Castle Creek Filifera

July 24, 2020

Hey guys,

After posting those pictures of the Washingtonia filifera in Palm Canyon in Western AZ, I did a little more research about native palms in the desert southwest outside of the Coachella Valley.

I have found some interesting stuff about one population in particular, and I am hoping someone here has some information they could share. Apparently, 38 miles from Prescott, there is another stand of natively occurring filifera at the end of an old stagecoach trail up Castle Creek. Problem is, I can't seem to find any more good location data. The other issue is that I probably live in the closest town from which this area is accessable, and it's still easily 2 hours out there given the rugged nature of the terrain - so exploring arbitrarily could be relatively time consuming.

I found a PalmTalk post from 12 years ago where a guy basically hit a dead end asking about this population:

However - the answer that was given about the planted palm grove is not the correct one. There is a separate, wild, naturally-occurring palm grove somewhere significantly further up Castle Creek. It is discussed in this issue of Desert Plants from 1983:

https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/552211

Does anyone have any lat/long coordinates or any other information they could share? I'm half-tempted just to drive up Castle Creek until I find something, two hours or not. Gotta wait a few days though because the monsoons have been savage in the Bradshaw foothills this last couple days and I'm sure all of that wash is a big, sticky, quicksand-y mess.

Let me know!

July 25, 2020

Bump. Anyone got any info before I try my luck?

July 25, 2020

Didn't find a whole lot myself. They have to be near a source of permanent water of some kind to survive out there, though. That should help narrow it down some.

July 26, 2020

6 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

Didn't find a whole lot myself. They have to be near a source of permanent water of some kind to survive out there, though. That should help narrow it down some.

My thought was thick desert clay near the creek bed where the soil texture and ground cover don’t allow for much evaporation.

Still, castle creek is a LONG creek. Could be anywhere like 40 miles up and down that thing.

July 26, 2020

17 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

My thought was thick desert clay near the creek bed where the soil texture and ground cover don’t allow for much evaporation.

Still, castle creek is a LONG creek. Could be anywhere like 40 miles up and down that thing.

I looked at the available photos of Cow Creek and Lake Pleasant but didn't notice anything other than large cacti unfortunately. Some of the roads are not available on Google maps, so I could only live vicariously through the internet in this case.

August 6, 2020

On 7/26/2020 at 3:04 PM, kinzyjr said:

I looked at the available photos of Cow Creek and Lake Pleasant but didn't notice anything other than large cacti unfortunately. Some of the roads are not available on Google maps, so I could only live vicariously through the internet in this case.

Update to this thread... I found them on google maps. Will be making a trip out there this weekend with the wife and kids. Looks like it's about a 42 mile trek through the desert from my house.