Windsong: 54

Arizona Trip

Revised August 12, 2012

            This chapter comes from a letter written to my brother, Mark, during a business trip I made to Arizona.  The meeting was designed for range program managers but centered on communication techniques.  Since I spent two weeks in Phoenix and had a rental car I decided to go see the meteor crater in Northern Arizona.  As a child my parents had driven within 5 miles (8 km) nof the crater many times but we had never stopped because of the entry fee.  I really wanted to see it during my lifetime so instead of driving 5 miles I drove about 400 roundtrip to see the crater.  The meeting was interesting as were some of the side trips I made during the two weeks.  But since I have the letter in hand, from a photocopy I made, I want to concentrate on one particular side trip.

Heading out into the countryside

Hey Mark,

            Last weekend, since I'm in Arizona, I decided to drive north from Phoenix to Flagstaff since I've not been there since 1973, except by air.  I wanted to see the snow, see the peaks of the San Francisco Mountains, sea pines instead of cacti, and maybe hike a bit.

            Once I headed north, I thought about the meteor crater.  I checked the map.  It's only 30 miles east of Flagstaff.  I went.  Unfortunately, it's also isolated.  It would take about 30 minutes of backtracking to get south to Phoenix.

            Except.  A gravel road headed south on the map.  It looks like 30 miles (50 km) of gravel, but it's on a state map, so I figured it was passable.  It was.

            First, I asked someone at the crater.  She said, "It's a ranch road on private land." I was ready to backtrack, but when I found the road had signs I change my mind.  The signs invited private traffic, much to my surprise.  So I went south.

Going south

            About 10 miles south of pasta water hole/tank and cattle.  I thought, "Good . . . if this road is 30 miles long, the worst case would be a 10 mile hike to water or road."

            The road was pretty good.  It was a little rough, but I could get to 40 miles an hour at times.  I thought, "This should work," but I was a bit thirsty.  I decided to save my water until I was back on the pavement.  It turned out to be a good idea.

            At 18 miles south, things changed.  Here I am, 18 more miles out of the way, with no desire to drive north.  I've reached Forest Service lands.  The road promptly worsens markedly.  The trick is that it is still easily passable at this point.  The going is slow, but I know that the road curves east soon, and it should be only a few miles to pavement.

To backtrack or not

            My choices are, 1) drive a few miles of rough roads, or 2) backtrack 18 miles of gravel, 5 miles of pavement to the interstate, go 20 miles east and head south again. . . .  That is, go 3 to 5 miles straight ahead or go about 60 miles of backtracking.  I chose the 3 to 5 miles.

            After going about one mile south on very rough but passable roads it got worse.  Rocks appeared amongst the ruts, and signs sprouted. "No off road travel," the sign said.

            I chuckled to myself, "I can barely traveled this road, let alone take off cross country." I couldn't have gone off road with a motorcycle at that point.  Then the road curved eastward pavement.  I felt more comfortable.  At least I was headed in the right direction.

A fork in the road

            Almost immediately this went sour.  The road forked.  Twice.  At the first fork, I chose road 69B and quickly decided 69A was right.  And 69A was the right road.  When 69A forked again, I took the "better" route.  The better route turned out to be impassable . . .  Simply a foot foot deep ditch, six feet (2 meter) wide I could not tried to cross.  I backed up, turned around, and what the other way.

            About 1/4 mile (0.5 km) down the "right" road, after 1/4 mile of rocks, an 8" (20 cm) diameter cedar had fallen across the room.  That's why off road vehicles had created an alternate route with that 4 foot deep ditch.  Fortunately, the tree was bone dry, long dead, and easy to pull out of the way.

            Then the creek crossing started.  I checked my GPS unit.  Every few 100 yards had to cross the small dry creek.  Each time I wondered if I could find my way across.  Each time, after walking ahead, I found an easy way to cross.  Still, I was more than five miles from Hwy. 87.  I averaged 2–3 to 5 (or even 10) miles per hour (10 mph = 16 km per hour. . . when I was driving!

Another choice: go back or forge ahead?

            Finally, I crossed the larger drainage where the road headed uphill instead of down the valley.  One fourth of the way up the hill, I parked.  The road ahead was simply too bad.  I might make it, but it would be very slow.  Still, the GPS unit showed me very close to Hwy 87.  I decided to walk ahead and scope out the road.  I could turn around and go back, if the way was blocked ahead.  I walked.  I saw the pavement!!!  The paved road was parallel – gradually converging on my dirt road.  Once I was up out of the creek, the road improve slightly.  I'd be able to drive it slowly.

Scoping out the road ahead

            I walked in the mile (1.6 km) back to the car.  Upon review, I decided I could continue south, and cross all five tough spots on the immediate uphill stretch ahead of me.  In places, I drove with one wheel on a rock to cross the high spot in the road.

            In other places, I made slow sharp turns.  It wasn't that simple, because I drove over many rocks while dodging other rocks.

            From the point where I had parked at the bottom of the hill, I stopped two more times to look where to drive . . . in the next 100 feet (30 m)!  After another 100 feet, I got out again. I scoped out a, "Ok, wheel on this rock, then term sharp here" route . . . twice in the next 100 feet.  From there it was 2 to 4 mph for the next mile, going over many, many rocky spots.  I was delighted to see pavement ahead.

                                                Mile                Time

                                                0                      1:40 p.m.

                                                18                    2:20 p.m.

                                                21                    2:40 p.m.

                                                27                    4:40 p.m.

I made it!

Note: these photos were all taken during this trip.  I caught the cactus photo on the way back to Phoenix.  Contact me if you want to know more about my book.