Muldoon

Muldoon covers 5,821 acres in Prescott National Forest at the headwaters of the Verde River, in Maricopa and Yavapai counties, Arizona. The terrain is mountainous and montane, drained by Muldoon Canyon and Bull Basin Canyon. The Muldoon Canyon–Verde River headwaters reach feeds the upper Verde River and supports stock waters at Bull Tank and Muldoon Tank. Water moves down steep drainages from upland slopes toward the Verde valley, etching narrow, boulder-strewn canyons through the volcanic terrain below the Mogollon Rim transition.

The area assembles a mosaic of community types stacked across elevation and aspect. Higher, north-facing slopes support Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland; mid-elevation benches carry Sky Island Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Sky Island Juniper Savanna, and Sky Island Oak Woodland on cooler exposures. Steep south-facing slopes hold Arizona Plateau Chaparral, where Fendler's whitethorn (Ceanothus fendleri), fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), Fremont barberry (Berberis fremontii), and Palmer oak (Quercus palmeri)—near threatened on the IUCN Red List—form dense, drought-hardened thickets. Lower terraces give way to Apache-Chihuahuan Desert Grassland and Upper Sonoran Desert Scrub, where velvet mesquite (Neltuma velutina), catclaw acacia (Senegalia greggii), Apache-plume (Fallugia paradoxa), desert-willow (Chilopsis linearis), and whipple cholla (Cylindropuntia whipplei) anchor the soils. Along seeps within the Warm Desert Mountain Streamside Woodland, netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata), velvet ash (Fraxinus velutina), and willowleaf false willow (Baccharis salicifolia) trace each drainage.

Wildlife uses every layer. Pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, moves in flocks through the pinyon-juniper canopy, caching seeds that regenerate the woodland. Black-throated gray warbler (Setophaga nigrescens) and Virginia's warbler (Leiothlypis virginiae) glean insects from the oak and juniper canopy, while Scott's oriole (Icterus parisorum) nests among grassland yuccas. Broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) pollinates scented beardtongue (Penstemon palmeri) and other tubular blooms. Eastern collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) and greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) hunt insects on sun-warmed outcrops and are themselves prey for gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) and merlin (Falco columbarius). In the streamside woodland, song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), great blue heron (Ardea herodias), and roundtail chub (Gila robusta), vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, depend on flowing water and shaded pools. Northern hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), also IUCN vulnerable, forages overhead at dusk. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

Moving down Muldoon Canyon, a visitor crosses from sun-baked grassland through chaparral that catches at sleeves, then into shaded oak-juniper benches where the air cools and the ground softens with leaf litter. The canyon walls narrow; cliff faces echo with the chatter of pinyon jays and the dry rasp of cicadas. Where seeps emerge near Bull Tank, the smell shifts to wet earth and hackberry leaves, and the streambed brightens with green sedges. Climbing the south rim of Bull Basin Canyon, the view opens across the Verde headwaters toward the Bradshaw Mountains.

Muldoon is a 5,821-acre Inventoried Roadless Area within Prescott National Forest in Maricopa and Yavapai counties, Arizona. The Chino Valley Ranger District administers the area, which lies in the headwaters of Muldoon Canyon–Verde River and falls within the Southwestern Region of the U.S. Forest Service. The area is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Before European contact, the homelands of the Yavapai and Apache people covered much of what is now central and western Arizona [1]. The Yavapai are historically situated in central and west-central Arizona and today are associated with the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe, and the Tonto Apache Tribe [2]. In 1871, the United States set aside a 575,000-acre reservation for the Yavapai and Apache people [1]. In February 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant directed local military officials to march the Yavapai and Apache people 200 miles in the dead of winter to the San Carlos Reservation [1]. President Grant revoked the 1871 executive order in April 1875, dissolving the Camp Verde Reservation and returning its lands to the public domain [1]. The Nation's former reservation lands were opened to non-Indian settlement in 1877 [1].

Joseph Walker organized a party that reached the Hassayampa River in May of 1863, after hearing about gold in the streams of what is now Arizona from Native Americans [6]. The mountains surrounding Prescott had been heavily mined and timber severely cut since 1863, when gold was discovered in the Bradshaw Mountains [3]. As the transcontinental railroad approached from the east in 1882, it became cheaper to ship and receive goods [6]. The arrival of the railroad made the United Verde copper deposit economically viable, and William Clark of Montana acquired the United Verde Copper Company at Jerome in 1888 [6].

The General Land Law Revision Act of 1891, commonly called the Creative Act of 1891, provided for the setting aside of forest reserves [4]. On May 10, 1898, President William McKinley designated a 4-mile square, 10,240 acres as the Prescott Forest Reserve [5]. Twenty-five forest reserves and four national forests were proclaimed in the Southwest Territory from 1892 to 1907 [4]. The forest reserves were transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1905, and in 1907 they were renamed National Forests [5]. In 1908, the Reserve, renamed "Prescott National Forest," absorbed the Verde National Forest [3]. Over time the 10,240-acre Prescott Forest Reserve was expanded to its current size of 1.2 million acres [5]. The Muldoon area remains part of this expanded Prescott National Forest, managed today within the Chino Valley Ranger District.

Vital Resources Protected

• Verde Headwater Protection: Muldoon's 5,821 roadless acres sit on the Muldoon Canyon–Verde River headwaters drainage. Keeping the slopes uncut allows precipitation to enter the soil, recharge shallow aquifers, and emerge in seeps and tributaries with a low sediment load. This headwater integrity supplies the cold, clear water that downstream native fish populations—including roundtail chub (Gila robusta), assessed as vulnerable by the IUCN—depend on for spawning substrate and pool habitat.

• Riparian Function in Streamside Woodland: The Warm Desert Mountain Streamside Woodland that lines drainages within Muldoon Canyon and Bull Basin Canyon depends on intact upland slopes to dampen flood pulses and sustain dry-season baseflow. Native riparian trees such as netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata) and velvet ash (Fraxinus velutina) shade pools, trap sediment, and provide nesting and foraging structure for riparian-dependent birds and bats, including the IUCN-vulnerable northern hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus).

• Unfragmented Pinyon-Juniper and Oak Woodland: Sky Island Pinyon-Juniper Woodland covers more than two-thirds of the area, with Sky Island Oak Woodland and Sky Island Juniper Savanna on cooler exposures. Keeping this canopy continuous preserves seed-caching corridors for the IUCN-vulnerable pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), whose foraging flocks regenerate the woodland, and supports cover for Palmer oak (Quercus palmeri), assessed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation into Verde Headwater Streams: Road construction across the steep, erosive slopes of Muldoon Canyon would expose mineral soil on cut and fill faces. Surface runoff from those exposed faces delivers fine sediment directly into the Verde headwater drainages, smothering spawning substrate and filling the interstitial gravels that aquatic invertebrates and native fish such as roundtail chub require. Because cut slopes continue to shed material for years after construction, the sediment delivery is chronic rather than a single event.

• Habitat Fragmentation Across the Pinyon-Juniper Mosaic: A road corridor cut through Sky Island Pinyon-Juniper Woodland and Arizona Plateau Chaparral creates a hard linear edge through canopy that currently functions as continuous habitat. The edge effect alters microclimate, raises light and temperature on woodland floors that were previously shaded, and breaks the seed-caching routes used by pinyon jays. Re-establishing canopy continuity requires decades of slow-growing pinyon and juniper recruitment.

• Invasive Species Introduction Along Disturbed Corridors: Construction equipment and the bare, regularly disturbed surface of a new road act as a vector and seedbed for non-native plants such as Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) and other annual grasses already documented in the regional flora. Once established along the corridor, invasive plants spread into the adjacent desert grassland and chaparral, altering fine-fuel loads and fire frequency in ecosystems whose natural fire regimes have already been disrupted by a century of suppression and grazing. The combination is difficult to reverse because each disturbance event reseeds the invasive community.

Muldoon covers 5,821 acres in Prescott National Forest, west of the Verde River headwaters in Yavapai and Maricopa counties. The area contains no maintained trails, no designated trailheads, and no developed campgrounds. Recreation here is dispersed and unguided — visitors approach on foot from adjacent Forest roads and pick their way down Muldoon Canyon or Bull Basin Canyon. Travel crosses rugged montane terrain that drops through chaparral, pinyon-juniper, and grassland in a single descent.

The mosaic of Sky Island Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Arizona Plateau Chaparral, Apache-Chihuahuan Desert Grassland, and Sky Island Oak Woodland supports general hunts under Arizona Game and Fish Department regulations for the units that include this section of Prescott National Forest. Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) use the oak and pine-juniper canopy. Gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) and merlin (Falco columbarius) hunt the same cover, and western black-tailed rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus), greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi), and eastern collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) are common on warm slopes. Hunters should check current AZGFD seasons and unit boundaries before entering.

Birding is the most concretely documented recreation activity in the surrounding landscape. Six eBird hotspots fall within 24 km of Muldoon, anchored by Prescott WTP (190 species, 456 checklists), Upper Verde River–Campbell-North (160 species, 144 checklists), and Sullivan Lake (113 species, 91 checklists). Potato Patch Campground (101 species), Del Rio Springs (106 species), and Chino Valley Recharge Ponds (89 species) round out the cluster. Within Muldoon itself, pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), western bluebird (Sialia mexicana), and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) move through the canopy, while streamside drainages carry willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii), great blue heron (Ardea herodias), and song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) where seeps emerge.

The Muldoon Canyon–Verde River headwaters reach feeds the Verde River downstream, and stock tanks at Bull Tank and Muldoon Tank hold water in normal years. Roundtail chub (Gila robusta) and redeye bass (Micropterus coosae) occur in the broader Verde River; angling within Muldoon's drainages is informal and subject to Arizona Game and Fish regulations. Photographers find long views from the rim of Bull Basin Canyon across the upper Verde toward the Bradshaw Mountains, with strong contrast through pinyon-juniper canopy and chaparral.

Because there are no roads in Muldoon, every activity here — hunting, birding, dispersed exploration, scouting routes down the canyons, photography — depends on a foot approach across continuous canopy and undisturbed drainages. A road corridor would shorten walk-in distance but would also fragment the canopy that pinyon jay and wild turkey rely on, raise sediment and noise in the Verde headwater channels, and remove the backcountry character that makes Muldoon distinct from the surrounding Forest road network.