A little Background.
There is an area south of Parker, off Shea Road, that we have gone to a few times. We call it “The Zip Line”. It’s called that because of the high voltage power lines that go down a steep canyon. We have always said it would be a good place for a zip line.
If you see these mountains from the north it looks a line of high bluffs forming a flat toped mesa. Once you get on top however, you find that there are steep hills…
and wide, deep, valley’s on top of the mesa.
The Goal.
We have been on the mesa a few times. Usually we go to the north side where there are great views of Parker, AZ, the Colorado River and the south end of Lake Havasu. This time the goal was to see if we could get to the extreme east end of the mesa to get a view of the mountains and desert there.
Lets Get Going.
We met at the fire station at 9:00. There were eight jeeps going this morning.
It was cold and windy this morning but the sky was clear so maybe it’ll warm up later.
Okay, so we are going out Shea Road again. The pavement is so rough on the first part of Shea Road that we stopped to air down as soon as we left Hwy.95.
The pot holes are so numerous and deep that we drive all over the road to try and miss as many as we can.
After the first couple of miles the pavement improves a little.
It is 15 miles to where we turn off at the end of the pavement and the west side of the Arizona Canal.
The trail.
The trail goes down a wash for a while.
After about a mile we turn right uphill on a rocky trail.
The Zip Line.
We stop for a peanut break at…
the zip line.
Round and Round and Up and Down.
After tanking up on peanuts we left the Zip Line and continued our drive across the mesa.
We went up one hill…
and down the other side.
At the bottom we took a right turn.
This trail went back up the hill and connected with the trail we just came down.
So around we go and back down.
This time when we got to the bottom we went straight east.
The Eastern Bluffs.
Eventually we got to the eastern bluffs.
We found a wide spot with a good view to the east. The green fields in the distance are part of the Planet Ranch.
We stopped here for lunch.
Here is the view to the east.
looking south east.
Directly below us is the Mineral Mountain Mine.
We spent a long time looking into the valley below us but eventually we decided to continue along the trail and see if we could find another view spot.
Unfortunately the trail took us away from the bluffs and we weren’t able to access the them again.
The AZ Canal.
We came down one ridge and could see the Arizona Canal Project.
Here you can see where Shea Road crosses the canal.
The trail we were on followed the east side of the canal.
A New Trail.
Dennis M (the ride leader) had heard from two sources’ that the state had opened a trail that goes from just north of Parker Dam, east along the Bill Williams River to the Mineral Mountain wash. Since we were close to the wash we decided to check it out and see if we could go to Parker via the new trail.
A couple of the jeeps left us here and headed home.
The rest of us headed east to Mineral Mountain Wash.
This is the same wash that the Slot Canyon goes off of and the same wash that the last couple of trails we have been on start from.
It is always a nice drive through the wash.
We went clear to the end of the wash where it empties into the Bill Williams River. There was still the cable across the trail at the river and signs saying “NO VEHICLES”. I guess the information Dennis got was incorrect.
The Slot Canyon Again.
We turned around at the end of the wash and started back toward Shea Road. When we got to the mouth of the Slot Canyon the group turned into it and for the third time in two weeks, we went through the slot again.
We shot the slot and got back on Shea Road and headed for Parker.
In Parker we went to Mya’s Mexican Restaurant for supper.
After supper Patti and I went to Walmart for a couple of things and then headed for home.
On the way home Patti got a couple pictures of the sunset.
Here is one of them.
Okay that was the Wednesday Ride. It was really fun and we got to do some exploring. There are still a couple of roads that we didn’t check out so that leaves something to do later on.
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