Ajo to home with some wandering in the middle

 

After a heavy rain with hail last night, we were thrilled that the roads were dry when we started for home from Ajo, AZ at 7am. The ride north on AZ 85 was uneventful, and as we rode along we decided to not retrace our route from Thursday but instead continue on 85 north until we reached Indian School Road.

The Garmin GPS kept suggesting that we take the I10 to the 303 and finally north on I17 - all interstate highways that we wanted to avoid. We realized too late that AZ 85 did not go as far north as we expected, and spent some time wandering around, looking for a paved road that would get us back to Vulture Mine Road into Wickenburg.

After stopping at yet another intersection with a dirt road and consulting the Butler motorcycle map, we realized that we needed to backtrack, take the I10 for about 9 miles, and then we would be back on little-traveled, 2-lane, paved roads.

The Butler map proved correct, and we were soon back on the winding paved roads that led to Vulture Mine Road.

We crossed the same muddy wash from Thursday, today with more mud but no problem at all for the BMW.

I wanted to be sure to get a photo of Vulture City - settled in 1863 to house miners from the Vulture Mine, Arizona's most successful gold mine, it grew to 5000 people. The mine closed in 1942 since it was considered a non-essential mine, not needed for WWII efforts and the town became was abandoned.

Some of the buildings have been restored and it's now possible to book a tour or hold a special event in the town.

The rest of our ride was uneventful as we wound up 89 from the valley into much cooler temperatures in Yarnell, then continued home on very familiar roads.

When I spotted Thumb Butte, I knew we were very close to home. We really enjoyed Ajo and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and being back on the BMW for even a short 3-day trip reminded us how much we enjoy motorcycle travel. We won't wait a year for the next trip!

Ajo, Arizona and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

It was a sunny late-September morning for a ride into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona.

 After a quick stop for breakfast at Granny's Kitchen in Why, AZ, we continued south on AZ 80 to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Why supposedly takes its name because it is at a 'Y' intersection of highways 85 and 86. The highway intersection has changed, but the town keeps its name and Granny's Kitchen is a fantastic stop for breakfast or lunch.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was established in 1937 to protect and preserve this scenic area in the Sonoran Desert that borders Mexico. It's the only place in the US where organ pipe cactus grow wild.

The organ pipe cactus is the second largest columnar cactus in the US (saguaros are taller) and grows up to 23' tall. Arizona is the northernmost limit of the organ pipe cactus which are extremely sensitive to frost.

We watched a 15-minute video in the visitor center and Mike talked with the park service staff about riding the BMW on the dirt/gravel/sand roads in the park. They suggested we head out on Puerto Blanco Drive since the Ajo Mountain Drive is closed for construction and turn around where the road becomes one-way because the next section has a number of sandy washes.

Mike stuck to the more hard-packed truck tracks on the loose gravel/dirt road, and we were really happy that the hillier parts over the washes were paved.

We saw only 2 other vehicles over the 10 mile ride, and enjoyed looking at the wide variety of cactus and other desert plants with the mountains in the backdrop.

We then decided to continue south on AZ 85 4 miles until we came close to the border before we turned around and headed back north to Ajo.

By this point it was late morning and the temperature was in the mid-90's so that we felt like we were riding in a convection oven. We decided to park the BMW, get out of our motorcycle gear, and walk the 3 blocks to the town square.

Ajo was the site of the New Cornelia copper mine, and in 1914 John Campbell Greenway came to town and decided to design the town with wide streets and beautiful planned public spaces in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. At the mine's peak 7000 people lived in Ajo. After the mine closed in 1985 many people left and the town declined. Thanks to the International Sonoran Desert Alliance townspeople came together, wrote grants, and were able to bring in millions of dollars to revitalize the town's historic buildings plus bring together people from the Tohono O’odham Nation, Mexico and the United States to preserve and enrich the environment, culture, and economy.

We enjoyed an outdoor lunch from the Ajo Farmer's Market and Cafe, walked around the historic square and looked at the many murals that cover many walls in the downtown area. Tomorrow we ride back north to Prescott, looking forward to cooler temperatures.

Primitive dirt road on the way to Crown King

52 miles on a primitive dirt road, riding two-up on our BMW R1200 GS took over two hours.

In the last year that we've lived in Arizona, we've heard a lot about Crown King and the roads leading into this tiny town located high in the Bradshaw Mountains. The gold and silver rush of the 1870's led people to this part of Arizona, with the first claim of the Crown King mine in 1875. Soon after followed a post office, saloon, and a company store. Over $2 million in gold was mined from this area, and once the mines closed in the 1950's tourism took over as the primary source of revenue. Today Crown King is popular with people wanting to escape the brutal summer heat in Phoenix, and we saw more ATVs than cars.

We turned off I-17 at exit 248 toward Bumble Bee, originally a stagecoach stop on the road between Phoenix and Prescott, and now home to 19 people and 161 cattle. We saw a few of the cattle lounging in the shade under trees, and a couple right next to the road in this open range territory.

After 1.5 miles the pavement ended and a sign announced that we were now on a primitive road - as if we couldn't tell by the washboard effect that rattled my teeth, large rocks scattered across the road, and deep sandy spots in the low areas where water rushes through during rainstorms.

There was more pickup truck traffic than we expected on this twisting dirt road, but when we passed through Cleator about 14 miles into the ride, we understood why:  the James Cleator General Store and Bar looked packed.

The dirt road follows the path of what was known as the Impossible Railroad that served the mines in the early 1900's. The road climbs, descends, and then climbs again through the high desert terrain.

As we got closer to Crown King, we entered a series of four, 180 degree switchbacks that look like the letter "Z" on the map. The combination of loose dirt, rocks, steep drop offs and tight turns on a narrow road caused us to slow down even more from our cruising speed  of 25 mph. 

The views were incredible, and Mike stopped a few times so I could take a picture. When we were moving, the ride was so bumpy and dusty taking photos was impossible.

26 miles and over an hour after we turned off I-70 we crested the final hill and turned into the pine forest that surrounds Crown King. 

We were sweating in 100 degree temperatures during  most of the ride, but at 5770' elevation and in the pines the temperature dropped to the mid-80's. We stopped at the General Store, which celebrated its 100th birthday in 2004, for a sandwich and a very welcome ice-cold bottle of water.

As we waited in line to pay for lunch, Mike was surprised to see Jeff from MotoGhost, the independent BMW motorcycle repair facility in Phoenix where Mike gets our bike serviced. We saw several ATVs and a few dirt bikes on the bumpy ride to Crown King, and Jeff was the only other motorcyclist braving this road today.

It's possible to reach Crown King via the Senator Highway, a toll road originally built between 1866 and 1867 linking Prescott to the mining camps in Crown King. We hoped to travel back home that way, but were told that recent monsoons washed out part of the road, which in the best of times is only passable by mountain bikes and ATV's, but not by motorcyclists riding two-up. 

We retraced our route back down toward I-17, this time bypassing Bumble Bee and taking the cut-off toward Mayer. It was a jolt to ride off the dust and dirt and onto 4-lane pavement, switching from riding 25 to 75 mph.

We rode 150 total miles today in 4.5 hours through rough and beautiful terrain that while close to Phoenix and I-17, seems another world away. Our bike is a GS - Gelände-Strasse - which means off-road/street and is designed for this type of rough riding. There are many more rough dirt roads in Arizona waiting for us to travel them.