Thursday, March 9, 2017

Box Canyon and the Search for the Woodpecker Trail.

 

Getting There.

Around 9:00 Patti and I met the group at their motel.
From there we drove about 15 miles to Price Rd. just north of Florence; it is paved for about 5 miles.


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A short distance after the pavement ended we stopped to air down.

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A little further along, Price Road becomes Box Canyon Road.

We cruised along enjoying the scenery…

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the cactus’s,IMG_4917

and the wildflowers along the way.

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The scenery in this area is pretty spectacular.

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Box Canyon.

Here we are approaching the Box Canyon.

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This is entering the narrows.

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We were following another jeep through the canyon. This picture will give you a little idea of the scale of the canyon.

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The ride through the canyon just keeps getting better as you proceed.

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Unfortunately the canyon is so narrow and there is enough traffic going through that with 7 jeeps we could not stop.

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Here is a tenacious Saguaro holding onto the cliff side.

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Once out of the canyon the desert changes color from the pink and red rock to the grey rock and brush.

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A Wrong Turn.

I was looking for a wash that turned off to the right. Eventually I found one and turned right. There is a large obstacle that one has to get over to continue along the rail. There is a by pass but what fun is that?

After going up the wash a ways I started to think that this was the wrong wash.
About the time I had decided that we were on the wrong wash and was about to turn around when an ATV with some people came by.
I asked the driver if this was the trail to the big obstacle and he said that it was. We followed the ATV up the wash a little further.

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The wash started getting a bit rougher than I remember from the last time I was here.

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I had to do a little guiding for this spot.

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We eventually got to the end of the wash. By end I mean that we couldn’t go any further.

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Dennis M. tried it but even he had to give up.

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As we were approaching the end, the ATV that we were following had turned around and was pulled off to the side. As it turned out they had poked a hole in a front tire and didn’t have a spare. I used my air pump to inflate the tire while the guy plugged it.

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Eventually the tire got fixed and we headed back down the wash to the main trail.

Lunch.

Once on the main trail we drove a couple hundred yards and found the wash I was looking for. We stopped at the intersection and had lunch.

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The Obstacle

After lunch we drove up the wash to the obstacle.

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There was a couple guys in a Toyota pickup coming down the wash so we waited for them to clear the obstacle.

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Next, it was our turn. Of course Dennis M. took the hardest line and made it look easy.

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The rest of us took the easier route; the way the Toyota came down.

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We all made it with no problem and we continued along the trail.

Looking for the Woodpecker Trail.

The trail climbed out of the wash, up the mountain.

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You can see all the trails crisscrossing the hills all around.

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Some how we missed the Woodpecker Trail in all that mess, and before we knew it we were on Cottonwood Canyon Trail heading for Hwy 79.

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Oh well it was probably too late to do the Woodpecker Trail today anyway.

We headed back to Coolidge and had supper at Bubba’s Barbeque.

It was a good trip and we all had fun.

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