Return to NFr 213

Well, I just spent about an hour searching for pictures I had taken the first time I was on NFr 213. Couldn't find them. I think it must have been some time around 2005. Maybe 2006. I didn't try to drive on the road at all then; too rough. I had watched some other people drive up the rough part of the road and most of them seemed to be having a lot of trouble. I hung around for a while watching one guy because I was sure he was going to set his tires on fire (he didn't). I don't remember much else from that hike, except that I was very tired by the time I got back to the truck and that I had to make a walking stick along the way so I could make it back.

I've driven up part of that road 3 or 4 times since then. I've always had to stop at the part where the guy tried to set his tires on fire. It's very steep and very rough there. You wouldn't think it was a road if it weren't for the tire marks. I haven't hiked on that road since the first time I was on it, though. Any time I think about it, I remember how tired I was and go someplace else.

The reason I'm yakking about this is, of course, because I finally drove down that road. There were a couple of times when it seemed like the truck was vertical, but the tires never slipped and the truck just kept going. I did manage to get a small ding in the skid plate. I wish I had a movie or some pictures going over the rough part, but I wasn't about to put on the parking brake and get out. There were lots of pictures I wanted to take along the road, too, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on that road because most of it is only one vehicle wide. The spots where you could get around somebody are barely wide enough to do that.

I got out to look around less than half a mile along the road. I didn't recognize anything.

Then I came to these cliffs, which I do remember.

Most of the road is pretty rough, but not scary. Just bumpy. It seemed to be much longer than I remembered. I always used to wonder why I had gotten so tired on such a short hike, but I had walked about 6 miles. That's a long way in rough terrain.

I had turned back shortly beyond the clearing for the ranch down there the first time I was out here. It seemed very far away as I drove toward it this time.

At the ranch house location.

As you get close to the ranch house area, the road is close to an intermittent creek and is lined on both sides with mesquite and cat claw acacia. On my first trip out there I had heard something thundering down the road and wisely stepped off the road into the brush. A suburban roared past in a cloud of dust. I still remember the startled look on the driver's face when he glanced to his right and saw me.

I had to stretch my legs by the time I drove down there, so I headed up a small hill to get a view of the area.

View to the east from the small hill.

Looking back at the ranch from the other side.

I encountered oncoming traffic once in each direction. Fortunately, it was in places where it was easy for us to get around each other. Going back down the rough parts was no less traumatic than going up. Well, maybe a little less, since I wasn't looking at nothing but blue sky on the way down. Click below for all of the pictures.

2012_10_28