New discoveries, just around the corner

This past weekend, I had planned to hike up to the arches I had seen the previous weekend. When I left the house on Saturday, it was overcast and gloomy and I could see rain falling here and there and it was cold (well, about 50) and breezy. I wouldn't like any pictures I took in such weather and I would have to keep moving to keep warm. I talked myself out of hiking before I had driven 4 miles. I kept driving east, wondering where I would wind up. The first place I stopped was just west of Superior. I saw a dirt road heading south and decided it needed exploring. After driving about a quarter mile, though, it crossed Queen Creek. There was actually water in Queen Creek and the bed looked very muddy and slippery. I'm sure Skid would have enjoyed some excitement that afternoon but I didn't want to have to call him out there to pull me out of the mud. I headed back towards 60 and turned east at an intriguing sign.

Why would a sign point to wagon tracks? Is it really wagon tracks or a town called Wagon Tracks?

As I drove along, I came to some tire tracks through some mud. Surely that isn't it. I kept going and, sure enough, there were wagon tracks. In stone. Deep wagon tracks.

The tracks have cut almost 2 feet into the stone in places.

Notice the holes down the middle.

I did some Googling last week and found out that the tracks were made by wagon loads of silver ore coming from mines to the north to a mill at Queen Creek, in what used to be the town of Pinal. The holes down the middle were made by the mules pulling the wagons. Allegedly they always walked in the same footprints.

Well, that was interesting. Before I knew it, I was back on the road and headed toward White Canyon Wilderness. The road goes right by the entrance to the wilderness but I had never driven on that road before because I thought it was too steep for me to be able to drive out. I knew that wouldn't be a problem now, though. So I drove a couple of miles further along that road and discovered that there is lots of fantastic scenery back there. Too bad it was so gloomy.

The wind wasn't blowing as much the next day, though the temperature was about the same. The sun was out, and there were small, fluffy clouds. I loaded up the Ranger and Sweetums, Emily, and I headed back out there.

A large parking / staging area has been built just off of Hwy 177. There were only two other vehicles there when we arrived. Nice view from the staging area.

One of my favorite views. We'll be circling around that peak on the left.

At the high point along the road, there are beautiful views all around.

Looking another direction from the high point. The trail you see halfway up that slope on the left is the Grand Enchantment Trial.

Emily got out to run around when we stopped at the high point in the road. She did not want to stop running around. Can't blame her. She convinced us that she's probably still too young for such adventures. She fell asleep a few minutes after we got moving again.

I saw at least 3 places out there that I'm going to have to try to hike to. A couple of them are rugged (scenic) looking canyons. The third is a hollowed out spot on a cliff face. There's a trail going up to it, so maybe there's something interesting up there. Even if there isn't, it will be a nice hike.

Notice the trail going across to that "cave" in the cliff face.

Wandering around aimlessly can result in some interesting finds sometimes. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2013_02_09

2013_02_10

A long ride

Julia and Willie are visiting this weekend and wanted to go for a ride in the Ranger yesterday. It's finally cool enough to do that again. I wanted to show them a scenic area that nobody except hardcore off-road enthusiasts and ATV riders see. We went to Box Canyon road, at the end of Price road, east of Florence.

At our first picture-taking stop.

It was a beautiful, cloudless day. Well, I did see 2 small clouds. They were small, though. Julia almost couldn't find them. It was very cool in the morning, which I think is why they were wearing black. It was a little too warm for all that black by the time we were done.

Enjoying the view.

I was trying to make it all the way to the coke ovens on this trip, also. That's a very long trip, though. We drove 21 miles and still didn't get there. We were stopped by something I didn't want to take the Ranger over.

This is too big of a step for the Ranger. It's interesting how many vehicle parts are scattered along this "road". There were what looked like bicycle pieces here.

Scenic view.

I thought we might be out there for 2 or 3 hours, but it turned out to be about 5 hours. It had rained a few days earlier and we didn't encounter much other traffic until the last half hour or so, so there wasn't much dust. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_10_08

1900

I don't know if it's a Forest Road or what. All the sign says is "1900". Can't find a name on maps, or even 1900. It turns off of Hewitt Canyon road. Yes, I went east of town before the Renaissance Festival was over. We got an early start and avoided the renaissance jam.

Roblas Butte, which can also be seen from Hewitt Canyon road.

I was also hoping it would be a little cooler in the morning, and I think it was. I think it got a little too warm for Sweetums, but there was a very nice breeze.

There are lots of pretty rocks and plants out there.

It was nice being on one of the less-traveled roads out there. We saw very little traffic. At one point, I had stopped to get some pictures and Suzanne pointed out that she could hear splashing water. We were next to a wash and there was water flowing in it. The water was coming from Quail Spring and splashing into a small pool.

Water from Quail Spring.

Another hole in a rock.

A lot of the saguaros in this area look like they have baggy skin.

Fishhook pincushion cactus flowers. I usually run across these late in the day when they've closed up.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_04_03

A trip to the Rolls

Skid sounded bored on Sunday, so I suggested that we go riding. I wanted to go someplace east of town, but the Renaissance Fair isn't over yet, so we went to the Rolls.

I was worried that it might be hot, especially since we started out early in the afternoon. I put the top on the Ranger, though, and it was comfortably cool in the shade.

The ground was carpeted with tiny yellow flowers.

As I was getting ready to leave the parking area, I couldn't find my GPS holder. I suppose I could have run with batteries and stuck the receiver in my pocket, but I decided to just not mess with it. As a consequence, the pictures are geotagged.

Scenic views about.

Near Brownie tank we found a smashed vehicle. Hard to tell what it was. That was the most exciting part of the ride for Alex.

All we did was sit all day, but I got kind of worn out by all the bouncing around. I think Skid did, too. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_03_27

Box Canyon Road

A few months back, I had driven out Price Road from Florence, and as far up Box Canyon Road as I could go, which wasn't very far. Of course, since then I've wondered what could be seen further along that road. On Saturday, Sweetums and I found out.

Things like this stop my Taco, but not the Ranger.

We took the Ranger, of course. I'm convinced that it doesn't have as much ground clearance as the Taco, but that doesn't stop me as long as a wheel or two are in contact with the ground. The entire bottom of the Ranger is a skid plate, so I just slide over stuff.

We got a late start, so it was kind of shady.

The road climbs up out of the end of the canyon. Several side roads split off from it. It's going to take us a while to explore all of those roads. We got a later start than we should have, so we couldn't go very far.

A view of Sunset Mine from the hill where we turned around.

Between where we parked and the canyon was a couple of miles of very dusty road. There were a few people hell-bent on dying in a head-on collision tearing up and down that road as fast as traction (but not common sense) would allow, so there was a lot of dust in the air. We got coated. I think we may start taking along bandannas for situations like that. Don't want to get Valley Fever from breathing all that dust.

Skid keeps saying that the Ranger is bigger than the Taco. The Taco is almost 2 feet longer.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_01_08

Back to Bulldog Canyon

A couple of days ago, Sweetums and I took the Ranger to the part of Bulldog Canyon OHV area that isolated from the rest. There is one road, and that road doesn't connect to any others. Since it was a week day I didn't expect to see a lot of people out there. We had to park and wait as about 6 jeeps went by in the other direction at one point, though.

I'm used to my legs being worn out by the time I get here.

This is the official road, but it isn't used much.

Most of the road is not very rough and I drove slow over the rough spots. Sweetums appreciated not being jostled so much. She tried getting pictures and movies of what we were driving over but, as usual, pictures don't show how intimidating some of the stuff we drove over is. We'll figure out how to do that eventually. Click below to see all of the pictures.

BC_2010_12_27

Taking the Ranger to Bulldog Canyon

I've wanted to drive along 10 from one end of Bulldog Canyon OHV area to the other for a while. I knew the Ranger could do it. I should have known better than to take Sweetums on that trip. I had forgotten how rough much of that road is. Also, she seems to be getting a sinus infection, so she wasn't feeling great to begin with.

The ride was very smooth until about here.

Next time I'm out there I'm going to take some pictures of the rough spots.

It took about 2.5 hours to go 10.7 miles. Parts of the road have been washed out and are pretty scary. I need to pick a smoother road for our next trip. Click below to see the pictures.

BC_2010_12_20

New ride

I have found a way that my Sweetums can enjoy at least some of the stuff I see out in the desert. Well, actually she found it. On a recent trip to visit her sisters in Texas, she saw the Polaris Ranger 400 recently purchased by the husband of one of her sisters. She was hooked. We looked at them for a couple of months and decided on getting the Ranger Crew 800. I picked it up Friday and we went riding at The Rolls (near Four Peaks) yesterday.

Sweetums in the Ranger Crew 800.

It seats 6. I'm going to have to learn to be sociable so we'll have friends to take with us.

It was raining when I got up yesterday morning and I didn't think we would be able to go riding, but it cleared up a little. The remaining clouds made for some interesting pictures. Everybody says the rain shouldn't stop me. I could put the top on, but I just don't like driving with rain hitting me in the face.

Stewart Mountain

I got the half windshield and I'm glad I did. It keeps the wind off but doesn't obstruct the view. People I had talked to about the ride said it was very smooth. It is smoother than the truck but I still don't think I would describe it as "smooth". Maybe if I went fast enough we wouldn't feel all those little bumps. I started to drive along a road that goes into the middle of the Four Peaks Wilderness but it was very rough. I turned around before going very far because I was getting tired of being jostled. We had been riding for a long time by then. It was also getting late and I wanted to get back to the truck before it got too dark.

Four Peaks. No snow.

It was a beautiful day. In the middle is the road into the Four Peaks Wilderness.

The only problem so far is storage. I thought I would be able put it on the trailer in the garage. That didn't work, though. The trailer is bigger than the one I used to have in there, so I can't put the motorcycles where I used to, so they take up a spot where I used to have a car. So we used to be able to put two cars in the garage but now we can't put any. We typically have about 5 and as many as 7 cars at the house. Our neighborhood has a silly "safety" rule about not leaving cars parked in the street, even though the streets were made wide enough to accommodate cars parked on both sides and a firetruck down the middle.

Looking back from the road in the wilderness. The clearing in the low spot is Cottonwood Campground.

I was impressed with how the Ranger seemed to be able to go anywhere. It went up some pretty steep spots and I never heard a tire slip. I'm going to be able to drive along all those roads where I had to turn back before.

2010_12_18