Our original plan was to cross the Arizona Strip from Mesquite, NV to Colorado City. But due to recent snowfall in this region, it was not possible to go through Lime Kiln Canyon.
So we tried to find a different routing. We meet up with friends in St. George, UT and Dan, our trip leader, suggested to try Black Rock Mountain Road south of St. George, UT. Black Rock Mountain Road should eventually lead to Main Street Valley. It is supposed to be an all weather road.
After having a great breakfast at the Cracker Barrell in St. George, UT we started to go down I-15. At 12S26453X 409604X (UTM/NAD27) we arrived at the Black Rock Mountain exit. From here an easy gravel road leads towards Black Rock Mountain.
It was very cloudy, so that we had to observe the weather conditions as the route later goes through a clay region. Here a view towards Little Purgatory Canyon, which we pass at its upper end.
And here a view back from where we came from:
Snow was also still visible in the background:
From time to time we had the chance to look into the lower canyon parts:
We are continuing along Low Mountain.
It started to get slightly muddy:
Soon we were reaching a point, where the mud was roughly 50 cm deep. Our trip leader decided, that we are turning to go back from where we came from, due to the clay region in front of us.
Around noon we were back in St. George, UT and enjoyed lunch. After lunch we headed towards Pipe Springs NM, which we never visited before. At Pipe Springs NM we had a heavy snow storm, so that we proceeded, to Kanab, UT after visiting Pipe Springs NM. Here a few pictures from this National Monument:
We were not sure, whether we could do Kanab Point the next day, but Dan, our trip leader, was very optimistic. In dry weather conditions, Black Rock Mountain Road is a good option to go from I-15 to Main Street Valley, which also leads to Mt. Trumbull Schoolhouse. Usually this road is an easy gravel road.
For a better orientation, one can download a gpx file of this trip:
Tracklog: Black Rock Mountain Road, Arizona Strip, AZ (1338 downloads )
And here is an overview of the area, we visited:
