Every couple years or so we like to traverse the Rug Road which skirts the Aravaipa Wilderness in southern AZ. A couple weekends ago we ran it east to west, camping first at Turkey Creek and again somewhere in the middle. Here are some of my photos from the adventure, and you can check out more from others in the group at: https://offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4775
Klondyke store is still there but it's slowly being stripped of it's former nostalgic coolness; the phone booth is gone, the lunch counter is gone...
Going into Aravaipa Canyon and Turkey Creek is always a beautiful drive:
We chose a different camp spot this time, as a tree had fallen at our old favorite spot, making it look messy and the dead tree was taking up a good half of the area. This time we were right next to the Turkey Creek Indian Ruins.
Leaving Turkey Creek Friday morning:
The trail out of the canyon was a little rougher than usual, and we were soon to find that the entire trail was overgrown, very rocky, washed out in many places.
We had lunch at Parson's Grove in the shade:
From there we set out to find the 1st cabin on our exploring list. G and I went ahead to scout out the trail, which we found easy enough. Just like our friend had described, the road petered out and we had to walk the last bit.
By then it was late in the afternoon and we made our way to a spur trail George had found on google earth were we set up camp. This big metal thing was in the trees as we drove in:
Saturday morning we continued on the Rug Road where our first stop was the ruins of a building and some sort of processing plant:
From there we continued on Rug Road toward Carpet Hill. George and I were driving along minding our own business when all of a sudden the front passenger side tire fell into a hole created by a large washout. BOOM (I got a huge adrenaline rush)! Everybody worked together as a team to fill the hole with rocks, and we put a strap from the back of Clifford to Ladybug's Jeep Gracie for safety sake while G backed up out of the hole.
We stopped at the summit overlooking Carpet Hill to take some pictures.
The trail was very overgrown even as we got closer to the Mammoth side.
Carpet Hill was in very rough condition, it looked like a lot of water had run down pretty recently.
We ate lunch at the summit of Carpet Hill overlooking Mammoth, and then bypassed much of the mining areas at Copper Creek and made our way to the main road to Mammoth. Three does and a fawn were on the main road and for the longest time they couldn't find a way to get off the road. There was a steep rock face uphill on one side and a steep drop off to the creek on the other side. Finally they found their way and took off into the desert. We aired up across from the shooting range and said our goodbyes.
You can see all the pictures I uploaded here: Diane's Flikker Album
We had a great group of fun-loving friends, and even though it was a little hot during the day, the evenings were pleasant and it was a very fun weekend! Thanks everybody who came out to enjoy the adventure.
Klondyke store is still there but it's slowly being stripped of it's former nostalgic coolness; the phone booth is gone, the lunch counter is gone...
Going into Aravaipa Canyon and Turkey Creek is always a beautiful drive:
We chose a different camp spot this time, as a tree had fallen at our old favorite spot, making it look messy and the dead tree was taking up a good half of the area. This time we were right next to the Turkey Creek Indian Ruins.
Leaving Turkey Creek Friday morning:
The trail out of the canyon was a little rougher than usual, and we were soon to find that the entire trail was overgrown, very rocky, washed out in many places.
We had lunch at Parson's Grove in the shade:
From there we set out to find the 1st cabin on our exploring list. G and I went ahead to scout out the trail, which we found easy enough. Just like our friend had described, the road petered out and we had to walk the last bit.
By then it was late in the afternoon and we made our way to a spur trail George had found on google earth were we set up camp. This big metal thing was in the trees as we drove in:
Saturday morning we continued on the Rug Road where our first stop was the ruins of a building and some sort of processing plant:
From there we continued on Rug Road toward Carpet Hill. George and I were driving along minding our own business when all of a sudden the front passenger side tire fell into a hole created by a large washout. BOOM (I got a huge adrenaline rush)! Everybody worked together as a team to fill the hole with rocks, and we put a strap from the back of Clifford to Ladybug's Jeep Gracie for safety sake while G backed up out of the hole.
We stopped at the summit overlooking Carpet Hill to take some pictures.
The trail was very overgrown even as we got closer to the Mammoth side.
Carpet Hill was in very rough condition, it looked like a lot of water had run down pretty recently.
We ate lunch at the summit of Carpet Hill overlooking Mammoth, and then bypassed much of the mining areas at Copper Creek and made our way to the main road to Mammoth. Three does and a fawn were on the main road and for the longest time they couldn't find a way to get off the road. There was a steep rock face uphill on one side and a steep drop off to the creek on the other side. Finally they found their way and took off into the desert. We aired up across from the shooting range and said our goodbyes.
You can see all the pictures I uploaded here: Diane's Flikker Album
We had a great group of fun-loving friends, and even though it was a little hot during the day, the evenings were pleasant and it was a very fun weekend! Thanks everybody who came out to enjoy the adventure.
