The Hit and Run of the Sonoran Desert National Monument

[woodwizard]

View attachment 11097It was unbelievable to me that the place was still empty. A gem this close to a major city just doesn’t exist. On the third time through I wondered, later, if it had anything to do with the 110 temps. The right time of day, a good air conditioning system, plenty of water and a big hat would surely make this trip tolerable. Based in Denver but transferred from the western slope of Colorado to Phoenix, was I too naive to think that there should be more people around? For that matter- any people? After all, coming from Colorado, there is no bad weather only bad clothing.
No sooner than I was told that I was heading to Phoenix that I started to pour over maps of Arizona. As I drew a continuingly larger and larger circle around Phoenix, the quick and easy was the Sonoran Desert National Monument. Created as part of a whirl wind of presidential proclamations in 1999 by an out going Clinton administration, the monument looked close enough, big enough, with enough back roads and history to make it interesting. Over a couple of weekends I could cover a large part of the north half- or so I thought. On the BLM map the monument didn’t look that big. The monument has no Visitor Center and a check on Google didn’t turn up a lot of information; not even a downloadable PDF map- strange. Afterward I surfed Expo’s forum for any information and was skunked there also. That’s when I started to get excited; no real information and an incomplete map, perfect.View attachment 11098View attachment 11099
On the first go-through, I started out on the south side of Phoenix in the Ahwatukee foothills- my new home. My first destination was to find the “Pipeline Road” that defined the northern boundary of the monument. According to the Arizona Gazetteer there was to be a few spur roads heading south into the monument from the Pipeline. The straightest route to the nearest access point was to drive a back road through the Gila River Indian Reservation. I found out later that, no you don’t want to do that; worse of all getting caught; really nice drive though. The rising sun washed Montezuma’s Head, on the south side of the Sierra Estrella Mountain Range, in brilliant yellow light. However, the sun didn’t illuminate the road block near the south end, less than a ¼ mile from the asphalt. After having driven for 35 miles, I backed up a little ways and then picked my way through a reservation trash dump to get out. This was not my idea of what I would find while out looking for America.
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[woodwizard]

The Hit & Run of the Sonoran Desert National Monument

View attachment 11101At the eastern turn off from highway 238 for the Pipeline Road, I encountered “no trespassing” signs. Entering the Pipeline weeks later from the west, there were no signs. A quick check of the map showed a possible alternative route. Circling around I encounter a mud covered abandoned F-250 buried up to the rocker panels at the stream crossing. I found myself shaking my head and letting out a low groan while thinking about the amount of effort it would to pull that truck out. I gave the owner a quiet “thank you” for blocking the route. In this case, better him than me. Doubling back to the asphalt heading west and hoping to find some kind of access, I turned in at the lightly marked eastern entrance. View attachment 11102The posted sun faded map showed a loop route with spurs not indicated on any map that I’ve looked at. On the first time in, I kept to the main road. The undulating road through the dried out Sonoran vegetation lead me north, paralleling the Maricopa Mountains to an intersection with the historic Juan Batista de Anza trail- the namesake for the Anza-Borrego State Park. View attachment 11103The Mexican born De Anza was establishing the long sought overland route from the presidio of Tubac to the mission in Monterey for Spain while the American Revolution was still years away. This along with the Butterfield Stage Route and the Mormon Battalion Trail was to occupy my afternoon with history. In the mid-1850’s it was said that passengers would go “stage crazy” from the 24 days of travel on this route from St Louis to San Francisco. This area was the approximate halfway point. All 3 of these trails occupied the same corridor traveling over Butterfield Pass toward Gila Bend and a river crossing at Yuma. The trail is rated a 3 with a few rocky parts as you climb the pass and make the traveling rough but nothing to challenge a high clearance vehicle; sandy stream beds just need a little more throttle. The gate at the pass summit requires opening and closing. In the mid-80’s, Boy Scouts worked on the creative hand made historic markers that you encounter along the drive. The large informative chat panels at pull-outs and ruins give an idea as to the history. Stepping out of your air conditioned rig into the wall of heat adds a whole different dimension to hardships of the time. You could smell the heat as it burned your nose.
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[crawler#976]

It's a beautiful area, no doubt!

But, be very careful down there after dark - the smugglers are thicker'n flies...

Last year nearly a million dollars was spent in the SDNM, the Ironwood NM and the Organ Pipe NM on cleaning and mitigation of damage done by the smugglers.

Mark

 

[woodwizard]

The Hit & Run of the Sonoran Desert National Monument

View attachment 11107Weeks later, I entered the monument from the west side off Arizona 85, .5 miles north of MM134. Briefly paralleling the highway and through a gate, Margie’s Peak Trail circles around craggy Margie’s Peak for 15 miles and placed you back on Arizona 85 via the Pipeline. View attachment 11108In this extreme north-west corner is the only developed camping area in the northern half of the monument. It consists of 3 sites and a trail head. There are picnic tables, fire rings and a newer vault toilet. This isolated, backcountry camp ground has to be one of the closest- wilderness camping areas to Phoenix. The mile long spur road to get there is designated wilderness on either side. This road is rated a 2 because of the wonderfully custom pin-stripping your vehicle receives coming and going.
View attachment 11109The third time to the monument I came from the north, down the Rainbow Valley Road from Goodyear. Rainbow Valley Road starts off as smooth paved asphalt and over the next 7 miles turns into a graded dirt road that intersects the ….Pipeline Road. From the Pipeline, I turned south on to a spur road, paralleling the North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness. This road presented the most challenge due to its course following a small stream bed. I found myself having to goose the gas through the sandy banks to keep from getting stuck. Having a stock 4X4 provides me with no approach or departure angles and very little break over angle. The front air dam didn’t much appreciate my route finding skills. It was a good thing that the sand was soft due to the truck bottoming out at a couple of the break overs. Unfortunately I’m getting use to the high pitched sound of the needles and broken branches of the creosote bushes and paloverde trees scrapping the length of the truck. I’ve wondered many times if the company would appreciate a slide show of their truck in the many backcountry situations it’s been in and understand how thankful I am for their whole hearted contributions to the gas fund that put me there; naw. The road entered and exited the stream bed over its entire length to the intersection with the Butterfield Stage Route. Again my ass started to have sympathy pains from the thoughts of riding a stage through this area to San Francisco; especially for the women. The route over Butterfield Pass is so beautiful that I was grateful to find myself there again. Following the stage route west through the oppressive heat and back out onto the asphalt, I couldn’t help but think of the suffering and difficulties of traveling in the desert wearing petticoats and armor. I washed it all away with another drink of my Big Gulp Slurpy; brain freeze at 115.
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[Tucson T4R]

View attachment 11097.............Afterward I surfed Expo’s forum for any information and was skunked there also. ............View attachment 11100

Yep very nice area, especially in the spring when it's cooler and the cactus are in bloom. Here's a past thread on a run we made last spring to the same area.

http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5358

Welcome to the Southwest. :wings:

 

[Ursidae69]

Great area to explore.

 

[articulate]

Did you head into the areas south of I-8? Indeed, I ought to break away to visit this place more often. It's so easy to get there from Phoenix, and with so few things for civilized people to do there the masses stay away.

On that trip Brad mentioned, we drove up a really sweet (i.e. rough) pass that came down by a tall rock formation called "Squaw Tit" (found on topos) At the pass we found piles of garbage, evidently abandoned by migrants - Mark's right about the area being hot territory for people smuggling. The sight of the trash is rather creepy and irritating at once.

Nevertheless, the place seems to have a great assortment of roads south of I-8. Yeah, let's go sometime.