribal governments have traditional ties to lands within the forests: Western Apache, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, and Yavapai [1]. Crossing the Mogollon Rim was the Palatkwapi Trail, a prehistoric route used by the Hopi of northern Arizona when venturing west to trade with the Yavapai of the Verde Valley [2]. Two fortified pueblos on Chevelon Creek date from about 800 years ago [3]. The Hopi consider as sacred places the Chevelon Ruins—in their language Cakwabaiyaki, or "blue running water pueblo"—and Homolovi, the "place of the little hills" [3]. When Spanish explorer Antonio de Espéjo arrived in the land of the Hopi in 1583, a party of Hopis led Espéjo and his party west along the Palatkwapi Trail [2].

A trapper and scout named Chevelon died on the bank of a creek on the Mogollon Rim sometime in the 1800s after eating poisonous roots—a story recorded by Lorenzo Sitgreaves on his 1851 expedition, from which the creek and canyon take their name [4]. During the 1860s, the Palatkwapi Trail was developed into the Chavez Wagon Road [2]. Mormon farmers were the first American settlers in the lower Chevelon, but drought drove them out [3]. Later came cowboys and dry-land spreads that included the famous Hashknife Outfit, and the Pleasant Valley War over sheep grazing [3]. Commercial timber and fuel wood harvesting has occurred across the forests since the late 1870s [1]. By 1917 the commercial logging industry was established on the forests [1]. During the 1920s an extensive network of logging railroads was constructed on the forests, primarily on the Sitgreaves side [1]. By 1939 roads had replaced most of the railroads to transport timber [1].

The Black Mesa Forest Reserve had its birth on August 17, 1898 [5]. President William McKinley's Proclamation 423 reserved lands in the Territory of Arizona that were in part covered with timber, declaring that the public good would be promoted by setting them apart as public reservations [6]. On July 1, 1908, the Black Mesa National Forest was divided among the Sitgreaves, Tonto, Apache, and Coconino National Forests, and the name was discontinued. The Apache and Sitgreaves National Forests were administratively combined in 1974 as the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. The upper Chevelon is now part of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, while the lower Chevelon is fractured into a checkerboard of public and private lands [3].

Vital Resources Protected

• Chevelon Creek Headwater Protection: Chevelon Canyon's 5,573 roadless acres include the Long Tom Canyon–Chevelon Canyon headwaters that feed Chevelon Creek as it descends the Mogollon Rim toward the Little Colorado River. Keeping the canyon walls and ridgetops uncut allows precipitation to infiltrate the soil, recharge shallow aquifers, and emerge as low-sediment baseflow in Chevelon Creek and its tributaries. This headwater integrity sustains the cool, clear water that downstream pool and riffle habitats depend on.

• Continuous Ponderosa Pine and Mixed-Conifer Canopy: Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland covers roughly three-quarters of the area, with Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest and Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest on the cooler benches above the rim. The roadless condition preserves continuous canopy across Chevelon Ridge, Larson Ridge, and Telephone Ridge, allowing canopy-dependent wildlife to move across the upper plateau and limiting the edge habitat that fire suppression has already pushed into many regional pine stands.

• Riparian Function in Canyon-Bottom Streamside Woodland: Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland lines Chevelon Creek and the perennial tributaries in Alder, Palomino, Larson, and Deer Lake canyons. These narrow streamside corridors shade pools, trap sediment from up-slope runoff, and provide structural habitat for riparian and aquatic species that cannot persist where the stream is dewatered or the floodplain is cleared. Connecting the headwater meadows to the lower canyon reaches lets sediment, woody debris, and nutrients move at natural rates.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation and Soil Loss into Chevelon Canyon Drainages: Road construction across the steep canyon walls of Chevelon, Alder, and Palomino canyons would expose mineral soil on cut and fill slopes. Surface runoff from those slopes delivers fine sediment directly into the Chevelon Creek system, smothering pool substrates and degrading water quality in a watershed where threats assessments already flag soil loss and erosion from road and logging disturbance. Because cut slopes continue to shed material for many years after construction, the sediment loading is chronic.

• Canopy Fragmentation and Altered Fire Regime in Ponderosa Pine: A road corridor cut through Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest creates a hard linear opening in canopy that is already vulnerable to altered fire dynamics from a century of suppression. The open road surface and adjacent disturbed shoulder change microclimate, raise surface temperatures, and add a new ignition vector along the corridor. Restoring continuous canopy after roading requires decades of slow conifer regeneration and active fuels management.

• Invasive Species and Fuel Loading Along New Corridors: Construction equipment and the bare, regularly disturbed surface of a new road act as a vector and seedbed for non-native annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) that NatureServe assessments identify as a documented threat to pinyon-juniper, gambel oak shrubland, and chaparral on the Plateau. Once established, cheatgrass and similar annuals increase fine-fuel loads, shorten fire-return intervals, and reshape plant communities. The combination is difficult to reverse because each disturbance event reseeds the invasive community along the corridor.

Chevelon Canyon covers 5,573 acres on the Mogollon Plateau in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, Coconino and Navajo counties. Four trailheads provide access to the area: Telephone Ridge Trailhead, Larson Ridge Trailhead, 237 B Trailhead, and Canyon Dr Access. From these points, foot and horse travel drops off the plateau into Chevelon Canyon, the parallel Palomino and Alder canyons, and the tributary draws between Telephone Ridge, Larson Ridge, and Chevelon Ridge. Spillway Campground anchors developed overnight use; backcountry camping is otherwise dispersed and unguided.

Backcountry travel here is shaped by canyon topography. Routes from Telephone Ridge and Larson Ridge descend through Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Rocky Mountain Gambel Oak Shrubland into shaded canyon corridors that hold pools and gravel reaches of Chevelon Creek. Visitors should expect rugged ground, loose rock on the canyon walls, and limited water on the ridges between Larson Spring Tank, Clay Tank, Point Tank, and Ridge Tank.

Hunting in and around the area is governed by Arizona Game and Fish Department regulations for the units that include the Mogollon Plateau and the Black Mesa Ranger District. The ponderosa pine, mixed-conifer, oak-pine, and pinyon-juniper mosaic provides cover and forage; hunters should verify current AZGFD seasons and unit boundaries before entering.

Birding around Chevelon Canyon is well-documented. Fourteen eBird hotspots fall within 24 km of the area, anchored by Woods Canyon Lake (165 species, 589 checklists), Willow Springs Lake (141 species, 282 checklists), and Black Canyon Lake (136 species, 108 checklists). Chevelon Crossing itself (114 species, 70 checklists) records lower-canyon riparian and grassland species, while Mogollon Rim Visitor Center, Horton Creek Trail, See Canyon, and Kohl's Ranch document mixed-conifer and rim-edge communities. The cluster around the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery (121 species), Christopher Creek Campground, and the Upper Tonto Creek Day Use Area extends the regional checklist into adjacent canyons.

Chevelon Creek and its tributaries hold cool-water habitat in their perennial reaches, and Chevelon Canyon Lake downstream supports rainbow and brown trout under Arizona Game and Fish stocking and management. Within the roadless area itself, fishing access requires a foot descent from the rim trailheads. Photographers find long views from Telephone Ridge and Larson Ridge across the parallel canyons, with the ponderosa-mixed conifer canopy giving way to gambel oak and streamside woodland in the canyon bottoms.

Because there are no Forest roads inside Chevelon Canyon, every activity here—descending from a rim trailhead, camping in the canyon, birding the streamside corridor, scouting routes between the parallel drainages, hunting the upper ridges—depends on the foot or stock approach from the four named trailheads and from Spillway Campground. A road corridor would shorten the walk-in but would fragment the unbroken ponderosa-conifer canopy across the plateau, add sediment and noise to Chevelon Creek, and remove the backcountry character that distinguishes the roadless area from the surrounding Forest road network.