Lunch at the Gila River

Cozy Cove Road.

As we have been driving back and forth along the Florence-Kelvin Highway for the last several days we have been taking some of the side roads to see where they go. One of these roads that we have seen is called Cozy Cove Road. We thought that this road may lead to a nice spot on the river so yesterday we decided that it was time to try it.
We drove out the highway to the Cozy Cove turn off and headed out it. The first thing we came to was this gate.

Not a good sign.
There was a road going to the left here so we followed it down hill for a while.

The country around this area was rolling hills with nice views of the mountains on the north side of the river.

There were several small roads branching off this road. Most of them went to small ranches and locked gates. Others ended in col-d-sac's that may have been building sights. The further we went the more we realized that there wasn't anyway to get through this area to the river.
After trying several trails we ended up turning around and driving back to Florence-Kelvin and going east to Cochran Road.

Cochran Road.

We knew that Cochran Road would take us to the river.
The ride down Cochran Road is very  scenic with great views of the distant mountains.

Following the Wash to the River.

When we came to a large wash that crosses the road we turned north toward the river.

We were driving along the west side of the wash looking for any trails that might go into the rocky hills along that side. We tired a couple but they didn't go anywhere.
We followed one little trail that wound around in the rocks.

The trail was looking encouraging but ended at a small flat over looking a secondary wash with no way down.

Looking for a Lunch Spot

We went back to the main wash and continued heading toward the river. We came to a place where we had a weenie roast last year.

 

There were a couple guys target shooting there so we turned to the east and climbed over the hill on a rocky road.

From this trail we could see the railroad trestle that goes over the river.

We dropped down the other side into the main wash and drove through a gate near an old ruin.

This trail goes near the tracks and the trestle so we stopped and I walked on the tracks to get a picture of the trestle where the tracks go into a tunnel on the other side.

We continued along the trail and stopped at a shady spot at the rivers edge.

We thought that we might have lunch here but the trees were starting to bloom and they were full of bees so we decided to go to another spot.

We went up stream to the place where there is the crossing for the trail that comes from the Coke Ovens.
We set out the chairs and had lunch here.

 While we were having lunch we discussed that it would be good if some jeeps would come to the river from the other side and try to cross. We were told a few days ago that the river couldn't be crossed here this year but it looked okay to us.

Jeeps Cross the River.

Just as we were finishing our lunch we could hear some jeeps approaching the river from the other side.

There were two of them one TJ and a four door Wrangler. They checked out the river access and after one of the guys waded across the river, they decided that it was passable.

The first one to attempt the crossing was the TJ.

He made it with no problem.

Next was the four door's turn. He wasn't as tall at the TJ so it looked a bit mor interesting.

He also made it just fine.

Well, I  guess that proves that the river is indeed crossable at this place.

After the other jeeps had left we packed up our stuff and started back toward the main wash and home. At the gate we caught up with the other jeeps. The lady in the TJ was holding the gate open for us as we came up. That was very nice of her. We passed them and drove back on Cochran Road and stopped at the staging area near the highway where we aired up and talked to the other jeepers a bit, then headed for home.

It was another good day playing in the desert.