Salt River Canyon & the Self Road Adventure

[1leglance]

I figure the 4x4 section could use a bit more pics & stories of the rigs in action to go with all the excellent builds & tech

Well with a bit of time between Christmas & New Years the need to play in the dirt was strongly felt. The real question was where to go? Southeast Arizona has a ton of ghost towns and history (Tombstone, Bisbee and more). Western Arizona held some areas I had recently played and want to see more of. But then the memory of passing by the Salt River Canyon on US 60 came back to me and luckily my buddy Waymon was ok with going somewhere neither of us had been before.


But before we get to the juicy off road bit we all have to admit that there is that nasty bit of highway that has to be covered. Lately I have really been trying to make an effort to find things along the way of interest and in this case we got to spend a bit of time at one of the littlest Arizona State Parks, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum , this is a very cool place to hike around and spend some time trying to figure out what in the world was the original idea

I will admit it is very cool to find out about the thing Arizona & Australia have in common as we are planning to spend some serious time there Summer 2012.



Waymon and Lexi (that is the dog) were also getting a kick out of the pet friendly location.



Since my wife is from Peru I am always interested in thing from South America...but again it is just odd to have this in Arizona.

[1leglance]

But alas we did need to get back on the road and see what way ahead. But at least when we go to Miami (Arizona version with no beaches or babes) we got to hop out for a quick stop to put together some old iron, newer iron and BIG iron. Needless to say there is some serious mine operations in Miami & Globe and if you are into that sort of giant hole in the ground thing it is impressive.


After a quick lunch stop & fuel for the thirsty Suburbasarus we got into some high desert country. The wind blows cold around here but it holds a beauty of it's own.


Now for some folks this little bit of snow looks like springtime but for us low desert people this is a rare thing. Waymon & I were all giddy on the radios talking about getting to run some trail through the snow & camp in the pines and of course that was easy talk from the comfort of a heated rig.


And then came our first view of the Salt River Canyon where we would get off the highway and into the real adventure.


I thought it would be fun for Waymon to stop at the same overlook that stirred a desire in me to explore the area. You get a great view east & west of the canyon.


And way down there is a little dirt road that goes off in into the mysterious distance following the river. Oh it just makes a man happy to have a 4x4

[1leglance]

There is a very cool bridge and an even cooler rest stop that is sadly closed. The stop itself has a little bridge and I wish I had captured a picture of it. Oh well just a good excuse to go back.


There is also an abandoned old gas stop with some real or maybe fake/old buildings. Looks like a tourist trap that didn't have enough tourist. Which is strange as this highway gets plenty of traffic. Then again we we now on the White Mountain Apache Reservation so anything was possible.


Speaking of being on the Res, there were some signs to read through. Some new, some old and some I couldn't quite understand.


But the important thing was we got to the little place to pay our permits...only to find there were no blank permits to be found. But never fear as a Boy Scout I learned to Be Prepared and out came the scratch pad & pen. A quick note with our names, rigs & the date..fold that around our money and into the drop box it went. I know there are people who would have turned around, and there are people who would not have paid, but I figure the money is worth it for the adventure and better to be safe than sorry. Remember the Reservation is a Dependent Sovereignty with it's own police & courts. Do you really want to mess around with them for only $15 per person?


And with that I will leave the story while I go sort some more photos, clean the rig, sort the gear, kiss the wife, hug the kids and pet the dog. Watch for more of the story though

[DirtyLarry]

Looks like you had a great trip Lance. Bill and I were just talking today that we wished we could have made it down to Arizona to play with you guys this week. I had to use this downtime week to lick wounds and get ready for the next big trip but we are taking a snow trip to the mountains Saturday. That should be fun test drive for the GoPro my Mother in-law got me for Christmas.

Very interesting about the Australia in Arizona sign! Looks like a neat place.

An early 70’s Suburban and a Toyota Prado (Lexus GX for us U.S. folks) overlanding together?? Who says cats and dogs can’t get along! And I thought we had an odd mix of rigs on our Canyonlands trip when you had the Australian edition Toyota Troopie and Bill and I had had the old gas hog American iron rigs.

I read somewhere on Facebook or Expo that you had a slight breakdown on this trip? What happened?

Great report as usual! The Sub is looking nice! Dig the new tires.

[DirtyLarry]

Lance,

I was just looking at your SPOT tracks. You guys covered a lot of ground! I had no idea the peaks in that area got snow. I knew mountains behind Tucson did but not where you went. Cool! Can’t wait to see more pictures.

[1leglance]

Well I couldn't resist getting a few more pics posted to this report...

After Waymon & I wrote out our own little permit & paid our fees to the drop box we aired down and hit some dirt. Well for a about 100yds or so
But that short distance would set the tone for why we called this the Shelf Road Adventure, sure we had some some highway shelf road, but when it is paved and wide you don't really notice. This trip would be 3 days of narrow, dirt & rock roads that almost always had a serious drop off on 1 side. Let the fun begin.



First Camp it is called, and well that purely speaks to it's relative position, not its likelihood of being your first choice.


One thing you notice is all the signs that reference rafting the river. We figured it would be good to let Lexi run a bit while we went and checked out where the rafts hit the water.
Nice calm pool of water to start your trip.


Right next to a fair indication of what would be in store for the future. The river was not running very deep at this time of year, but we would not water level marks along the way that told a story of serious flash floods and a mess of water when the snows melt.

[1leglance]

Hey Larry,
I really wish you guys would have made it south...but funny thing is we would not have gone here if you had We were thinking Tombstone/Bisbee and such with Bill.

The breakdown was last weekend in Yuma on the way back from San Diego...external volt reg blew and the alt ate the battery & mallory ing. But now I have a nice HEI and upgraded the alt to an internally reg 94 amp and all is well in the world. The rig did great.
Even if it did have a snooty Lexus along

[1leglance]

Now I like to joke a bit when off road but sometimes you see something like these crosses that remind you just how dangerous our hobby can be. These things had some little steel hunters and elk on them. I am not sure if that meant the elk won that round, the road beat them or what caused their demise but we figured they sure picked a pretty spot to meet their maker.


We were only a few minutes into the drive and I was already looking back at how pretty the area was. The one good thing about a narrow road though is that is reminds you to watch where you are going.


Usually I take point on outings as I use a laptop running 2 GPS programs (Delorme Topo & Oziexplorer w/ USGS maps) but since there weren't many options for wrong turns on a shelf road I gave Waymon a chance to not eat Suburban dust


Round and round the corners we went...it was super hard to keep your eye on the trail when there was so much pretty canyon to look at.


But it only takes seeing how many of these guys were on the trail to realize keeping your eyes on the road is way too important to mess around. Not only could I bust up even my old iron rig but a bounce off the edge of the trail would suck in a grand way.


Like I said there was rocks on the trail even where you wouldn't think there should be. But is was still very cool to run this canyon.

[1leglance]

Now I am a native Texan and we have some hardy forms of life out that way. Even our cattle sport a serious set of attitude adjusters (google Texas Longhorn if you aren't sure what I am referring to), but I will never tire of seeing how desert life will find a way to get by. I noticed this cactus in the middle of the rock outcropping making use of a bit of dirt to survive. Impressive.


Pretty soon we found ourselves in Second Camp, and I will say that it trumped First Camp as a spot to stay. However the map showed another place up the way and it held the creative name (no not Third Camp...I know I figured that also) of Salt Banks Campground. My thought was anything that actually got a real name out here must be worth a look. Plus that meant more drive time which I am never against.


And lest you be afraid we did in fact get some more shelf road time on our way forward..

[special-K]

Looks like a great way to spend some time off. This is traveling down river,correct?

[1leglance]

Yep K we are going down river towards Lake Roosevelt..which then becomes Apache Lake...and then Saguaro...and then Canyon..and then gets to be the Salt River again when water is released (most of the release actually becomes our canal system) but then the Salt gets the privilege of being Tempe Town Lake (stupid thing really) and then finally trickles back to become something of the Salt River....
We really try to get the most out of our water out here in the desert

[special-K]

I heard that. A river doesn't stand a chance of running too far without being tapped out there. Did you run into many or any other vehicles while you were out?

[1leglance]

And to continue the story...


I had noticed on the map we might get to do some water crossings but had kept that info to myself in case I was wrong or it wasn't much of anything. Well it was cool and Waymon gave a little Woop over the radio when he saw the coolness of it all.


Now of course for many of you this axle deep little creek isn't worth a pic...but for us desert dwellers these are rare chances to dip a tire and have some fun. But in all seriousness these can be super dangerous for us as a flash flood moves brutally fast in these canyons.


Now I have seen some strange things when out in the wilds...and some indicate how the human mind works. I would say that at some point there was concern about washouts on this shelf road. But either the money or the interest ran out as this patch of concrete was less than 100yds long...interesting.


And on and upward we went. There was just more and more of this to enjoy, and we were having a blast.


Well almost another water crossing, but again if you look at the rocks you can see that when the floods happen it is major force in action.

[1leglance]

And then we got to the Salt Banks Campground...well it had the best name and the saddest condition. We should have known when we started down some rough and rarely used 2 track but as always ya just gotta take a look.


It was very pretty here and well named for the vertical white banks (they could be salt, who knows) but Waymon has spotted a nice bit of Second Camp that called to us and this place just wasn't worth hanging out. And of course nothing bad about running back through those water crossings


This was are little bit of Second Camp and it was perfect. Well perfect in the sense of a great location, as long as you didn't touch the structure. If you look close you will see that each pole leans in a different direction. I figured with a bit of wind it would spiral it's way right to the ground


Ya gotta love little details like this. I am not sure what the value is to having this info, but it is cool that someone put it here.


Waymon got to work putting together his Kodiak Canvas Palace, and I of course tried not to make fun of his since I have a simple sleep inside the rig setup.


And as I explored our campsite I once again noticed that no matter where you go in the southwest it seems Bud Light has been there before. Please don't think I am anti-beer or anti-Bud but ask around and you will find that Bud Light is the beer that gets left as trash in the desert more than any other.

[1leglance]

I took a little walk down to the water and looked back at camp...I liked it.


Of course the river view was nice also and if the temps weren't so cold it would be fun to jump in and splash around a bit. Or dip a line and catch some dinner, then again I don't like fish so I would be catching someone else's dinner!


Now this isn't just a cool pic of a tree that managed to grow around a rock. That is very nifty all by itself, but as an added bonus I got to use this stump as my camp chair for the evening. You see I like to keep my rig fully packed and ready to roll all the time. That is a great plan unless you clean out your rig like I did a few days before. Then you get to forget things like camp chairs Oh well the good Lord provides!


And since you had a chance to laugh at my folly's I thought it would be good to post a pic of how Waymon dresses his dog In all honesty the temps were expected to be cold and Waymon cares about his Lexi lady dog. But PINK, it was funny in a good way.


And that Kodiak Canvas Condo of his, well it was just as posh on the inside as out. Nothing like a Man Cave in the woods.

[1leglance]

Day 2 begins....
Yeah I know, all that and we only covered day 1, and really that was just a partial day as we didn't roll out of Phoenix until about 11am and then there was lunch in Globe, so you can imagine how happy we were to have enjoyed our little adventure up to this point. And it only got better.
Here is a map of Day 2, notice all those wiggles in the track, well if you zoomed in they really scribble a tale of shelf road madness. According to my Oziexplorer track log we rolled out of camp at 8:10am, went 107.5 miles (with all of it on dirt except a touch of pavement going into Young & a bit at the end going into camp) and we stopped for the day at 17:12. And we felt worn out after all the stress of keeping the tires on the trail. As you will soon see.


I know I gave Waymon some ribbing in this thread about his tent of joy but I admit to a touch of glamping myself as my recent purchase of a Little Buddy tent heater was very welcome in the morning.
The day started just like the previous one ended, on a shelf road!


With plenty more to go. I honestly knew we would be tracking a chunk of the river from looking over Google Earth but that isn't the same as driving it.


I give the Tribe credit for having good signs out here that let you know how far to go before you get to anything other than wide open spaces.


At last I figured we were heading up and out of the canyon so with a quick glance down at the Salt River & Salt Banks we gave the rigs some throttle and began our climb.


Yep up we went and the promise of more cool stuff to see was looking good in the distance.


There is a river back there somewhere, and lots of peaks all around. This is rugged country and I always wonder what it was like for the early folks to cross the area on horse or with wagons. Those were tough folks.

[1leglance]

But guess what? The shelf road is back, now we laughed a bit at this point in the morning but by the end of the day we were just plain beat up from driving on the edge.


Of course there are always rewards to match the hazards and one of them was Rock Springs which is where water comes out of the Rocks (imagine that!) and collects right on the trail. These are the kinds of things that allowed those tough Native Americans to survive along with the early travelers who were smart enough to find such desert treasures.

[Oilbrnr]

Interesting thread! Didn't know that there was a road along the Salt up there.

You're so right about those folks in the past that came through here with wagons. For that matter, even just horses. Don't know how the hell they did it! That mid section of AZ is rough. The Apaches' sure used it to their advantage as long as they could.

[1leglance]

And Day 2 continues...

Again the signage was great for letting you know where you were and where to go play...and if it was up to me I would add a little bit about how Canyon Creek is super cool and Gleason Flat is an excellent group campsite..as you will soon see!


But for the moment it was good to get out of the rigs and have a place to stretch our legs that didn't have an ugly drop off.


Even as old and sad as this coral was it still looked to be in use. Matter of fact we saw quite a bit of hints that cattle ranching was still happening in the area.


But hey what is this...more shelf road...and a bit of water down there. Ok this could be good!


A little twist to the right, a bit of twist to the left and you will get to a most excellent swimming hole. When the temps are warmer than we had that is.


This section of Canyon Creek was super cool and we could have easily spent an hour or two hiking around. If you have any kids with you this is a must play place.

[1leglance]

Waymon and Lexi had a good time getting up into the rocks. We really thought we heard a waterfall back in there but without jumping into the water for a swim it was tough to see far enough back into the canyon.


The water seemed plenty deep at this point but the crossing was shallow enough to see the bottom.


Would make a cool and refreshing place to play in the summer heat.


Waymon in his Lexus/Prado made quick work of the water crossing and I motored across in the big bad Suburban shortly after. Yeah I know it ain't nothing to many of you but for us desert folks this is way cool.


The only signs of others folks out here was a ranch we passed that required us to open/close a couple of gates. Always remember to leave a gate like you found it unless there is a sign telling you otherwise.


What do you know we found the Salt River again, I thought for sure we were done with it.


As we made our way down to check out Gleason Flat we came across a bumper & a bed frame...ok you make up the joke that goes with those 2 bits of history


And there was some newer than old mine equipment just off the road. I often wonder with the rising prices of metals if folks won't fire these operations back up.

[1leglance]

Gleason Flat offers a nice place to get yourself wet and take a break.

And plenty of room for a group camp. Matter of fact I think this is where I might camp if I was doing this as a weekend trip where I had left Phoenix at 8am instead of the 11am we happened to roll out.


This is an overlook of Gleason Flat and according to the map you can get across the water to a road on the other side. I am not sure if that is the San Carlos Apache land or National Forest...so make sure you do your research before trying it out.


But away we went as there was more trail calling us...and it was nice to get some wide space going on either side of the rigs.


Soon we were off the Res and onto Tonto National Forest land. Cherry Creek is the canyon/creek/route we took north and it held some great sites of it's own.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Looks like a great trip Lance. I really enjoyed the pictures. Funny, the picture above almost looks like a photochop of a huge Grand Canyon type dropoff in the middle of the trail but then you realize it is the canon walls and blue sky reflecting in the water with some big boulders that washed down during a gully washer storm at some point. Neat pic!

Too bad Bill and I couldn’t have made it down there. Maybe next holiday season.

[1leglance]

So after we finally had the pleasure of NOT driving on shelf roads as we motored north along Cherry Creek, Waymon lets out another Whoop on the radio to let me know there was water crossing with a twist.


We could run this one side by side as there were two routes across. I tried to get a pic to show our little duel but this was the best I could do with 1 arm out the window.


Before long we were back on the Shelf Road Adventure...hey if you are getting tired of hearing about it imagine the never ending drive


And we came to some hunters who were parked by this sign. At first I thought they were checking out the cliff dwellings but it turned out one of this had got a buck and was hiking across the canyon to skin/quarter/retrieve it. They were out in a very cool vintage Bronco that I wanted a pic of but thought it would look strange to have a 1 legged guy hop out of 1 chunk of old iron to snap a pic of another old iron...but then again maybe not.


And guess what we got to do another mini water crossing. This one was the only one I was concerned about not due to depth but steepness as my Suburbasarus has a bit of a looooong hindend hanging out there. But all was well with no tail dragging.


Of course there were plenty of these guys to remind you to enjoy the views but keep an eye on the trail. You could have a very bad day hitting one of these puppy's.


I am always amazing in Arizona how we can mix up our vegetation from zone to zone as you transition from desert to mountains. Here was a patch of snow with pines around us and a cactus growing along the road.

[1leglance]

Hey Larry, I like that pic for the same reason...like you were looking into a hole in the trail.

There are pics and great parts of the story to come.

[1leglance]

Waymon spotted this metal sign just off the trail and of course we had to stop and check it out.


It speaks of the Cliff Dwellings in the area but doesn't really tell you WHERE they are. But Waymon had some binoc's and was able to spy out a couple of examples. I wish we had stopped to hike and check them out after I saw this pic on gemland.com



But instead we had more Shelf Road to travel....way too much more to travel believe me!


However I will say that the places the road cut back into ravines was filled with a variety of microclimates and each was a bit different. From wide, flat areas of trees like a park, to tight rock filled enclosures and even this Lord of the Rings Fantasy Forest with creeping vines and white barked trees.


And then there was this little pucker producer. Waymon scooted right over the little snow covered hill. But since my track is wider and I have quite a few more pounds in my rig I had to stop and think a bit. I figure a man needs a plan in case things don't go well and I didn't want to chance the many hundreds of feet drop down to the canyon floor. So I had Waymon watch me in the mirrors to make sure I was narrow enough and then I rolled across at a steady pace, ready to punch it if I felt any sort of slip.
And why oh, why is the off camber section never leaning TOWARDS the nice safe mountain?