02-06-12

Patti got some pictures of a roadrunner in the back yard.

We went to the car show yesterday. It was the last day of the show so some of the cars were gone. Even so it was about half the size than in  previous years. Here are some car pictures for you old car lovers.

 

Dave has been recovering from surgery on his right arm. It has been a couple of weeks since he has been able to go for a ride in the desert and he is getting antsy. His sister and brother-in-law are visiting so he asked if I would lead them, he and Jo Ann  to the steam shovel, so we are going out there today. I have been there twice already this year so I am not going to do another blog about it. (See blog for 01-12-12 and 01-13-12)

02-04-12

I have been checking out this book that Dave picked up.

For the most part it is very good and shows a lot of trails.

It contains a lot of Arizona history and tells about things to see along the way. One trail in particular had me intrigued. The book shows the trail going along the Bill Williams River and coming out at lake Havasu.

I have been to the river where the trail is supposed to be a few times but never found any trail there. I thought that maybe I had just missed something so yesterday Junior and a friend Rael, Patti and I went to see if we could find where the trail goes.

We drove to Bouse, then followed Swansea Road to where Mineral Wash Road goes north. Along the way we took a side trip to check out a tunnel that we could see on a hill to the east.

There was a nice view from the trail.

The tunnel didn’t go very far into the hill

and the floor at the back end of it was full of Cholla thorns. We occasionally find them in tunnels. I don’t know if they are blown into the tunnels by the wind or brought in by rats to make nests. It is not wise to walk on them because they will cover your shoes with stickers and are hard to remove.

From that mine we continued north toward Mineral Wash. It is a pretty ride through the wash with red cliffs on both sides of the road.

At the end of the wash we came to the river

and as before we couldn’t find any trace of a trail following the river. The whole area is posted with No Vehicle signs. We back tracked a bit to get out of the posted area and found a not well used trail going west so we followed it for a while up over some hills but it ended at a deep cut that was impassable. As always there were some great views.

We went back to the wash and followed it south until we came to another trail going west into a narrow canyon. The canyon kept getting narrower and narrower until I decided that we should turn around while we still had the chance.

We went back down this trail until we found a good wide spot to have lunch.

 

After lunch we headed back to Mineral Wash and turned south until we got to Slot Canyon. Slot Canyon is always fun to go through so we turned east into it.

When we came out the other end we turned right and went up a steep hill that took us back to the main trail (Parker Swansea Road). We drove west toward Parker for a couple of miles and took a right turn on a trail that Junior wanted to check out. It headed into some steep red hills.  When we started climbing a steep section, the trail got pretty rough.

There were a couple places where my jeep lost traction and I had to back down a bit and try a different track. We finally got to the top where there was another tunnel to check out. It didn’t go more than 15 feet into the hillside so we continued around the mountain.

The trail is very narrow and bumpy. Eventually we came around a corner and found that we were at the Vampire Mine. Dave and I had been there a few weeks ago when I drove his jeep with the Wednesday Jeep group (see blog for 12-29-11). That time we came up the east side and would have left by the west trail but they weren’t sure if the newer “Fat jeeps” could make it around some of the narrow curves.

As it turned out this time it wasn’t a problem.

Once again the views were spectacular.

We headed down the east side of the mountain

and got back on Parker/Swansea Rd. and drove toward Parker and then home.

Even though there wasn’t any trail that followed the river we still had a fun ride. I guess that goes to show that just because something is in a book it doesn’t mean its true.

02-01-12

A while back we followed Junior into the desert northeast of Bouse in search of the Glory Hole. (See blog for 01-09-12) On that ride we climbed a steep trail, from the top of which  we could see what appeared to be a large mine in the bottom of a canyon. It looked like the trail continued around the mountain and wound its way down to that mine. Since we were looking for the Glory Hole and that wasn’t it,  we decided to turn around and leave that trail for another time.

Yesterday we decided to find that road and see where follow it. We left the park at 9:00 and following Junior headed for Bouse and Mc Vey Rd. We followed Mc Vey Rd for a short distance and turned right at a Jojoba farm and crossed the canal. On the other side we stopped to let Dennis unload the Rhino and for the jeeps to air down.

We followed Junior into the mountains from there,

taking some side roads along the way.

 

One trail took us by a deep shaft.

Of course we had to drop a some rocks in to see how deep it was.

This one was interesting as it had water in the bottom.

After a few turnarounds we got to the steep trail and drove to the top.

We stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view and could see the mine we were interested in below us.

 

we continued along the trail but it only went a couple of hundred yards and ended in a shear drop off.

We had to back up to turn around and retraced out path back down the mountain.

We went looking for another way to get to the mine. we could see a road coming into it.

Eventually we found the mine and spent some time wandering around. The road stopped on a big flat where we parked.

There was a tunnel in the mountain but it was closed off with a steel door.

Bill used his metal detector a little but only found some nails and .22 shells.

A few of us walked along a foot path

to another road and followed it up hill until we got to the shaft that we could see from up above. The shaft had a grate and some timbers over it.

I figured that this mine was still occasionally active and the owners didn’t want to get sued if some one fell into it. There were several short tunnels in the area but nothing very extensive. On the walk back to the vehicles I found an interesting piece of rock and tried the Microscope feature on my camera to check it out.

We had lunch on the flat in front of the steel door.

From there we traveled around the hills

and came to another area that showed extensive mining activity

with several deep shafts and tunnels. One short tunnel went clear through a section of the mountain.

Another had a shaft that went down at about a 45 degree angle. You could see where the tracks for an ore car had been attached to beam runners.

We could see other tunnels across the valley so we drove around and found one that was particularly interesting.

It looked as if the miners had been following a vein of some kind of ore as it was all carved out horizontally.

Dennis and I went in to check it out.

The mine continued down into the mountain for what appeared to be a long way but the grade was very steep so we didn’t go down.

We discussed getting some climbing rope for such occasions but on reflection I’m not sure that is a good idea. We take enough chances as it is. We’ll see.

From there we followed a wash past another tunnel but it didn’t go very far in. After that we wandered around the hills for a while and eventually got down to the flats. Along the way we saw an old rusted vehicle body in a wash.

Dennis and I  decided that it must have been a Hummer.

Bill took the lead and in a short time we were back at Dennis’s truck.

The weather was beautiful and we had another fun ride.   

To day it is a bit overcast and cool. Patti went with Bill and Shirley to the casino in Parker.