The Wednesday Ride.

Meeting at Carl’s Jr.

The group gathered at the Carl’s Jr parking lot around 9:00. There were nine jeeps in all.

We stood around in the parking lot BSing for a while.

Eventually we got on I-10 heading west.

We took the Dome Rock turnoff about 2 miles from Q.

On the Trail.

As soon as we got on the dirt trail we stopped to air down the tires.

Eventually we got on the trail following a pipe line road that runs parallel to the freeway but goes over and around several rocky hills.

Driving in the Drains.

This trail took us to the drain tunnels under the freeway. I had always wondered if we could drive through the drains.

As it turns out we can.
Cool!

The trail was a little rough on the other side of this tunnel.

It only gets better.

We came to another set of drains and crossed under the freeway again.

Back on the trail we drove over some more hills.

We came to another set of drain tunnels. You can see the tunnels in the distance.

Back under freeway we go. I have been driving around this country for ten years and never driven under the freeway. Today we went through the tunnels three times.

On the other side we continued over more hills.

Tight Squeeze

Eventually we came to this old Dam. We hade been here before from both sides but there wasn’t enough room to go past the dam. Someone has spent the time to widen the trail so now a jeep can just squeak by.

Another tough spot.

We had to go down into a deep wash. The way out was pretty steep with a lot of loose rock and a tight turn at the top. It took a little time to get everyone through this but no one had to be towed up it.

Another Steep Wash.

We dropped into another wash. Almost everyone lifted the left rear tire off the ground as the went down the hill.

 

Lunch Near a Mining Area.

We stopped on a large flat near a mining area to have lunch.

In the back ground you can see this crossed pick and shovel laid out in white rocks on the hillside.

A few col-de-sacs.

After lunch we headed out again, driving over and around the rocky hills. Most of the trails ended in col-de-sacs.

Here we stopped to check out a couple of holes in the bank of this gully.

The holes didn’t go very deep and were used as a trash dump.

Law Enforcement on the Job.

We drove up a couple more dead ends.

On one of these trails we saw a bunch of vehicles parked. As we approached we noticed that some of them were sheriff’s trucks.

 
They were talking to some people in the wash.

We don’t know what they were doing but this is a working mine claim so maybe they were claim jumpers.
It is illegal to take any minerals from a working claim.

This trail turned out to be another dead end so we turned around and headed for home.

Big Horn Sheep.

We saw a couple of Big Horn sheep, unfortunately we couldn’t get any pictures. Maybe next time.

It was a fun ride. Especially driving under the freeway.