Fossil Creek Wilderness

Five stars for the utter beauty this place possesses. When you’re here, you forget you’re in AZ. The turquoise, clear waters are absolutely unreal. You can see schools of rainbow trout in the mix as well. Many cascading waterfalls along the hike and even an old car we saw from the 30s or 40s that appears to have tumbled in off the road is laying in the trees above along the hike.
The only think I was disappointed about was the littering. When you reach the larger of the falls where people jump and swim, you’ll notice a lot of littering. I saw so many cigarette butts, trash, cans, etc… It was very unfortunate. Hopefully something can be done about this so we can forever enjoy this wonderful wildlife.

This 10 mile round trip hike to the dam that starts as a descent of 1,500 feet in elevation can be challenging on a hot day as the path is right in the sun’s path. You need good shoes, lots of water, a hat and sunblock. I found this challenging cause of the beating sun. BUT the toilet bowl and waterfalls is a great place to rest, swim and relax before you hike up 1,500 feet to your car. If the lot is full you can park at the B&B for $ 10 and walk 2 miles to the trailhead/​parking lot.
If you need water there are springs that you can find at the first campsite once you start your descent up at the 4 mile marker.

Took a day off on Thursday in September to enjoy cool water. Free to enter, I heard this place gets busy. If possible, avoid peak time. When we went, it wasn’t crowded at all.
There are two ways to get there (as far as I know). One is from I-​17 to Camp Verde (this side is longer dirt road drive but less hiking to get to the river). Another way which we took is from Payson. From Fountain hills, it was about 1hr and a half drive.
From Phoenix, take the beeline highway (87) to Payson, continue north to Pine and Strawberry. Go left on Fossil Creek Road for about three miles to get to the Fossil Springs Trailhead. They have bathroom facility (no running water) at the parking lot.
From the parking lot, it’s 4 miles hike down to the Fossil Springs. It’s about 1,500 elevation difference. Hike down was very easy. They recommend 1 gallon of water per person, the sign said this trail is good for those who can hike 10 miles easily. They rescued 200 people this summer alone. I recommend just to pace yourself as 4 miles hike down means 4 miles hike up later. What goes down must come up, right?
It was difficult to hike 4 miles up. Trail itself isn’t difficult at all but there wasn’t much to motivate me to push harder as fun was already down there. I think it took us just about 2 hours to hike up. Yes we run (jogged) while it was relatively flat around 2 miles area but that didn’t last long at all.
Despite of 4 miles hike up awaits, I still would like to come back again, possibly stay longer next time if that means I need to carry more. Water was beautiful. It felt cold at first but once I jumped in, cool water felt really nice for my body.
Really nice color of the water. I couldn’t believe we were still in Arizona. Perhaps it was more enjoyable as it was weekday in September with less people. Some reviewers said trash left by others, the area we went on this particular day, I didn’t see any. I was prepared with extra garbage bag to bring trash up but I didn’t have to.
Overall, I enjoyed my day in the nature and would come back.

Fantastic day trip out of Phoenix! Fossil creek is a gem, a total desert oasis! Highly recommended! Difficult hike so it’s certainly not for everyone, but overall a wonderful experience if you can handle 10 miles! Don’t bring your grandma, your 7-​year-​old, or a friend who is in terrible shape. Wear good shoes, pack extra socks, and bring that «moleskin» stuff for blisters! Goggles and an underwater camera would be nice to have while swimming. Don’t forget a change of clothes and a towel for after your swim!
Took us about two hours to drive from Phoenix. The last section of the drive is a dirt road but is well-​maintained so the minivan was able to handle it. Before we got on the trail, we talked to a few park rangers who had set up a table in the parking lot. They told us they’ve done 200+ rescues this year alone! They warned us to take it easy and bring a lot of water. While my group was prepared, I think it’s really nice they are taking a proactive approach to safety.
The hike down to the bottom took two hours, and was 5 miles total. We found a secluded spot right next to the water and decided to «camp out» there. (Overnight camping is allowed in certain areas, but we were just hanging out for a few hours.) Ate some snacks to refuel and then hopped in the crystal-​clear water. There are tons of fish in the water and if you stand still for too long, they will start nibbling on your feet! It tickled but felt great as my feet were pretty sore from the hike. Our spot was next to three different (but connected) pools so we started swimming there, but moved upstream to see some small waterfalls. Had a great time climbing and jumping off waterfalls, but be careful because some areas are not as deep as you’d think! The water was colder than I prefer (mid 60s) but refreshing after a long, sweaty hike.
Right before we left the creek area, we stopped at the springs to fill up our water bottles. So cool to see the water just bubbling up out of the earth! Water tasted great and we didn’t get sick so it was clean just like the park rangers said! It was great to have a water source at the bottom, so you really only need to bring water for the hike down. I’m not gonna lie — the hike up was terrible and I was struggling! It was cloudy so temperatures weren’t too warm (low 80s) but my feet were killing me! It took almost three hours to hike from the creek to the parking lot.
All in all, it was an amazing trip. We brought our two dogs who did really well, but probably could’ve benefited from some «doggie boots» to prevent their paw pads from ripping. Our bigger dog had some damage to her paws from the hike back up — so sad! :((I will note, all the park signs say that it is NOT recommended to bring dogs. Our dogs did well, but one ended up with hurt paws after the hike up. It would have been a nightmare if we had needed to carry them out.) Including our drive to/​from Phoenix, it was a full 12-​hour day. One last note — we didn’t see very much trash! Maybe the other Unilocalers have been cleaning up after the jerks who leave trash behind. Thanks guys!

Super easy hike down (because you’re obvisiuly going down)…but it is very strenenous on the way up! So be prepared with water, hats for shade, and hike in the morning while its cool. Flash flooding can occur here, so be weather literate too!

Round trip it was a 8 mile hike. Make sure to bring lots of water at least a gallon and to get to the main waterfall keep following the trail going through some bushes and down and you will see and hear the main waterfall. Overall it was worth the hike and was very beautiful! It is worth walking more to go to the main one than to settle for shorter hikes and smaller parts of the fossil creek!

This place is beautiful but my 1 star review is for the system the Rangers use to let people in.
We came through Camp Verde and arrived around 8:30am on ⁶⁄₁₃. Fossil Creek Rd was open until we drove about 5 miles in, the Rangers had it blocked bc the lots filled up already. They told us it would be 40 min — 3 hours to get in but it’s never taken the 3 hours before. We got behind the cars that were already waiting (we were the 5^th car). A few hours went by so we checked on the status.
Their system is to let all the cars in that are waiting or none. They do not take into consideration how long you’ve been there, doesn’t matter if you’re there for 5 hour or 5 minutes. The don’t close the road at the beginning WHICH THEY SHOULD bc more cars keep coming down and adding to the wait time for everyone.
After 4 hours everyone started getting really antsy and pissed off. The Rangers said their shift was over at 4:30 and once they left it was a free for all to get it and chances of them opening up the gates were unlikely. They hadn’t mentioned this previously in the 4.5 hours some of us were waiting. And during this time we watched at least 30 cars come out of the gates.
They desperately need to come up with a new system. Maybe letting 5 cars in as 5 cars come out IN THE ORDER PEOPLE GOT THERE.
This place is beautiful but I don’t know if I’ll ever come back bc of this experience.
Don’t come here on a weekend unless you plan on arriving before 7am or after 4:30 when the rangers are gone…

This hike was absolutely incredible. My boyfriend and I woke up early on Valentine’s Day to get there because we thought it would be packed. We got there early enough that we didn’t run into one person on the hike down to the creek, it was so serene. I haven’t heard peaceful quietness like that in so long.
We brought my dog Sierra and she loved it just as much as we did. When we got down to the creek, she was able to splash and play as she wanted, it was so fun to watch and run around with her! Make sure to bring doggie bags to pick up your pup’s poo because there are no «baggie stations» along the way. Keep the path clean!
Once we fully enjoyed our time down by the creek, we realized we had to hike back up 4 miles to get to our car. That was a little rough but a great workout. Just be mentally prepared for the hike up and bring snacks & water to help sustain you!
I’d highly recommend this hike to anyone, especially with dogs! I would say it’s moderate to difficult!

fossil creek is an absolutely wonderful blue waterfall location with cliff jumping opportunities upwards of 45 or 50 feet I’m guessing. The water is crystal clear and absolutely refreshing. It’s really something special.
Arizona has some of the best and unique wildlife locations in all of the country. What’s even greater about most of these locations is that they are free.
With that being said, the fact that this beautiful location near Camp Verde is free is what’s ruining it.
I was just there today and we drove in the road at 8 AM just before the Rangers started to close it off and only allow one car in one car out. By 9 AM until noon there was probably 150 people there. Since it costs nothing to get in everybody comes in droves and completely TRASHES the place.
The list of trash and debris left by people is as follows:
Glass bottles… check
Plastic water bottles… check
Cigarette butts… Check
Styrofoam coolers (who uses these?!)… Yup
Beer cans everywhere (PBR) … You bet
Used diapers… Gag… Yes
Shoe soles…
Bags of chips ripped open and strewn everywhere… This seems to be a staple here.
Way more crap that I don’t even want to waste my breath telling you about… Sadly yes
I’m going back with a roll of 55 gallon industrial trash bags and I’m picking up next time I’m there and carrying out bags of garbage with whoever else I can guilt trip into helping.
I actively watched parents let their kids throw garbage wherever they wanted to.
It was absolutely sad witnessing this beautiful wonder get completely degraded by these degenerates.
This needs to be a fee site to keep the riffraff out. This use to be something special and now it’s just a sordid cesspool.
Once this place gets cleaned up I will update my review to at least four or five stars.