Moments in Dirt and Ink

Apache National Forest (map link) I wanted to hike the Tige Rim and was told the road should be good enough if you pick your rocks carefully. Turns out, there were two spots that I was a little worried I only got past because I was going downhill. One rolling solid rock piece of road with a very narrow, large rock covered bypass was bad enough that it stuck in the back of my mind throughout the hike as I worried about how I would safely get up it. Everything was soft sand shortly before I got to the parking just over the state line in Arizona, but the actual parking area was good enough. My first order of business was the distraction of a state line marker, or so I thought, just south of the road. Black Mesa Forest Reserve boundary post no. 48 from 1902. Cool, a forest reserve post. I realized it wasn't marked "MP" and a number like a few to the south. Then again, those are 41 and 42 and then just about the right amount of space to fill in 43-47 in between. The...

Coronado National Forest (map link) I still had a couple hours of light left, although in the east facing canyon, it could be somewhat shadowy light. I spotted a "ruin" icon on my map which happened to be labeled "explosives shack" and wondered what that might be. I parked in the small space across from Stewart Campground (closed, but the season is coming soon). Signage for the Cave Creek Nature Trail is minimal at this location. A spot to start on the Cave Creek Nature Trail. The trail follows along near the road, which is one reason I had not bothered with it so far. The birders find it handy, and that is probably what makes it a "nature trail" because there is none of the interpretive signage one might expect. I turned west. The road crosses the creek in that direction, so I soon had the water between myself and the cars. There was a little water flowing above ground along the stretch I walked, which wasn't the case everywhere. (It was dr...

Coronado National Forest (map link) Finding myself in New Mexico and what do I do? Head over to Arizona to hike. I've actually hiked quite a lot of the trails around Cave Creek, but I found one I had not done. AllTrails (which is very sparse across the boot heel) is where I found it mentioned that it is inappropriate to park at Cave Creek Ranch where the trail starts and I should park at the visitor center. From memory, the visitor center has a gate on the lot and it very much gets locked when the place is not open. However, there's also a little parking directly across it and, if you are desperate, maybe some to be had beside the fence in front of it. I was on the lookout for closer parking on the way in, but then pulled in across from the building as planned. It wasn't open yet, but I did pass the person who would get to that in 20 minutes. I had about half a mile to the trailhead. Signs along the road into the ranch indicated you might be able to park there for $5 ...

Kingman Field Office BLM (map link) I decided I would head up the peak south of my most excellent camp, thus needing no driving at all. I decided on a long, winding route following what I suspect is the old version of Signal Road, then wandering through mining areas, past a dip and up a long ridge until the final steep climb to the top. I picked out a more direct return route that had a bit more walking on the current road. Along the way, I had a variety of benchmarks I might find: section corners, road markers, and a triangulation station at the top. The Sonoran Desert certainly is taller than the Great Basin Desert. The view out over a couple section corners to where the sunsets happen from my camp. The day's ultimate goal, Burro Mountain, rises to the south past a ridge. The old road heads down from my camp area. The first hidden spot is the impassible spot for my little car. The first benchmark was within a quarter mile of my start and turned out to be quite ea...

Kingman Field Office BLM (map link) I have to admit, I was a little concerned what the state of the roads would be as I drove along them, but Signal Road does happen to be a maintained one. It still gets a little rough when it passes the washes, but for now it was fine in the little car. It is maintained from US-93 to Alamo Road, another maintained road. After exploring to the west end, where I found a well used camping area, I decided to visit Signal, the vanished town that someone had helpfully signed, and the mining works that supported it. The sign did make it look like this was the private property north/west of the road, but it is actually south/east. I found more camping and a couple of groups there as I walked over to the mine. The road into Signal with Signal Mountain behind it. The tracks would indicate it's a very popular place. If pulling metal out of the ground, it seems the common practice was to contribute metal back to the ground. Mine dump with mine in ...

Kingman Regional Park (map link) The second geocache I needed to finish off the "challenge" on at Geocaching.com was somewhere within the small and multi-looped trail system of White Cliffs Wagon Trail which is a regional park near the edge of Kingman. Where, exactly, I wasn't sure since my map wasn't up to date with that trail system. I should have photographed the beautiful trail map at the parking area, but I figured it couldn't be that hard to locate. First up, though, was the old wagon road. Along with the map, there is some history. The sign says the Board of Supervisors were petitioned to blast the road due to the 2 foot deep ruts. That would have been something to see. They are very obvious, but not quite like that, now. Parking, information and history, map, and even water for humans and dogs at the trailhead. The deep ruts in the sandstone left by the wagons. Since the techniques of driving wagons through seemingly impossible terrain have b...

Lake Mead National Recreation Area (map link) The folks at Geocaching.com like to have "challenges" from time to time. Usually, they just assign points to types of caches and if you get enough points, you get a souvenir. (There's a place on your profile to find these. It's not something meaningful.) Sometimes they get a little more intricate, like the one they had running when covid hit, Wonders of the World . In this one, they assigned "wonders" to geocaches randomly. There were two levels. You needed to find one each of the "modern wonders" to get the first souvenir. Then it was on to the "ancient wonders". When covid hit, the deadline became indefinite and then two more levels were added: "natural wonders" and "solar system wonders". I got through the first three levels by ignoring it until I found I had one to find, then making an effort to find that one. It took over a year to get through the third level si...

Lake Mead National Recreation Area (map link) Even with a hike in, a well known hot spring is likely to have too many people around. Still, it looked like a good hike and I decided to go for it. There's more than just the hot spring. There's the arch, the view points, the adventure on the not-quite-trail parts, the petroglyphs, and the rest of the hike. Access is mostly easy on a piece of the old highway, but it is a left turn across the interstate when going south. There are no bathrooms (and no timed entry or fees) at the trailhead. There is also a "scenic bridge" that looks like typical depression era highway bridge work to me. I've been over many of them and stopped at a few. I even hiked miles to one of them . I was probably over this one once, shortly after going over the Hoover Dam. The trail starts at the edge of the wash the old US-93 bridge spanned. The trail drops down into the wash and under the modern I-11 bridge, which has some picturesqu...

Yuma BLM Click for map. There's lots of Granite Mountains around and this one probably isn't a very impressive specimen. It certainly isn't as grand as the various other things I went after while I was here last. It's still an excellent excuse for a walk with a little challenge along the way. I could probably drive a bit closer, but then I would miss some small sites along the way and it's really too close to camp to bother with that. Anyway, it would only get the easy flat stuff out of the way and the sky is quite beautiful after the rain yesterday. Best to stretch the legs and enjoy it. The goal, obscured a little by the desert vegetation. Ibex does still make itself known on the other side of the valley. Signal is some 20 miles away, but I think that might be it anyway. The first part is easy and flat and quick, but that is deceptive. As small as Granite is, it does have some foothills. Among the closest of these are some marked petroglyp...

Prescott National Forest Click for map. I stayed at Powell Springs Campground, which is a free campground deep in some ponderosas that only exist in the canyon area. Outside the canyon, the area is chaparral. A trail heads out the back of the camp and I plotted out a loop of travel along it and some connecting trails, then increasingly large roads. The last little bit to the campground road would unfortunately be paved, but most the roads are rough and narrow and unlikely to see much traffic. There seems to be no parking specific for the trail, just a small loop for turning around. There's also no sign for the trail, just the suggestion that road once went further. No markers for the trail at the end of the campground, but if road once went here it should be easy to find. Road did go further, and is pretty obvious as it crosses the creek and continues along it on the other side. The campground is surrounded by a fence and where the road encounters it, there is a s...

Prescott National Forest Click for map. I am off to a later start than expected. I had looked at the icy road just past where the snow plow stopped and found a parking spot, but a chat with a pair of women had managed to dare me onward. They had not even questioned my manhood or anything. They were simply encouraging. It didn't help that they were playing with their own 4WD and crawling up the hill in front of me, but for all I know that just meant I was a little lower down when everything started to slide backward. Then the poor Forest Service employees dealt with a little more than they bargained for when simply trying to clean the toilets and I was parked even further away in the picnic area across the highway. This location has the advantage of not being along the side of a road clearly marked tow away zone even if my parking had been well off of it. A little extra walking is no problem, especially when compared to trying to direct a short trailer while sliding backward...