Jeep Safari day 2; Crown King. 03-16-15

We got up around 6:15 and were in the motel lobby by around 7:00.
The motel served a free breakfast. The food was less than stellar.

They had scrambled eggs and sausage

The eggs looked like they were freeze-dried but not rehydrated. The sausage was greasy and not very good. The do it yourself waffles were just ok but the coffee was good.

Around 8:00 we got on the road and headed out of Prescott on Senator Highway. In the old days they called it the Senator Trail.

For the first seven miles it was paved. You can see the elevation on the sign to the right in this picture.

Then the road became a fairly good dirt road for several more miles.

As we drove through the forest we saw a small herd of Mule Deer.

At an opening in the forest we could see snow on the mountainside.

Off the side of the road we could see this steel framework for some kind of building.

We could hear the rushing of a stream in the canyon below the structure. A little further down the road we could see the stream

and a pretty waterfall.

We continued down the road along some steep cliffs.

As we continued we saw snow on the ground under the trees.

We passed this ornate steel gate.

We had some nice views of the mountains to the south west.

We stopped for a break in a nice clearing with a small creek running through it.

It looked like someone had been doing some prospecting in the area. At first we thought that this was a tunnel but
it only went a few feet into the side if the hill.

 

Even though we were high in the mountains we still saw some cactus.

I think these are Agave plants.

  

As we continued down the road we crossed that same little creek that was in the meadow about eight times.

Eventually we came to a log cabin along between the road and the creek.

 

Here is a sign by the cabin that explains its history.

After checking out the cabin we continued on our way. The road started getting a little rougher.

Around 11:00 we stopped for lunch. It was a little early but the free breakfast didn’t last very long and we found a perfect spot under a big tree.

After lunch we got back on the road and started climbing out of the valley where we had lunch.

We drove along a ridge for a while.

At one spot we could see where someone had lost a large piece of some kind of equipment over the side of the canyon.

Eventually we came to a stretch of trail that was more like the kind of trails that we are used to.

 

We took another break at a camping area and it was decided that every couple had to have their picture taken if front of this old tree; so here is ours.

Around 2:30 we arrived at the community of Crown King.

Here is the general store.

We got accommodations at Bradshaw’s Mountain Guest Ranch. I think that our group took every “room” they had.
Some of us had rooms and others of us had cabins. Patti and I had the ranch house.

It was a bit larger than we needed but there wasn’t much choice.
We had two bedrooms.

The front bedroom where we decided to sleep:

The back bedroom:

A bathroom:

A kitchen:

A living room;

A dining room with a gas fireplace. I am now sitting at the dining room table writing this post.

 

After getting moved in we went to the saloon to check it out and have a beer.

The inside of the saloon is very spacious and apparently can get very busy on the weekends.

This is the right side.

This is the left side.

Here is the bar.

Around 4:30 we went to The Mill for dinner. This used to be the actual stamp mill for the mines in this area and has been converted into a restaurant.

 

There is still the old stamp equipment inside the restaurant and lots of other memorabilia.

In the ceiling is an old ore car. I don’t know what the wheel with all the lights is.

 

One section had an original tin ceiling.

  

The waitress was a real cutie with a great personality and the food was very good.

Scattered around the grounds were a lot of old mining equipment.

Crown king is pretty cool and worth the long drive to get here; I hope we come back here again some day.

Tomorrow we will be taking the back way from Crown King to Wickenburg. It is supposed to be a fairly tough trail and should take the whole day.

Jeep safari day 1. 03-15-15

We met the group at the Arco station at the east end of Quartzsite.
Patti doesn’t see many sun rises so she took a lot of pictures of this one.

Here are a couple of them.

This one has been enhanced to bring out the color.

Once everyone arrived by a little after 7:00 we headed out and got onto
I-10 going east.

We followed I-10 to Highway 60 where we left the freeway and continued
east on 60.

We went through the little town of Hope.

We continued on until we arrived at the town of Aguila where we stopped for
to top off the gas tanks.
We were planning to do some off road stuff between here and Prescott and
didn’t know if there were any other gas stations after here.

As it turned out the computer was malfunctioning at this station and we
couldn’t get any gas. We also found out that we could get gas at
Congress, so off we went.

We turned onto Hwy 71 toward Prescott and when we got to Congress we
stopped at a gas station and topped of the tanks.

After we filled up I was told that my jeeps back door was flying open
and closed as I drove. I checked it out and found that the bracket that holds
the pivot on the tire carrier had broken loose because the weld had failed.
Fortunately it was only the tire carrier and not the back door,

I borrowed a big bungee from Dennis to temporarily keep things together.

 

A little ways past Congress, we turned south on a dirt road to go see if we
could find a couple of ghost towns. The road started out mostly paved but
soon became very dusty.

 

As we traveled farther into the mountains we saw more and more wild
flowers.

We tried a couple of roads but none of them went to the ghost town we
were looking for. On one of the roads we came to a gate and when we
stopped to open it this guy galloped up on his horse and told us that the
road was closed.

We turned around and headed back the way we had come. We stopped
to check out an old pioneer cemetery.

 

There were no head stones only metal crosses marking the graves.

Patti found this neat spider web at one of the graves.

After wandering around the cemetery for a while we headed off to see
if we could find the ghost town.

We turned onto this small trail near an old dynamite shack

As we traveled along this trail we crossed a small creek.

This creek flowed down the canyon from a small pond.

Along this trail we also found some more wild flowers.

These are called Humming Bird bushes.

 

Here are some hedgehog cactus’s blooming.

At first I thought these were blooms but after a better look they turned out
to be some kind of cactus fruits.

This is some type of Yucca blooming.

As it turned out this trail didn’t got to the ghost town either; So we turned
around and headed back to the main dusty dirt road.

We followed this road to the “ghost town” of Stanton, AZ.

Stanton is part of an RV park. Even though it is in fact an actual ghost town
it feels more like a tourist trap complete with a place to buy “T” shirts.

Here is Dick with his purchase.

 

There are a couple of old historic buildings left in the town. This one is the
old opera house.

They had picnic tables with some shade so we decided to have lunch here.

 

After lunch we followed a dirt road back to highway 71 just west of
Yarnell, AZ.

After going through Yarnell we turned south on another dirt road.

This one took us along the Hasayamppa River.

There were a lot of neat looking Cottonwood trees along the river valley.

We took a break near an old windmill.

After a short break we got back on the road and eventually got to
Highway 89.
We followed 89 through the mountains. We could se some snow
high up on the north sides of the mountains.

Eventually we got to Prescott and checked into our room at The Comfort
Inn.

After getting checked in we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
The food was very good.
White jeep Dennis was driving around town and found a hardware store
where he bought us some steel wire so I could wire up the
tire carrier on the jeep.

Tomorrow will be another early start, going to Crown King.
We will have breakfast at the motel at around 7:00 and be on the road
by 8:00