Coming Soon: the Great Western Trail

CARVING OUT A TRAIL FOR

"Look down there," I said, pointing at a long string of tiny cars slowly climbing the twisting highway toward the old mining town of Jerome. "They think they're seeing Arizona, but I'll bet they don't even know this place exists."

BACK ROAD ADVENTURERS

My companions nodded in agreement. Our caravan of Jeeps had taken us by primitive roads into a lonely mountain environment that few people see.

Earlier that morning, we had driven over a web of ranch roads in the Prescott National Forest east of Interstate 17, seeing antelope prance nervously then effortlessly run from one hill to another.

We passed picture-book ranches, saw chunky, square-bodied Hereford cattle, and we surprised so many mule deer we lost count.

We next crossed the freeway and traveled a few miles west on the paved Cherry Road (State Route 169). Then we were back on dirt roads again, climbing to the isolated hamlet of Cherry and then up and up, through ponderosa pine forests, old forest fire burns, and deep lost canyons, until we topped out on the mighty hump of Mingus Mountain.

A short time before, we had left the pines behind and were winding along the chaparral shoulders of Mingus Mountain. Below us was the great sweeping scope of the Verde Valley from Jerome to Clarkdale to Cottonwood. The course of the Verde River was marked by the greenery of cottonwood, mesquite, and willow trees. But we could see the rounded tips of Sedona's famous red buttes poking up through the haze of distance. Beyond and

BACK ROAD TRAIL

(RIGHT) Jess Chinn, left, author Bob Thomas, state arks' Terry Heslin, and four-wheeler Gary Keller check a map while discussing possible routes. (OPPOSITE PAGE) The four-wheel-drive group that Thomas traveled with enjoys a view from a vantage above Superior.

above all this were the great ramparts of the Mogollon Rim.

Everything we had seen and done this day was free and available to just about anyone who had a backcountry vehicle. We had Jeeps, but so far we had not found it necessary to put them in four-wheel drive. A regular two-wheel-drive pickup truck could easily have followed our trail.

Trouble was that much of the public - except those with a keen interest in the high and lonely places doesn't know these roads exist.

That will change soon as Arizona opens its segment of the Great Western Trail, a system of dirt roads that leads from the Mexican Border to Utah, and, eventually, all the way to Canada, 3,000 miles to the north. Utah has its system of back roads nearly in place, and Idaho and Montana are expected to wrap up their routes before Arizona completes its survey.

Gary Keller, 50, of Phoenix, a four-wheeldrive enthusiast since he was a teenager, said he believes the total distance, given the twisting nature of primitive roads, will be much greater. Keller estimates that if a driver travels the length of Arizona from Naco to Fredonia on dirt roads, the trip will be at least 800 miles long.

Keller and fellow Jeep drivers Jess Chinn, Jerry Huddlestun, and Dick Bergeron are mapping a practical route that will ultimately be incorporated into the Great Western Trail system.

Nearly every weekend the group, members of the Arizona State Association of 4Wheel Drive Clubs, tries to explore a portion of the proposed GWT. Monitoring their work is Terry Heslin, 35, off-highway vehicle program coordinator for Arizona State Parks.

I hitched rides with the group for three weekend exploration trips, traveling a wide variety of terrain from low desert near Florence all the way to the 7,000-foot-high ponderosa pine forests east of Flagstaff.

6 November 1995 One of the best areas I saw was a section from Box Canyon along the Gila River east of Florence to the Walnut Canyon area west of Kearny.

Not many persons get into this huge tangle of canyons, cliffs, and cacti, Keller said. Some of the canyons, believe me, are truly magnificent.

Another area, east of Superior and north of Kearny, is four-wheel-drive country supreme. Consisting of ledges, slick-rock, and granite reefs, the roads if you can call them that had to be traveled so slowly and carefully that nary a rock was lifted by a spinning wheel. At some of the worst spots, members of our party stood in front of each Jeep as they negotiated the bad places and directed and coached the drivers.

"Come on, come on. Turn a hair to the left and get that wheel up on the rock. Now bump the right tire against the ledge and bounce on up. There. Good going. Now crawl on up the rest of the way. Piece of cake."

And it was.

As envisioned by state parks and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the other participating agency, the roads can be used by all manner of vehicles as well as by hikers, horseback riders, and mountain bikers.

Some of the roads are county roads that are kept graded, have culverts and shoulders, and are capable of sustaining speeds of 40 to 50 mph. Some are strictly fourwheel-drive roads that will be a satisfying challenge to any Jeep, truck, or sport-utility owner. And some roads are narrow, bumpy two-trackers that lead across the desert or through a national forest. Most of the latter can be driven by regular pickup trucks.

"You don't have to drive the entire road, border to border," said Keller. "Just pick and choose what kind of outdoor terrain suits you.

"In winter, explore the desert; in summer, Text continued on page 11

BACK ROAD TRAIL

Continued from page 6 drive the high country in the north. Arizona has just about everything," he said. All the Arizona roads that make up the Great Western Trail are old roads - 50 years or better - that have long been part of the public land system.

While the actual route is still up in the air the Navajo Indian Reservation portion remains undecided pending the approval of the tribe Heslin, Keller, and their friends are giving wide berth to designated Wilderness Areas, sensitive environmental terrain, hiking trails, and national parks and monuments. "We do not want the GWT to be in conflict with any hikers' trails like the Arizona Trail that also goes from the Mexican border to Utah," Heslin said. "We'll stay away from their hiking trails, but they're welcome to use ours."

So far the plan has garnered widespread support. All six national forest supervisors in Arizona have endorsed it; the BLM and State Land Department say they have no problems with roads over their lands; and little towns like Kearny are enthusiastic. Kearny, like many mining communities, has been hurt by the economic slowdown and is looking for new, more reliable sources of revenue than the booms and busts of copper mining.

The GWT program calls for "focus points" along the route at which travelers will make certain communities their headquarters for meals, motels, groceries, and gasoline. "Each focal point will offer different things to do-off-road trails, historic places, lakes for boating or fishing, bird-watching, hiking trails, or wildlife viewing," Keller said.

"Kearny will be one of our focus points because it has just a wealth of four-wheeldrive roads and historic areas. You can spend a week of full-time four-wheeling and not trace out all the roads," he said. I admit I like driving remote dirt roads.

It's a grand adventure in every way. I found it engrossing to maneuver over the everchanging terrain, to judge the best way up or down, and to learn the various gear and power train possibilities. Throw in elk, deer, antelope, eagles, quail, squirrels, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and bears; creeks running with icy snowmelt; high-country trout lakes; miles of ponderosa pine forests; desert washes with bottoms of treacherous loose sand; saguaros; awesome cliffs and old lava flows, and you can't help but feel adventuresome.

quail, squirrels, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and bears; creeks running with icy snowmelt; high-country trout lakes; miles of ponderosa pine forests; desert washes with bottoms of treacherous loose sand; saguaros; awesome cliffs and old lava flows, and you can't help but feel adventuresome.

To my thinking, the grandest scenery seemed to be up high. Some of the roads took me to places so remote I doubt that half a dozen persons a year saw them. There were some areas that seemed to be lost in a sea of peaks, mountains like waves that stretched unblemished into the purple distance.

Will people go there? You bet your dif-ferential they'll go. Off-highway vehicle use in Arizona, despite the state's small population, is extraordinarily high: an estimated 5.1 million user days per year. The Arizona Department of Transportation says residents own more than 550,000 off-highway vehicles, including 279,617 four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Preferential they'll go. Off-highway vehicle use in Arizona, despite the state's small population, is extraordinarily high: an estimated 5.1 million user days per year. The Arizona Department of Transportation says residents own more than 550,000 off-highway vehicles, including 279,617 four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Yet, says the Arizona Off-Highway Recreational Plan, "there are only a handful of officially designated OHV sites or trails in the state."

With the Great Western Trail, the OHV owners will have a legitimate reason to use their vehicles as they were designed to be used mastering the primitive rough roads of Arizona's backcountry.

And looking down on those who are afraid to leave the beaten track.

Phoenix-based Bob Thomas owns three four-wheel-drive vehicles and spends most of his recreational time driving little-known dirt roads and two-trackers in Arizona's backcountry.

David Elms Jr., also of Phoenix, loves to travel the lonely roads of Arizona's outback. Arizona Highways 11