This past Saturday, Lisa and I had the chance to go off-roading with our neighbors and good friends, Maggie and Stephen. They have a Jeep and regularly travel the trails around Arizona and have been trying to get us to go with. Well, a weekend finally opened up and we decided to take a trip to Crown King, Arizona…the LONG way! Only accessible through mountain trails, 4-wheel drive is almost mandatory, and many will just park their trucks at the bottom and drive their 4-wheelers up to the town. We chose to take one of the longer, more difficult trails and spent about 6 hours following river beds and mining trails without seeing another vehicle other than a few ATVs. Keep reading for the full story and more pictures!
On our way up to the trailhead we made a stop at the Shrine of St. Joseph, an artist’s translation of the 14 stations of the cross according to Catholic teaching. It was nice to get out and stretch and see the way they carved these stations into the side of the mountain…a true engineering feet! But couldn’t stop for long…soon after we were on the road again.
We hit the trail with a relatively smooth dirt road. Seemed pretty tame and I was starting to wonder what the fuss was all about. We drove through a few [very large] ranches and came across a small town. Talked to a few locals who gave us some tips on turns and warned us that it “gets purty rough up there”. We also took this chance to play in the creek a bit 😉
Continuing on our way, we got out the GPS and map and started watching the turns. We stopped for lunch at a secluded area where there was a good amount of shade and ate lunch on the hood of the jeep. After getting filled up we hit the trail again. Through river beds, washes, and trails with rocks the size of small cars, we enjoyed seeing abandoned mines and a slew of wildlife, including a deer that ran right at us before veering off at the last second!
After 6 hours on the trail, we finally made it to the top where we got drinks at Arizona’s oldest continuously operating bar, the Crown King Saloon. Parked amidst all the other 4-wheelers and 4WD trucks we made some friends, had some drinks and had dinner at the local restaurant before heading back down. Seeing as it was already 8pm, we chose to take the “easy” way down, a dirt mountain road that only takes a hour and a half. We then finally hit pavement at which point Lisa and I fell asleep for the rest of the way.
A long day, but a fantastic adventure. We look forward to our next invite to hit the trails! Check our photo album for all the pictures or click any of the pictures above!
You guys have enough VW’s yet? Buy a JEEP!!! Look at all the fun you can have!