Shea Road Desert Ride (Thursday, November 9th, 2017)

We took a RZR ride today out between Parker, Arizona and the Bill Williams River area.  We saw some amazing sights along the way.  Here is my favorite picture from our day.



We started out following Sam and Sharyn to the town of Parker.  In Parker we took a left at the second stop light.  After getting gas we continued south to Shea Road where we turned left.  We then took Shea Road out to where the pavement ends.  We parked in a small dirt parking lot where Paul and Eleanor joined us then we all pulled up onto the bridge over the aqua duct to waited for the rest of our group to arrive.

Paul had an idea of a ride he wanted to do today.  Once Terry, Phil and Randy joined us, we all had a little conference to decide what was really possible in a day given that we had a later start then we had anticipated.  



Then with a condensed route now in our sights, we all headed out for our days ride enjoying the beautiful scenery as we went.

The area we were riding through had remnants of a lot of old mines.

We drove through some beautiful canyons.

And washes

In an area called Planet Ranch.

Paul told us this was an old post office.

And into another beautiful canyon that dead ended at a now dry waterfall.

This is the dry waterfall.  I can't imagine seeing the water coming down this wash during a rain storm.  It looks like it really gets rolling.

We stayed in this area for awhile.  It was full of old mines with copper colored rocks everywhere.

If you look closely, you can see an old mine on the mountain side that has now been blocked off with a gate.

Then we headed on down the road, where we came across a group of javelinas (wild boars).  I have always wanted to see them, and this was my first time.  Unfortunately they were pretty far away.

Then we continued on with our desert ride.

We came across a "gas pipeline bridge" where the gas pipeline went across the Bill Williams River.

And at this point we headed down into the Bill Williams River bed.

As I understand it, Salt Cedar Trees were "accidentally" introduced into the desert many years ago.  They are a very invasive species that use a lot of water, so the government spends a lot of time and money trying to get rid of them.  It appears that they were very prominent in this valley, so they have been burned out.

Once we got to the bottom of the valley, we crossed the river.

Once we crossed the river, the dust was the worst we had seen all day.  The silt in the dry riverbed was like driving through flour.

Before long, we came to the Swanzey Mine.  It is an old abandoned copper mine.

The main mine shaft is huge.  It is covered with this steel plate and according to the people we were with, it is 2,000 feet deep, straight down. 



I couldn't get a picture of the main shaft to turn out, but this is a picture of one of the smaller shafts off to the side.



There are remnants of the mining sight all around.

This is the steel plate over the smaller mine shaft.  The main shaft is at least twice this big.

We also found a few fun artifacts at the mine, and then left them behind for other's to enjoy finding.

Then just a little bit further and we would be back to where we started.

After making a big loop, about 70 miles in total, we ended up right back where we started at the aqua duct and packed up our RZR for the trip home.

Thank you Sam and Sharyn for inviting us on this adventure!  Also thanks to Paul, Eleanor and Phil for leading us.  We had such a great time and saw so many interesting sights!  Adios until next time!