Yesterday we took a good ride.
We met at the fire station north of town and when everyone was there, we drove north toward Parker.
On the way north it started to rain, I turned on the windshield wipers and nothing happened. Now what? I tried the washer and still nothing. Fortunately the rain didn’t last long so I didn’t have to work on them until I got home. It turned out that it was just a plug that had come loose. I plugged it in and all is fine with that.
We turned east on Shea Road and followed it for about twenty miles to where the trail turns off to the Vampire mine.
We call this trail the back way to Vampire mine.
It is a steep rocky track
that is very narrow going around the top.
We stopped at the Vampire mine to take a look around.
There are a couple of tunnels going into the mountain.
and some old broken mining stuff laying around.
The views from there are grand.
We continued on the trail down the east side of the mountain until we got back to Shea Road.
On Shea Road we headed east to Slot Canyon where we had lunch under a big rock overhang.
After lunch we continued through Slot Canyon.
On the east end of the canyon where it opens into a wash there is a rocky challenge that has an easy go around. Of course we all took the harder route.
I have been over these rocks several times in the past so didn’t anticipate any trouble. Silly me!
I watched Daniel struggle through the rocks and then followed.
I almost made it but was a little to far to the left and my right rear wheel slipped off the rock.
Down into the hole the back wheel dropped. I heard a loud metal to rock collision. Oops!
It was good that I had the rear lockers on the jeep or I would have had to be towed out of the hole. That would have added insult to body damage. Fortunately the body damage was minimal.
After we all got through this spot we headed west on Shea Rd. to the turnoff to the Bill Williams River and the Planet Ranch. We passed the entrance to Slot Canyon and went about another mile to a trail that goes up the hill to the right.
The trail ended at a mining area with good views of a large working mine across the valley.
There are a couple of shafts up here but they looked too scary even for me.
After looking around for a while we headed back toward Shea Rd.
About two miles down the road we turned into a wash to the right.
We had been in this wash a couple of years ago but we came down it. This time we were going up it. There are several challenges in this wash but each one has an easier challenge to get around it.
I went around this one too.
The go around was also a small challenge.
The next challenge was not to bad.
We came to one spot in particular where Dennis (white jeep) had to try it. The rest of us just stood around and took pictures and marveled at where he was capable of taking his jeep.
After that we headed back to Shea Road, Hwy. 95 and home.
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