Travels with Jaxx: Crown King Arizona

[Andy]

The plan was simple: Spend a 4 day weekend on the trail exploring Crown King then head to Mogollon Rim to drive the rim road. Nothing ever goes according to plan though…

Thursday night and all day Friday the winds in 29 Palms were so bad I barely slept and was hesitant to open the garage to load my gear into the truck so I delayed my departure by 24 hours (which seems to be a theme for me lately). Saturday morning was still windy but it had subsided to 20-30 MPH so I finished packing the truck and set off. The blowing sand on HWY 62 towards Arizona was cutting visibility to less than 100 meters at some points. Pics don’t do it justice.

Once we made it into Arizona and starting climbing the mountains towards Prescott the winds were calming. Requisite stops at High Country Guns and Knives and J&G Sales replenished rifle powder and 223 stocks and we refueled and turned onto Senator Highway. The road was originally constructed as a toll road leading to the mines in and around Crown King in the late 1800’s. Today it is a graded dirt road accessible by any vehicle with more ground clearance than a sedan. (Or take a sedan if you don’t mind a few high center challenges). My copilot spotted a herd of mule deer so we stopped to take a pic from too far away. Then another herd. And another. Eventually I stopped noticing and was just hoping one of them would helpfully toss itself into my bull bar to supply fresh venison, but no such luck.

The scenery was awesome, especially coming from 29 Palms! If you have never been to Prescott National Forrest you’re missing out. Epic long views and pine forested mountain peaks abound.

We set up camp about halfway to Crown King along Wolf Creek. Plenty of down firewood was available and welcome as the temperature was in the low 50’s and dropping fast as the sun set. Dinner, camp fire, and tossing Jaxx ball passed the evening.

 

[Andy]

As usual, my alarm clock woke me up just after sunrise. Breakfast was bacon and eggs with plenty of hot coffee (upper 30’s according to my thermometer) then some exploring. The creek was running and the sight of actual water was very appreciated to the desert dwellers. It must have been cold as Jaxx only ran in once.

We set off for Crown King around 0830. More epic views greeted us as we continued south.

Plenty of blackened trees and roughly plowed breaks showed the dangers of forest fires in the mountains.

Which made this piss me off:

A few miles prior to arriving in Crown King I stopped the truck to check out the Bradshaw City site. When the mines were open it was a bustling city of 15,000 but today nothing remains but a sign to mark the area. A fire ring behind the sign was smoldering and there was a lot of trash in the area. Someone had a large bonfire the night before and didn’t fully extinguish the coals. If I had wanted to I could have just tossed some wood on it and reignited it easily. Instead I used over half of a water jug to put it fully out and picked up half a bag of trash. We then walked around the area for half an hour but found nothing to indicate there was ever a city here. Time takes it’s toll.

We moved on to Crown King, which is a collection of small houses and 2 bars / restaurants. We didn’t stop and started heading down the mountain towards Mogollon Rim. I stopped on the other side of the town to check the map and made a command decision to just stay in the National Forest instead of getting back onto pavement.

We moved back west to find a camp site but it was still too early to call it a day. I picked a random trail and we moved out. There were a lot of side by sides and jeeps on the trail so we continued south with the flow. The trail was a rough rocky track just wide enough for a single vehicle with some areas wide enough to pass.

A mile or two down the trail a Razor had sheared a ball joint and was blocking the trail. His friends had continued (he was the tail gunner) and had no idea he had suffered a catastrophic failure. A few of us jumped in to help get his vehicle moved. The high lift was a big help here, but eventually we just grabbed enough muscle from the 20 or so vehicles waiting and shoved the broken side by side far enough to let traffic flow. I have no idea how they recovered it later on but I am sure it was not easy. I didn’t get any pics of the recovery but here’s one of my finger that got smashed.

 

[Andy]

I continued on down the trail, heading south. It got worse and more technical, eventually I was in low range and glad I had aired down earlier. I found out later that this was the Crown King trail, rated a 6-8 of 10 by AZ off road. With no convenient turn around I just kept heading south. Eventually we were off the mountain and heading towards Phoenix. Definitely not what I had planned! The scenery had changed back to high desert, with open views and Saguaro’s stretching into the distant rock faces.

It was getting into the late afternoon and we were surrounded by awesome open desert blocked off by private property signs and barbed wire fences. I was starting to think we wouldn’t find a good camp site when I spotted a side road into a canyon. We had found out home for the night!

Lots of random brass littered the area and I had a bad feeling about the area so I broke out the camp security.

Dinner was some grilled chicken followed by another session of fetch with my co-driver. The sunset illuminated the area in hues of purple and red as we sat by the fire.

I remembered I had brought some cigars for the trip so the evening passed in a cloud of aromatic smoke and the sounds of blues provided by the local NPR station. Since we were now at 1900 feet elevation the temperature was perfect and we slept soundly (Except for the extremely loud braying of a donkey that crept into camp around midnight). As usual my alarm clock woke up at sunrise for the trip home. After another standard camp breakfast (bacon, eggs, coffee) we packed up and headed south. After only a few miles we were back on pavement, aired up , and hit the road back to 29 Palms.

 

[Andy]

More Random Pics from the trip...

 

[Scott]

Great report Andy. Looks like an awesome time.

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

 

[richard310]

Man that finger looks painful.. I did that with an impact driver a few times. Picked out the dried blood being pushed out by the nail. Had a great time.

 

[bob91yj]

Have you guys ever tried using a real small drill bit or hot needle to drill a hole in the finger nail to relieve the pressure under a black and blue fingernail? Sounds painful, it's not really though, almost immediate relief from the throbbing.

 

[woody]

Used a small paperclip (straightened out) once

 

[woodienut]

I love this area, hope to spend some time there before Overland Expo West 2016. Thanks for the great photo's, sorry about the finger, been there, done that.

 

[Dave]

Great trip report @Andy thanks for sharing!

 

[Chsbrgr]

Sounds like a nice trip. Thanks for posting your pics. Some of my best trips were just me and mans best friend. Seems like a good way to bond with a new pup too.

 

[Dave]

Have you guys ever tried using a real small drill bit or hot needle to drill a hole in the finger nail to relieve the pressure under a black and blue fingernail? Sounds painful, it's not really though, almost immediate relief from the throbbing.

That's pretty old school and yes I've done it with a hot needle. Only recommended if it's severely swollen as in you can feel every heart beat about to pop your finger and you need relief. Otherwise, I advise you let nature take its course.

 

[Kenny Schipper]

That area is pretty awesome (try doing that run after a heavy monsoon!). Thanks for being a good human an d cleaning up/putting out the campfire! We've had a few wildfires start that I remember because someone was careless with their camp...

 

[Maxcustody]

Great pics and trip report...........thanks for posting.