Devil's Canyon Arizona

We began this trail early on New Years Day. So early that there was still ice and snow on the path. Kinda scary since we were driving over rocks, along ledges, up and down hills.


I love the dichotomy of this setting, ice and desert cactus...



An ice covered pond. You don't see this very often just an hour east of Phoenix.



There were many of these amazing monoliths. I didn't get a lot of pictures during this section since it was very icy and snowy and I wasn't ready to end up picking myself up off the ground.





One of the scarier obstacles since the path had ice and was very off camber.


Amazing brook flowing and ice

What do you see in this rock formation?

The end of the trail and soon back to civilization!
Devil's Canyon is an off roading trail just outside of Globe. If you take the trail plan to spend at least six hours on the trail.

Humbug Arizona Ghost Town

This is where our day began on our off-roading trip to Humbug. Humbug is a gold-mining ghost town north of Phoenix in the Bradshaw mountains at about 2600 feet.

The road ahead

Arriving at the ghost town, the main house. This setting caught my attention. I love rock collections and the collection on the table was amazing. Later on the caretaker of the property explained many of the rocks and their composition. As well as explaining the process of gold mining in the mountains and panning for gold.

It was difficult to photograph its amazing glass like mica. That silver looking area looks just like a pieces of glass embedded in rock.

I didn't realize as I took this picture that the rock on the left would turn out looking a bit creepy.

Skulls and Lace

These rocks are Indian artifacts. The reddish piece would have been used to bake bread and the darker stones were grinding implements.

A shot of the ghost town from a distance.

This is a smelter. Many other pieces that were used in the smelter were scattered around the property.

An old Frigidaire

The Chicken Coup

Interior of caretaker house

An old Ford truck

A house built on this property by a wall street investor in the 1930s. Built in a santa fe style with two walls. The inner wall is made with mud bricks and the outside wall is a form of stucco. (You can see the original condition of this house in the link I provide below)

If you can see the people down below, they are lined up to walk into the mining tunnel of the Mountain Chief Mine. This tunnel is about 200 feet below ground level.
Around 1882 about 5,000 oz of gold was taken out.


Late in the day and leaving the ghost town.

The drive back to the main road.

Sunset

Thanks to Dave our tour guide. If you are interested in touring this ghost town make sure you have an off-road vehicle since there are major ruts, clearance issues, and driving along ledges. You also need to call Dave in advance to meet him at the town and unlock the gate, phone number: 1-480-899-7317 More history about Humbug is related at the Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project.

CanyonLands Off Roading Her View

Sorry for the blurry picture, there wasn't time to stop, we had to get to the real stuff!


Still not quite there yet...

Airing tires down to make the ride more comfortable and safe


From the top early in the morning. See the trails way down there? Yep, that's where we are headed!


Making our decent down a switchback


Looks like a lot of room there to make that turn right? But it's barely a one point turn! I would have been happier if we had made it a two-point turn


A view from the windshield


Awesome views all around us


Getting out for photo opportunities...just wait...


You could walk out on this natural bridge. Once again I'm being the photographer and not risking the possibility of that bridge falling down


While I waited for people to walk across the bridge I saw this lizard.


It may appear that we are at the bottom of the canyon, but we are only on the first level down!



There was about 12 of us on this adventure. Jeeps, Land Cruisers, and FJs.


In many places these rocks were right above where you were driving.

Getting ready for a steep ascent.

First one up.

This is the same view of an earlier post where bicyclists are going up. The rule is that vehicles make way for all other trail users --bikes, hikers.

An awesome view once we got to the top and looked over the edge

On the way down....again...

See the White Rim, you could see it all over the canyon. It's how this trail got its name

At this point we were able to "baja" through

Lovely landscape with the Colorado River

See that Finger rock? Soon we will be driving right underneath. It doesn't look like there are any roads over there...but there are. I had no clue how close we were going to get to it.


Here is the finger rock as we get closer...looks pretty close right?

Another climb...this one was a little scary for me.


Look how far away the bottom of the canyon is



This view, while a little messy is as we go right under the Finger rock. I held my breath and hoped this wasn't the moment it got tired of standing there...


Finger Rock from behind, past the danger...

The final ascent



The vehicles look like colorful ants...

Back at the top, just in time to miss the coming storm

We started this trail about 8am and got to end around 7pm. We did take our time to stop and take pictures and have lunch. We also had a trail repair of a leaky power steering hose. Luckily between everyone we had the parts to repair it. Overall this trail was not too intimidating. Some of the switchbacks took my breath away, but I just kept snapping photo's. If you aren't too afraid of heights and narrow shelf roads this is a wonderful trail to go on. The beauty of this area really helps offset any fear. My next post will be a slide show of the dramatic beauty!