Dragoon Mountains | Council Rocks via Slavin Gulch | Arizona History

This is 6-mile-long loop hike with only a few hundred feet of elevation gain.    / @flynnhikes   The route starts at the Slavin Gulch trailhead where there's parking for 4-5 vehicles and heads 3 miles along an unnamed but relatively obvious trail over to Council Rocks. We hiked back on a somewhat less-traveled, no-name trail that was a bit closer to the base of the mountains. There's a lot more catclaw acacia on the second trail! You can also drive all the way to Council Rocks: See the driving directions at the end of this Arizona Highways article https://www.arizonahighways.com/route... . As of February 2025 the sign for FR 687K (the road mentioned in the article) is missing so it's a good idea to have the location on your phone or a printed map in advance of heading over to the Dragoons since there generally is no cell signal out in that area.

DIRECTIONS to the trailhead: Drive to Tombstone, head east (thanks, @jerryjones188 for catching my error!) on Middlemarch Road for 10 miles and then turn north on FR 687. Drive 2½ miles to the Slavin Gulch trailhead. Or, see the map at 0:45 in the video.

Other hikes in the Dragoons:
Slavin Gulch    • Slavin Gulch Trail to the Abril Mine Ore C...  
Sheepshead    • Sheepshead 6,545’ | Dragoon Mountains Ariz...  
Cochise Stronghold Trail    • Cochise Stronghold Trail | Dragoon Mountai...  
Middlemarch Canyon Trail    • Middlemarch Canyon Trail | Cochise Strongh...  

Geronimo and Chief Cochise are the most well-known of the Apaches that used the Dragoons as their stronghold in their fight against the miners, ranchers and settlers who moved into the southwest during the westward expansion of the United States. In 1872, the final negotiations for the surrender of these Apaches were held near Council Rocks. Cochise agreed that his people would settle on reservation land set aside for them in the Dragoon and Chiricahua Mountains and the valleys between them. But he died two years later, in 1874. The reservation agent, Tom Jeffords, was replaced in 1876. The treaty was broken, and the reservation was closed. The remaining Apaches were moved to the San Carlos Reservation or escaped either to New Mexico or to Mexico. In 1886 Geronimo surrendered in Skeleton Canyon on a small bluff with views of the San Bernardino and San Simon Valleys and were ultimately imprisoned at the Comanche and Kiowa reservation near Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

This was another great hike with the Huachuca Hiking Club. Thanks to Steve A. for suggesting and leading it. More information about the club is here: https://groups.io/g/HuachucaHikingClub

For more information:
https://www.nps.gov/tuma/learn/histor...
https://npshistory.com/publications/t...
https://www.pbs.org/video/wild-west-s...
https://www.gvrhc.org/Library/Cochise...