Car camping via plane: Cave Creek wanderings, Toroweap and a few AZ strip points.

[gm13]

Back down through Fredonia and out 89A to the Ryan rd/Fr22 down to FR423 and 237 to camp above Table Rock along Snake Gulch at A, tomorrow's venue for pictographs and petroglyphs.



A local in Kanab mentioned this little cave up on the cliffside, just past the oak corral that had petroglyphs in it, naturally we tried to get to it.

This isn't it, became obvious that we'd need more time to approach that one safely so we backed off.

And settled for a telephoto grab:

Into Snake Gulch:

The first overhang and petro/picto panel.

Sally is down by what looks to be the fire pit end.

It's unbelievable how much these have been vandalized/scratched over. IMO the only suitable canvas for graffiti is a big box store. I'd make an exception for a few other places but really don't understand the need to deface this stuff.







Sally found this scorpion of sorts holed up till sundown.



We start our return to the trail head spying a few more glyphs and graphs along the way. At about mile 12-13 and close to the Jeep, I'm feeling a little tired and not paying as much attention to where I'm walking when I hear the rattle directly to my right, by my foot. I must have jumped 6 feet. This guy was tucked behind a hummock of grass a foot or so from the trail and gracious enough to let me off with a warning:

Luckily, Sally was a good 25 ft behind me, she went down into the gully to skirt around him. We're both glad we got to see two of these, very cool.

Had an interesting gps experience here which reinforces my slight mistrust of them.
It had us walking 12.8 miles when I knew we'd only come in about 6. Add to that maybe 2 miles of back and forth between canyon walls, it was still off by 4+ miles in terms of distance walked. I shut it off before heading back to save the batteries, so I don't know what it's total error may have been.

Back at the trail head for a dash to Crazy Jug point(see B, on map above)

[gm13]

On the way back out, as we approached the oak corral we holed a tire. Grateful for making the room for repair kit and compressor, we had it plugged and back on the road in under 15 min. The Liberty was only equipped with street tires and a donut spare, this had been a concern from the start. Driving was typically slow and cautious but maybe I pushed it a bit, trying to get to Crazy Jug by sunset.

By way of an interlude I'll drop in a trip to another pictograph site that we both wanted to see. I had plotted some waypoints for the route at home but some local info pointed us another way, though it was 10 miles further N, only to head back S 17 miles along slow going dirt. My planned route would save us maybe 2 hours if it worked. I was setting myself up for an "I told you so" moment but I wanted to try it, that's half the fun. Coming to the fork of my supposed route we find it gated, we open it, close it behind us and we're on a fairly decent two-track through sagebrush. The road has its rough areas, we teeter diagonally and motionless across a few gullies, find 4WD low useful here and there, generally enjoy the "lush" sagebrush till we come to the fence. No gate this time, just a fence across a perfectly decent two-track. Told ya so.
Ok, so an hour donated to the pursuit of empirical data, that route doesn't work, and I like knowing why.
Back out and off to find the proper road, another 25 miles to the trail head, then 4 miles hiking in, 4 out, it's now 10:00am.
Passed a Gopher snake on the way:

We arrived at the trail at 1:00pm after a slow crawl through moderately rutted dirt where the diff guard digs channels in the high center, to rocky where eyes are focused on hazards hiding behind clumps of grass. A nice trek really.
Just below the trail head:

Find the Collared lizard

[gm13]

Hard to believe one can find fossilized sea creatures at 5000' but here they are:





A long day but the find was worth it:

Our late start had us walking up mostly in shade, which was nice. Back up to the Jeep by sundown and drive out in the dark.

We passed a few Poorwills darting in front of us catching bugs attracted to our headlights, often sighted on the ground by the red glow of their eyes. The amount and variety of mice making their way across the road at night was surprising. Combined with the Black-tailed hares and cotton tails, the bobcats had quite a menu.

[gm13]

...Back to Crazy Jug...
An easy run down FS22 to 425 had us there just after sunset and all to ourselves. That's Fence, N Timp and Timp points jutting out on the left.

A quick set up before dark, just enough room to tuck up into an old Juniper for a little wind protection then cooked up some dinner.
Sunrise the following morning:

Not a bad view from the tent

Hoodooesque spires to the east of the point towards Parissawampitts

We spent the day here, just taking it in. As at Toroweap, the White Throated swifts would zip by close and sounded like bullets when they did, fast, agile little guys.
TBC..

[BLKNBLU]

A long day but the find was worth it:

That's a nice one. If it's any consolation, I didn't drive straight to it either.

I haven't stayed at Crazy Jug but at Monument just to the west instead due to "crowds". Monument is always windy. How was Crazy Jug?

[chicken corners]

Nice trip report, thank you.

6996043208_3cf82fb0de_b.jpg

We found much the same at Kelly Point. 5500ft.

[gm13]

That's a nice one. If it's any consolation, I didn't drive straight to it either.

I haven't stayed at Crazy Jug but at Monument just to the west instead due to "crowds". Monument is always windy. How was Crazy Jug?

Yeah it is.

A group a three people stopped in midday Sunday, we chatted for 1/2hr then they headed out, only folks we saw.
A bit windy till around midnight the first night, the Juniper helped as it was southeasterly. 2nd night was calm.

[gm13]

Nice trip report, thank you.

6996043208_3cf82fb0de_b.jpg

We found much the same at Kelly Point. 5500ft.

Pretty wild what went on there.
Thanks again for map help.

[chicken corners]

Happy to help.

[gm13]

I heard what sounded like an electric motor whirring above, look up to see California Condor #74 soaring close by, checking our state of decay:

That's an impressive wingspan. Perfect setting for it too, felt pretty lucky.






It was a hard place to leave but we had to start heading back. On the way we sighted a Kaibab Squirrel and what we thought was a Mexican Gray wolf because its tailed was carried horizontally, but I'm pretty sure it was a coyote. Our intended last night was going to be spent at White Pocket but we got the news in Fredonia that our new niece had made an early, emergency entry into the world and we zipped back east to meet her, though not before spending 2 hrs at the self serve car wash getting rid of the evidence.

Can't wait to return with more time and in our 110. We really enjoyed it even if we only managed to get to half the sites we thought we might. Taking the time to enjoy a few places is the way we like to go anyway. That mentality is sometimes hard to maintain amid so much possibility and only a short trip. Thanks for wading through the sea of photos and apologies for the dearth of expo bling in them, we really had none
Gene