The Whipple Mountains Trail From the Bottom Up.

 

A Previous Trip.

A few weeks ago we took a ride with the Monday jeep group on the Whipple Mountains trail. See January 3rd 2016,  blog titled; “New Years Potluck, A Lot of Rain and Another Ride on the California Side.”
On that ride we started from US-95 north of Videl Junction and followed the Whipple Mountains trail south east to Highway AZ 62.

Need a Leader.

After the ride we took last Thursday, Dennis M requested that someone else lead the next ride.
After a couple of days I volunteered to lead the group. I decided to take them on the Whipple Mountains trail since none of that group had been there before.
I wanted to do the trail from Hwy. 62 to US-95 (from the bottom up) so it would be a little different for Patti and I. Also I wasn’t sure where the trail started on 95 but knew where the trail started on Hwy. 62; about 6 miles west from the Colorado River Bridge at Parker, AZ.

Getting Started.

We assembled at the fire station around 9:00. This time there were 8 jeeps in the group.
By 9:10 we were on the road heading for Parker. We stopped at the Running Man Gas Station on the south end of Parker to top off the tanks.

We reconvened at the town of Earp, California; just across the river from Parker.

Once we were all there we headed west on 62 for about 6 miles and turned north on The Old Parker to Needles Wagon Road. Here we stopped to air down.

The trail.

The trail starts off on the flats heading for the mountains in the distance.

It’s not long before we are in the foothills and heading to the first mine we are to visit today.

The Twin Load mine.

The twin load mine is a pretty nice mine to explore.

The rock is solid and there is fresh air blowing through the tunnel due to an air shaft at the far end.

This mine has a lot of Amethyst vanes. I tried to get some pictures of the Amethyst you can see some of it in this picture.

Eventually we left this tunnel and continued our ride.

The D&W Mine.

The next mine we visited was the D&W mine. This mine is unique in that it had an intact head stock; something you don’t often find around abandoned mines.

The American Eagle Mine.

Not very far from the D&W mine we came to the American Eagle Mine.

This mine has a deep vertical shaft that has collapsed around the edges. There are also several concrete slabs around the mine.

Lizards.

While we were here Patti got a couple lizard pictures. I think this one might be a young Chuckwalla. Notice the interesting tail on this lizard. It looks like it may have been cut off and regrew at some time in the past.

I’m not sure what kind of lizard this one is. It kind of looks like a common fence lizard.

Back on the Trail.

We left the American Eagle mine and continued along the trail.

Another Mine.

I am a little confused as to what the name of this mine is.

There are a few interesting things at this mine. One is this large cement basin.

There is a vertical shaft…

and a long tunnel that goes into the mountain around 500 feet.

Lunch.

We decided that this would be as good a place as any to have lunch.

We were kind of spread out so we didn’t get a group picture.

Gold Standard Mine.

After lunch we went in search of an other mine. I am not sure of the name of the next mine but it was up a long side trail

that was washed out in one spot and we had to drive around the wash out.

There was enough room here to line up all the jeeps.

You can see the cage in this picture.

After wandering around this mine for a while we headed out the trail. You can see Pyramid Butte in the distance. That is an important land mark. The trail goes around the north side of the butte.

We followed the trail to US 95 where we stopped to aired up the tires.

Supper at Mya’s.

Once we were done airing up we headed for Parker, AZ and stopped at Mya’s Mexican Restaurant for supper.

We were treated to a nice sunset on the way home.

It was another great ride and another good day.