Some post turkey wheeling and exploring near Bullhead City, AZ

[tacoclimber]

Last Saturday, a group of four of us went out and hit up the Sleeping Princess Trail, near Bullhead City. I've posted a couple reports before about this trail, and it's a fun little trail. Since there was some pretty serious rains out here in August and September, I wasn't sure what condition the trail would be in, but we decided to check it out anyway. The group was:

Sonny - FJ Cruiser
Marc P - SAS Runner, known as GOLDMEMBER!!!!
Daniel - H3
Yours Truly - Tacoma

This was Daniel's third time wheeling, and the first time on any potentially body-damaging terrain. He did great, learned a lot, and I was fairly impressed with the H3's performance. At the very least, he definitely separated himself from the vast majority of H3 owners... :hillbill:

Now for the pics:

On the approach trail:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124076.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124077.jpg

Sonny coming down into the start of the real fun stuff. It's pretty off-camber, with not a lot of margin for error.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/CALVERYCHAPEL001.jpg
Me:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/CALVERYCHAPEL002.jpg

There's a fun little step up right after that off-camber section. Not too hard, but a lot of fun.
Sonny:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124080.jpg
Marc:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124081.jpg
Daniel:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124085.jpg
Me:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/CALVERYCHAPEL003.jpg

Me horsing around:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/CALVERYCHAPEL005.jpg

A cool FJ pic:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/CALVERYCHAPEL006.jpg

A little further down the trail:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124090.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124097.jpg

Stay tuned, more to come.

[tacoclimber]

We hit a point on the trail that we felt was a little much for Daniel, and since Marc's been dealing with a questionable front end issue for a while, we decided that "discernment is the better part of valor", and turned around to go check out some other trails.

These pics are on the way out:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124098.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124099.jpg

We decided to go check out a large mine in the area. Sonny has forgotten more than I know about this area, and he took us on a tour of this particular mine. It's massive. The actual name of the mine slips me at the moment.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124116.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124102.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124103.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124104.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124105.jpg
Say hi to UY, Marc!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124106.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124107.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124108.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124110.jpg

What you're looking at is the remains of the elevator. It's long gone.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124111.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124112.jpg

It's hard to gauge how deep it is in the pics. Those walls are between 150' to 200' feet high. It's massive.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124116.jpg

A few more on the way...

[tacoclimber]

After checking out that mine, we drove back to the highway and went East on 68 before turning South towards the Secret Pass area. There is a fun little trail that either takes you over the pass into Golden Valley, or will take you deeper into the mountains. We went deeper.

These pics are from one section that I have done before. The recent rains made it a lot more interesting than last time. I don't know why, but when you're sitting in the driver's seat, it looks a lot burlier than it does in the pics...

I led this one:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124122.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124123.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124124.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124125.jpg

Marc:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124126.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124127.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124128.jpg

Sonny:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124129.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124130.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124131.jpg

Daniel:
(Who knew those H3's could flex? :hillbill: )
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124132.jpg

Finally, Marc and I being posers.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124135.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124136.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/CALVERYCHAPEL019.jpg

Well, there you go. If anyone is interested in information on these areas, just let me know.

Thanks to Marc for bringing his 4Runner and making everything look easy, thanks to Sonny for being a walking guidebook on the area, and thanks to Daniel for being teachable and for putting up with the occasional H3 joke. :hillbill:

It was a great time.

Oh yeah, one last shameless pic of my own truck:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/tacoclimber/KidsWheeling1124119a.jpg

:hillbill:

[04 Rocko Taco]

Very nice CJ! Lookin Good Bud!!

[tacoclimber]

Very nice CJ! Lookin Good Bud!!


Thanks, bro. As for the truck, she's gettin there. Being married with children and having just bought a house, well, in the words of Marc P, "you're done, dude". :laugh:
At the very least, my mod money has diminished quite a bit. But that won't stop me from wheeling!

Anyway, it was a really fun trip. There are so many mines with fun access "roads" you could just explore out here for years and not see everything.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Man, I would love to live out west, if only for a year or two, to see God's beautiful country, it is sooooo much different than what we have here.

[tacoclimber]

Man, I would love to live out west, if only for a year or two, to see God's beautiful country, it is sooooo much different than what we have here.


Well, if you ever take a road trip, you always have a place to crash at my house. Seriously. :thumbup:

[04 Rocko Taco]

I appreciate that CJ, and hope to take you up on it someday!!

[Marc P]

Just dont go during the summer... :thumbup:

[tacoclimber]

Just dont go during the summer... :thumbup:


:laugh: Yeah, it gets pretty stinkin hot out here. That's when you head to the high desert, or just go soak in the river... :D

[Deltron]

Looks like you guys had a great time. Thanks for sharin the pics

[04 Rocko Taco]

Just dont go during the summer... :thumbup:


:laugh: Yeah, it gets pretty stinkin hot out here. That's when you head to the high desert, or just go soak in the river... :D


Hot?! Yeah but you guys have no humidity, so even your 100* out there, feels like 85* to me, :) SO Im ready any time of the year.