Bronco Trailhead, and Picket Post, Arizona

This is a continuation of my six week trip to Arizona: After leaving the Wickenburg area:

Picket Post, Arizona.

Next stop... Bronco Trailhead outside of Carefree, in the Tonto National Forest. You have to take Seven Springs Road to get there, which is doable, but be prepared for some hairpin turns. Once the road turns to gravel, it is pretty slow going, but one thing I noticed about Arizona, is that they grade the roads pretty frequently. In fact they graded this one while I was there, so my return trip was much smoother.

Bronco Trailhead.

Bronco Trailhead is a proper horse camp with corrals and everything! There are six steel corrals, one of which can be opened up and made into a double space. If you want an even bigger area there are a couple of small pastures made from sticks and barbed wire, one is falling down and not really useable, but the other one is still functional. There is a bathroom, a manure bin, and it is free. There is plenty of parking room for many rigs. Although the forest service website states there is stock water, that is not the case. There is a solar powered well, but it was not up and running. It's pretty obvious, not a lot of horse people camp there.

Bronco Trailhead has steel corrals.

This trailhead accesses the Cave Creek Trail System which is pretty large, there is a map online you can look at, to plan rides. Map link for trails.

I got on my horse and started riding as soon as I arrived. The Bronco Trail goes along a ridge for 4 miles before you drop down and reach a junction, and then you can pick which direction to go from there. I went right, on the Cottonwood Trail, and then eventually just turned around and retraced my steps, although it is possible to do 18 or 19 miles loops.

Looking back at the trailhead from the Bronco Trail.

On top of the ridge, on the Bronco Trail.

Cool looking hills in the Tonto National Forest.

Down in this valley is the first junction.

On my way back, along the Bronco Trail.

There was no cell service there at all, even on top of the ridges. I decided to just spend one night, and then move again the next day. 

At first I was thinking of going to Apache Junction, but I had a lot of different areas I wanted to ride, in fact I wasn't sure I would be able to fit them all into a six week time period. Also I have hiked in the Superstition Mt's before, so I decided to skip that area this time, and go straight to Picket Post.

Picket Post is BEAUTIFUL and it is located off of Highway 60 near Superior, AZ. You cannot camp at the actual trailhead, but there are plenty of dispersed camping spots along the road to the trailhead. I snagged a great spot about half a mile away, with amazing views of Picket Post Mountain. Thus far I had not actually seen any horse people camped at any of the places I had been, and this was no exception, even on the weekend, although lots of locals were driving in to do day rides.

A rainbow over my pony, at Picket Post.

The next day I did the loop through Arnett Canyon which goes all the way around Picket Post. This was one of my favorite rides of the whole trip. When I arrived at the trailhead, the first trail I saw had a sign saying "not recommended for horses". A very friendly volunteer host explained to me that there was a sketchy section on it, but if I was wanting to do the loop, to take another trail nearby. He gave me a long drawn out explanation of how to do the loop, it's not difficult, but I guess people have been know to wander off the wrong way at junctions.

At the beginning of the loop, I did it clockwise.

On the Picket Post loop.

On the Picket Post loop.

There was actually water in this canyon, green grass, and really beautiful scenery the entire way.

At one point I came across a group of horse riders having a lunch break, I saw some cairns marking the way up a hill around them, but they said the trail was actually right through where they were stopped. This involved climbing up and over a couple of rocky areas. One of the ladies said they just turn around and go back, instead of going over the rock, but it is passable. After that the loop continues by eventually joining up with the Arizona Trail, but instead of turning right and following it back to the trailhead, I went left, to add some more mileage, before finally turning around.

On the Picket Post loop.

Water in the canyon.

On the Picket Post Loop, my horse enjoyed some of the yummy green grass.

On the Arizona Trail.

The next day I decided to ride the Arizona Trail east, which goes under the highway, and do a large loop following the trail all the way to a cow corral with a water trough, then back along Happy Camp Canyon Rd. I ran into a few cows along the way, most cows are pretty nonchalant about riders going by, but not in this particular area. One cow seemed to be lonely and chased after me for awhile. Another one stood on a hill, and for an extremely long time, watched every inch of my progress with great interest. 

It was a weekend and there were quite a few people in jeeps and ATV's on my return trip. A few times I had to wait while a long convoy of them went by on the road, vehicle after vehicle after vehicle, they seem to travel in packs.

The Arizona Trail goes under the highway, there are two tunnels.

On the Arizona Trail.

This dead Saguaro cracked me up.

There are a lot of these kind of gates on the Arizona Trail.

Whitford Canyon, with a dry creekbed.

At the cow corral and water trough.

I stayed one more night, and in the morning I noticed a sheriff's vehicle drive by, then another one, and then not long after that a helicopter started flying over the area. The helicopter was obviously looking for someone, flying up to the top of Picket Post and also over the nearby canyons. I didn't know what was going on at the time, but later I looked online and two hikers had gotten lost and had to spend the night out there in the rain. There was a video made during the rescue.   Video about rescue.

Speaking of rain, as I was getting ready to head off to my next destination, I saw some storm clouds gathering. I had just gotten into the truck and was driving away when a full blown thunderstorm hit the area.

This was only the beginning, I knew I had a few cold days and nights ahead of me. There was a winter storm warning for the whole state, calling for snow and freezing temperatures, not what I had signed up for, but what can you do. I thought about changing course, but figured I was actually going to be in one of the better areas to wait it out, so off I went to Frazier Horse Camp by Roosevelt Lake.

To be continued....

GPS COORDINATES TO BRONCO TH

GPS COORDINATES TO PICKET POST

Ghost Town Road, Sophie's Flat and Vulture Peak, Arizona

Winter this year was mild in Central Oregon, but it's still my least favorite season, and it's much more fun to go on a road trip to Arizona for six weeks. I did not stay in one place long, instead I drove in a big loop around the state, stopping at various places to ride. As per usual, rather than staying at the popular and overpopulated areas such as Goldfield, Horspitality, or other private facilities, I did my own thing, and most of my camping was dispersed, which is incredibly easy to do in Arizona. Every trailhead or recreation area has somewhere you can camp with horses, most of the time the areas can accommodate any sized rig, and it's a very horse friendly state in general.

Sophie's Flat.

I left in mid January, and did the drive in three days, stopping first in Winnemucca, Nevada, at the fair grounds. You have to call ahead, there is a lady that lives on site, and she will tell you to just self pay when you arrive. There are a variety of different stalls to choose from, but this fairgrounds does not have bigger pens as an option, instead there are three round pens, and so I chose one of those. It is $15.00 per horse and $10.00 for dry camping. They also have plenty of RV parking areas with hookups for $25.00. There is a bathroom with showers (you have to pay for a shower, with quarters ) and an RV dump.

The next day I drove to Scotty's Junction and dispersed camped along Hwy 267 which is one of the entrances into Death Valley. This highway is currently closed farther down near Scotty's Castle, and has been since 2015 when a flood did an incredible amount of damage to the road. They are working on it and it will reopen, possibly next year.

Awesome sunset at Scotty's Junction, Nevada.

On the third day I arrived at Congress, AZ, just outside of Wickenburg. I made my way over to Ghost Town Rd. and I was greeted by a herd of javelina's crossing the road. I would continue to see a lot of javelina's (wild pigs) over the course of my trip, but was never able to get any pictures, since they scurry away very quickly. Ghost Town Rd. is a piece of BLM sandwiched in between state land, with a lot of dispersed camping spots, especially on a loop road that features two cemeteries. There were a significant amount of RVers camped there, but I found a spot right before the second cemetery. It's best not to take a truck and trailer past that spot, since the road gets a lot rougher. 

I proceeded to put up my portable electric corral, not an easy task, since the ground was quite hard and rocky. The better area to camp if you have to put posts in the ground, is along the main road, off to the left, but I didn't know that until the next day.

My camp spot at Ghost Town Rd. 

I enjoyed the warm evening, wearing my shorts, and being quite delighted to be in Arizona. I was very close to civilization but my cell service was sketchy for some reason. This would become a common theme, usually close to towns, I would have crappy service, but if I was out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, it would work great!

The next day I went for my first ride over to an old mining area, then continued on and climbed a steep rocky hill to a viewpoint. Then I looped around on dirt roads, finding a livestock water tank, before I finally headed back. Livestock water tanks are a big deal in Arizona, since water is scarce. They are obviously meant for cows and wildlife, but your horse will be especially happy to see one on a long ride with zero other water sources. It is illegal in Arizona to camp within 1/4 of a mile of livestock water, tempting as that may be.

Old mining area.

At the top of the hill.

At the viewpoint.

After my ride a lady named Phyllis stopped in, she was horse camping over by Vulture Peak and was checking out other areas to potentially move to. She asked me about the area and how the riding was, and after some introductions, it turns out she knew of me from following my blogs for years. (Phyllis, if you are reading this, I did look for you over by Vulture Peak!)

That evening I wandered around through the cemeteries, because what else do you do all by yourself as it is getting dark! The oldest marked grave I found was from 1895.

The pioneer cemetery.

The next day I drove over to Sophie's Flat near Wickenburg. There is a large parking area for trailers where you can camp, (or you can disperse camp along the road ) and there is a bathroom. The ground was fairly hard there as well, so I decided to wait until after my ride to make a decision on whether I would stay there or camp elsewhere. You can also camp at Constellation Park, which I passed on the way to the trailhead. You used to be able to get water across the street from the park, at the rodeo grounds, but I was told, by Phyllis, that they no longer allow anyone to access it.

I did a fairly short loop ride following the marked trails, which were A through C. There is a map at the trailhead, but it wasn't very detailed and had differing information from what I actually came across while riding. However it is easy to follow either the trails or the OHV roads, which are separated.

Trails are marked at Sophie's Flat.

At Sophie's Flat.

This Saguaro was pink, not sure why.

You can certainly do more riding there, but I decided not to stay longer, so after my ride I drove over to Vulture Peak instead. There is a huge area to dry camp off of Vulture Mine Road on the left, before you get to the trailhead, but it was full of RVers, as was the trailhead itself, so I continued on until I came across a nice spot about half a mile away on the opposite side of the peak. This trailhead, and general area has ALOT of cholla, which for anyone that does not know, is a nasty cactus with barbs, that you want to stay away from. 

The dreaded cholla.

Speaking of cholla, I had set up my corral very far away from any of it, but while my horse was innocently eating her hay, I looked over and she had a piece of cholla embedded in her upper lip. Even though the main cactus plant wasn't close by, sometimes pieces of it are scattered on the ground. She is a wonderfully patient horse and without even needing to halter her, I picked the stuff out of her lip. This wasn't fun for either of us. It's best to use pliers or something like that, a comb can work, touching it is not recommended, it's very painful even with gloves on. I scoured the ground in her corral for a long time after that, making sure there weren't any more pieces lurking about.

This particular spot did not have cell service, but if I hiked up a small hill nearby, I would get it.

Although I had enjoyed two nice weather days thus far, my phone had informed me that the weather was about to change, and it sure did. 

It rained hard all night, and all the next morning. The high daytime temperature was 46 degrees which felt like being back at home, so I bundled up, wearing chaps and several other upper layers and rode over towards the peak.

I partially followed the actual hiking trail but also used the dirt roads, which are often used by ATV's, to loop around.

Since that was a short ride, I also rode on some more dirt roads across the highway. Like most of Arizona, once you are on a big piece of BLM, it is really unlimited on how long you can ride for.

Heading towards Vulture Peak.

Vulture Peak, on a gloomy day.

On the other side of Vulture Mine Rd.

That night as it was getting dark, I was walking through my horse's corral and I stepped right into another batch of a different kind of unidentified cactus, and got stabbed in the Achilles. This caused me to hobble around in pain for about a day and a half. Everything is pretty prickly in Arizona, you get used to it, even my horse learned quickly not to walk too close to bushes, since a lot of them have thorns.

On the way out of Wickenburg I stopped at the Chevron to get water. You have to pay for water, but the guy didn't charge me as much as he was supposed to, it was early in the morning, and no one else was there. This Chevron can get really backed up with horse trailers and RVers lined up to get water and use the dump station. For example weeks later on my way back home, I stopped there for gas and was going to get water again, but the lineup was long and I have a Featherlite which means my tanks etc. are on the opposite side of my trailer from everyone else's. I can't exactly get into to the lineup backwards, people don't take too kindly to that.

No offense to anyone that loves Wickenburg, but it is my least favorite part of Arizona, so I had not planned to spend a lot of time there. 

My next destination was in the Cave Creek/Carefree area, the Bronco Trailhead in the Tonto National Forest.

To be continued....

GPS COORDINATES TO GHOST TOWN RD.

GPS COORDINATES TO SOPHIE'S FLAT

GPS COORDINATES TO VULTURE PEAK TH

Elijah Bristow, Mildred Kanipe Horse Camp, and Mt. Pisgah, Oregon

If the weather is going to stay nice in the fall, I will always sneak in as many camping trips as possible. The high country is still snow free, but too many trees have fallen during heavy winds, so I figured a visit to a few parks in the valley would be a nice little getaway.

Mildred Kanipe Horse Camp.

I started at Elijah Bristow which is a state park near Eugene. There is a separate trailhead for equestrians with lots of room for trailers, a bathroom, a set of corrals, although you can't camp there, potable water, a round pen, a manure bin and a mounting ramp. There is no fee at this park, it is 847 acres and they have a map of the 10 or so miles of trails.

The Elijah Bristow equestrian parking area.

I arrived on a Thursday and it was pretty obvious this is a popular place for equestrians. I had plenty of  other horse people as company on the trails. So much so that my horse, who is old enough to know better, was acting pretty silly with all the horses trying to go past us in very close quarters. I guess she has gotten used to all the wide open space we normally have in Central OR. Either that or she was was trying to point out that I don't need to look for a young, green horse any time soon, since she can still act like one on occasion!

My goal was to ride over to Dexter Reservoir first and then come back and loop around on some of the other trails closer to the trailhead. The trail follows along the Middle Fork of the Willamette River until it gets to the dam and then you can ride up onto to the dam to observe the reservoir.

On the trails at Elijah Bristow.

The Middle Fork Willamette River.

Dexter Reservoir.

The trails are all marked with different animal signs, but that meant nothing to me since the map didn't have the corresponding animal named trails on it, so I just looped willy nilly around until I had seen everything. 

Trails are marked at Elijah Bristow.

Then I headed off  to Mildred Kanipe which is a new-ish horse camp on the way to Roseburg. They don't have the best signage to find the camp, so coming from the north on Elkhead Rd. I came upon the day use area first, where the old farmhouse and barns still stand, but the next turnoff after that is for the horse camp. (GPS coordinates at the end of the blog)

Mildred Kanipe has 15 equestrian spots and another small loop with 5 separate spots for non horse people. This is a large open area with plenty of room and all of the sites are pull through. There is livestock water from spigots at each corral and also several separate potable water spigots. Five of the corrals are just for one horse, and they are much roomier than the other sets. There are two manure bins, three bathrooms in the whole camp area, and a mounting platform with stairs. It is $27.00 per night, and you can make reservations. The camp is open from mid March through October, and I had the place to myself, other than the camp hosts.

Mildred Kanipe Horse Camp.

The day use area has it's own bathroom, manure bin, loading ramp, and a picnic pavilion. There is a fee for parking but they were waiving it when I was there. There are also hitch rails, mounting blocks, garbage cans, and a map of the trails. 

One of the camp hosts came over to say hi, and was very nice and welcoming. I was told they had just turned off the pump the night before for the livestock water, but I was still able to get a dribble to slowly fill my bucket. I enjoyed the full moon that evening, as my horse happily mowed the lush grass.

A full moon at Mildred Kanipe.

The next morning I woke up blanketed in fog. When I walked over to the bathroom I could barely make out the faint outline of my truck and trailer. I bided my time and eventually it cleared up, there was sun for about 3 minutes, and then the rest of the day was cloudy. 

A foggy morning at Mildred Kanipe.

There are 1060 acres to explore and it is pretty straightforward since it's just a large fenced piece of land. Some of the trails are marked, some are not. The map has all the trails color coded, and so there are corresponding colors painted onto trees on the various loops. The scenery is varied, with some sections of oaks, then pines and ferns, as well as wide open spaces and creek crossings.

On Mildred's Forest Trail.

A pretty Arab mare came to greet us.

On an unnamed trail.

On the Fern Woods Trail.

A picnic spot on the Underwood Hill Trail.

The old school house, on the School House Trail.

After dinner I walked over to the other non equestrian day use area. This was where Mildred Kanipe used to live and there is information that you can read about her life. For example when she was a kid she would hitch her Shetland pony Pete to a buggy and drive him 7.5 miles one way to school every day. In the photos Pete looks much larger than a Shetland, and he has a "woe is me" demeanor about him.

Reading about her, I became quite fond of Mildred, she was clearly a tough old broad. She never married, she managed the entire acreage alone, and had sheep and cows. She absolutely loved horses, and wanted her land to become a park, that everyone including equestrians could enjoy. Her grave is on the property and she left very specific instructions on how she was to be laid to rest.

The restored buggy that Pete used to pull.

Peacocks at the day use area.

I was all out of trails to ride the next day, so I drove back over towards Eugene and stopped at the Howard Buford Recreation Area. There is a separate horse trailer parking area at the north trailhead, but it does not have a pay station so I downloaded the Passport Parking app, and was able to pay the $5.00 fee that way, easy as pie. 

Horse trailer parking at the North Trailhead.

This is the biggest of the three parks I visited, at 2,363 acres. Although not all of the trails are for horses, you can ride to the summit of Mt. Pisgah. I started out riding in the Bottomlands first, along the river, then came across the horse arena, did a few canter laps around it, just for fun, and then headed uphill. Although mountain bikes are not allowed on the trails, it was a Saturday, so there were plenty of hikers.

Along the Coast Fork Willamette River.

Riding in the North Bottomlands.

Once I got to the top, it was very foggy, a group of teenagers were agog to see a horse materialize out of the mist. As we approached the monument, my horse stepped in a hole and nearly fell flat on her face, giving a nearby hiker a good startle. Another couple eventually hiked up as well, and I told them they were going to have to describe to me what the view normally looks like. The lady mentioned that you can see the Three Sisters on a clear day. I figured I wasn't missing much, since I can see the Three Sisters at home from my front lawn.
I decided to go back down a different way, and somehow I ended up on a not particularly horse friendly narrow, rocky, steep, slippery trail for awhile, but after negotiating that I made my way back to the trailhead.

The summit of Mt. Pisgah, all fogged in.

Heading back down.

Views on the way back down.

This concludes what I assume will be my last trip of the year. With Covid, the fires and everything else going on, I still managed to get in some good camping trips in 2020.

 

GPS COORDINATES TO ELIJAH BRISTOW

GPS COORDINATES TO MILDRED KANIPE

GPS COORDINATES TO MT. PISGAH