The new adventures of Patti and Marty: The Back Way to the Desert Bar and Other Trails.

Back Way to the Desert Bar.

There were two groups going to the desert bar Saturday. One group was lead by Denis L at 9:30. The other group was lead by Dennis M at 9:00.
It was a hard decision which group to go with.
We went out with Denis L on Tuesday.
We went with Dennis M on Wednesday.
Thursday we went with Denis L so I figured that we would go with Dennis M on Saturday.
The one thing about having two groups is that we get go jeeping more often.

We met at the fire station and once everyone was there we headed north on US 95 toward Parker.
At Parker we continued on 95 toward Lake Havasu City.

About 12 miles east of Parker we stopped at the Five Star Gas Station where we topped off the fuel tanks and aired down the tires. Nancy and Rick joined us there.
This is where the trail starts for the back way to the Desert Bar. We don't really care about going to the bar as it is very crowded on weekends (because it's only open on Saturday and Sunday's) but there were a couple people in the group that had not been there before.

Eventually we got on the trail. After a short distance the trail climb up some rough rocks. Then becomes a bit easier.

The next challenge is this steep dirt hill with a big hole and a very sharp left turn at the top.

We got over that one easily and continued along the trail. We passed a small arch.

A Fun Wash.

After a while we turned left off the trail into a rugged little wash.
This wash is kind of rough with several challenges.
This one was not to hard.

The next challenge doesn't even look like a trail. You make a sharp turn to the left and climb the rocks.

It is the only way to continue up the wash. The climb looks worse than it actually is.

We continued in the wash for a while.

Eventually we got back on the main trail.

We stopped at an overlook for a break and to enjoy the views.

Meeting up with Denis.

We could hear Denis' group on the walkie-talkie and while we were stopped they caught up with us.
We BS'ed a bit and they continued on their way.

Eventually we got to the Desert Bar. This is the only picture we got of the bar.

We parked in the overflow parking area and ate our lunch. Once the people that wanted to check out the bar returned, we headed out on the trail again. We drove up a canyon to another view area.

Here is the view.

Stuck on the Rocks.

From here we headed to the main dirt road. We followed the road for a while and then made a right turn off the road and into a wash.

On the way out of this wash there are some rocks that we have to get over.
The rocks don't look that hard to get over do they.

For some reason I couldn't get over these rocks. I tried about three different approaches but ended up getting the right side of the front axel hung up on the wrong side of the big rock on the right. You can see some of the rock behind the tire to the right in this picture.

Eventually we had to have a tow strap extraction.

True Grit.

Once we were out of that predicament we got back on the road and headed for the next trail.
This trail is calle True Grit.

The toughest challenge on this trail is a steep climb up some rocks.

This makes the second time I have attempted this rock climb and the second time I've gotten stuck.

You can see the left tire has been spinning in the sand. It actually threw rocks and dirt into the cab of the jeep.
After a couple tries we hooked a strap to the front of the jeep and assisted me up the rocks. Once we got a some tension on the strap I was able to climb the rocks without much trouble.

We left this trail and headed for the final one for the day.

Presidents Choice.

As I have said in the past, this trail is not one of my favorites.

Once we were in the canyon we took a left turn up some rocks and climbed a very step notch that had a lot of tight turnes while climbing some steep rocks.

Here are a few pictures of that climb.