Pearce Ferry

Kingman, Arizona: Nothing like scattered snow showers to bring the scenery to life. It was bright and sunny when we pulled out this morning, but within ten minutes dark clouds surrounded us. It was a small storm, but it spit every form of precipitation ever witnessed by man at our little 2-wheel-drive Ranger as we slogged through the slush.

Our destination today: the Pearce Ferry area, where the Grand Canyon ends and the Colorado River dumps into Lake Mead, or so we thought.

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Kingman Plateaus

So what is on top of all those pillars of rock that protect Old Kingman from the modern sprawl to the north?

I ask myself that very question every time I drive up the dynamite-carved, artificial canyons of the interstate. This Sunday, after a much needed stop at Arby’s, we decided to find out.

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Mud, Snow, and Mud

With a Friday to burn, and bored of the usual I40 - 89 route to Prescott, we decided to cut through the forest on our way up to the ExPo meet-and-greet. No particular plan in mind, we set out at dawn knowing County 68 would eventually get us there.

County 68 / Camp Wood Road out of Bagdad was awesome. Beautiful views, a little snow, and lots of mud – or so I foolishly thought at the time (the second leg of the trip would prove much, much worse).

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First Snow of the Season

After five days of rain, I finally spotted snow on the HualapaiCam this morning. Knowing it would be gone by the afternoon, I quickly grabbed my ditch kit and a cup of coffee and we headed up the mountain.

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Navajo Expedition: Day 1

The meet at Cracker Barrel went off without a hitch, and I got the frosted mug of apple cider I’ve been craving all month. On our way out of Kingman, the rain storm we were in turned into hail then snow before we passed the Highway 93 interchange. A blue Oldsmobuick flew past us in the midst of this, only to be found out in the median a few minutes later.

The weather would continue to run through just about every form of precipitation possible, and some sun too, making for some beautiful scenery for the drive up to Canyon de Chelly.

We got in late tonight, so just dinner with our guide and off to bed.

Arizona Fun

Tooled around Kingman for a while this morning and went on a brief hike around the White Cliffs Wagon Trail. Neat stuff, tracks from the wagons cut surprisingly deep into the rock. Here’s a brief excript the write-up at KingmanTourism.org:

…part of an old ore wagon route used in the late 1800’s to bring ore from the Stockton Hill Mines to the smelter in Kingman.

The wagon tracks have been cut deep into the stone and there are depressions along both sides of the roadbed, which were used for stubbing posts and ropes to help get the heavy wagons up and down the grade.

We got to do a bit of shooting in the afternoon before heading back to Firebase Gloria for dinner, drinks and campfire. I brought shade this time around, though it wasn’t hot enough to need it (unlike last time). I got to play with an M1 Garand, very cool… I want one now.

Another day and it’s west to Mojave National Preserve in California.