Having been surrounded by family for an
entire week, John and I decided to make our escape to recover our sanity and
to spend some quality time together. Early Saturday morning, we packed our
camping gear into the van and took off for Workman's Creek, a campsite along
SR 288, between Young and Lake Roosevelt. Though there was rain in the
forecast for the weekend, we went anyway, stating that we could always sleep
in the van if it got too wet.
Before setting up camp at one of the designated campsites along Workman's
Creek, John and I went exploring further up the road to see what was up there.
According to the Tonto Forest map, we were on a light duty road that would
become primitive road after passing the last of the campsites along Workman's
Creek. It was at that point that the road became ugly. It was full of oil-pan
eaters and tire-slashers, and it was very narrow, with only a few places for
us to turn around. (But why would we want to turn around?) If we continued on
it for several miles, we would eventually reach Aztec Peak, where there was a
trailhead for trails leading into the Sierra Ancha Wilderness areas. There
were also a lot of beautiful campsites. One in particular that caught my eye
was right on the edge of the mountain. There wasn't much shelter, but it had a
spectacular view. If it hadn't been so overcast, we could have seen all the
way to Lake Roosevelt.
Returning to our campsite took a little work, but only because the van had a
difficult time crawling down the steep mountain road. We managed to make it
down safely without damaging the van and before the rain began to fall.
It started sprinkling while we were setting up camp, so we covered all of our
stuff with the tarp and went to go hike the
Hell's Hole Trail, a five-mile
long trail that would take us into the Salome Wilderness. The trailhead was
just a few miles north of Workman's Creek, at the Reynolds Creek Trailhead.
According to the trail description that we had found, the first five miles of
the trail is fairly level, but the last half-mile is supposed to be very steep
as it descends into riparian Hell's Hole. With a name like that, it sounded
like an interesting trail to hike, so, despite the fact it was drizzling, we
decided to hike it.
The Hell's Hole Trail was a beautiful one that followed what appeared to be an
old jeep road that cut through the forest. We probably hiked only a mile and a
half into the trail before the rain forced us to turn around, but that mile or
so was very easy to hike with only minor uphill and downhill climbs that
weren't even enough to get me winded. I also enjoyed shuffling my feet through
the bed of autumn leaves that covered the trail. Both of us were disappointed
that we couldn't finish the trail, but we were glad that we turned around when
we did because it was too cold and miserable to be hiking in the rain.
However, once the weather warms up again, we will return.
We also gave up on camping that weekend. Had we stayed overnight, we would
have been freezing, even if we had slept in the van. After packing up our
camping equipment, we headed home to get out of the rain. However, we
continued to camp...in our living room. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches and
soup, drank wine, and made a campfire out of rubbing alcohol. Then we curled
up in our sleeping bags on the living room floor and watched a movie called
The Bear.
The next morning, we didn't want to stay in town, so we opened up the map and
looked for something to do in a short amount of time -- we had to be at his
parents' house around one o'clock in the afternoon. We decided on Tombstone
because John had never been there, and I hadn't been there since I was a
child. We left early in the morning and drove south on Interstate 10 until we
reached the exit for Bisbee and Highway 80, which would take us right to the
Old West town of Tombstone.
It rained on us all the way to Bisbee, but as we started south on Highway 80,
the skies cleared, and for the rest of the day it was bright and sunny. That
made our adventure of the day even more enjoyable.
Our first stop was the Tombstone Town Hall & Museum, where we learned about
the history of the town and of the surrounding areas. Then we wandered up and
down the street to look in the various shops. I purchased some homemade peanut
butter and chocolate fudge, which was good but just a little too sweet.
After leaving Tombstone, we decided to do some exploring along the backroads
of the area. According to our Arizona map, there were lots of ghost towns
nearby. They were old mining towns, which had been left in ruins when the
people moved on after the mines ran dry. The first one we found was Gleeson.
Surprisingly, there are still people living in this town. Their ramshackle
abodes have been built next to crumbling shells of old establishments.
The next ghost town was Courtland, which was completely uninhabited. Beyond
the remains of the town we could see mine tailings and an old dirt road
leading to them. "Look, honey, a road!" John announced happily.
In fact, John found two roads; the first one was a little precarious because
of the mud -- we really didn't want to get stuck! - and the second one proved
to be an interesting one. We found an old abandoned mine at the top of a hill,
so we parked the van and climbed up to see it. Though it was fenced up, we
crawled inside a few feet to see what was in there. (We didn't dare go any
further than a few feet because we knew that it would have been too
dangerous.)
After leaving Courtland, we continued on towards Pearce, the last stop on
Ghost Town Road. Pearce didn't seem to be much of a ghost town because there
were many houses and businesses in the area, however, we later learned that
those people lived in the neighboring community of Sunsites. Pearce consisted
of a few run-down buildings that could be seen just before entering Sunsites.
Having completed our trek through ghost town country, John and I opened up the
map to see what else we could do that day. (It was already late; we would
never make it back to Phoenix before one o'clock, so we decided that we would
at least be there by five o'clock for dinner.) Having never seen the Dragoon
Mountains and the Cochise Stronghold, which was nearby, we opted to go there
to see what was there.
The road going to the Cochise Stronghold, which is a campground in the
Coronado National Forest at the base of the Dragoon Mountains, was a dirt road
that a sedan could easily handle. At the end of the road was a paved camping
area that was covered by a canopy of trees; there were also placards
explaining the history behind the stronghold. The mountains struck our
interest, because they looked to be a fun place to do some rock climbing.
Though we would have like to do more exploring in the area, it was getting
late in the day, so John and I called an end to our adventure and headed back
to Phoenix to have dinner with his parents and grandparents. |
