Well, what can I say... another good trip, no issues, and a bunch of pics. The tally this time was 175 brought home, 110 keepers. I uploaded 50 to photobucket HERE. We were able to hit every major point of interest and got home fairly early to boot! I didn't post any real trail pics because most were easily doable in a non-4x4 high clearance truck or SUV. A couple short sections we took around Grand Falls and a forest road near Chavez Pass were easy 4x4.
The first place we hit was Grand Falls, on the outskirts of the San Francisco volcanic field of domes and craters. The falls were created when a large lava flow blocked the Little Colorado River a long time ago.
From there we made a beeline to Register Rock. In 1857, LT Beale was assigned to build a wagon road across New Mexico and Arizona near the 35th parallel. The Beale party stopped for breakfast where the road passes between two rocks. These boulders became a popular spot for wagon train emigrants to inscibe their names. We looked around a bit and found the pioneer graffiti, along with the pioneer trail itself. This was a very interesting area of rocks and formations.
Once again we packed up and drove to our next area, the ghost town of Canyon Diablo. This once bustling town of 2000 was said to be more rowdy than Tombstone at its peak, full of thieves, gamblers, murderers, and women of ill repute. Once the railroad finally built the old bridge across canyon diablo, the town withered away. There was a good amount of rubble on both sides of the railroad tracks. The new bridge has 3 tracks running over it and is massive.
Two Guns was just a little south. It has a very interesting history dating back from pre-European exploration all the way into the late 1970s. It seems it's location -a fair place to cross Canyon Diablo- has made it a crossroads for at least a 1000 years. The place has a lot of interesting history but Two Guns really came into its own as a tourist stop in the mid 1900s when the 'National Trail Highway' moved westward and later became Route 66. Now it's a lonely, crumbling has-been, DOA once I-40 was built.
I like this picture because it shows various ruins, the old Route 66 bridge, and the Peaks in the background.
There were many deep cracks, gorges, holes and caves around. The remains of some fairly recent mining activity were strewn about.
This was part of an old "zoo."
We decided we better head to our camping grounds and made way towards Chavez Pass. I did a short hike to check out Chavez Ruins. The remains on a hilltop are well weathered and you can barely make out the walls of the rooms. We passed by the Meteor Crater. It's the long gray hill on the horizon. The visitor center is at the top, left of center.
Obligatory campfire shot:
The next morning (very frosty) we made a short stop at Blue Ridge Reservoir to eat, change, and walk around a bit.
Posted
Apr 28 2009, 02:06 AM
by
ryangibson