In September 2011 I met some friends in Phoenix, AZ to drive Box Canyon trail. From Phoenix we went to Florence Junction, AZ on US60. From there we drove to the south on US79. At 12S 46469X 365784X (UTM/NAD27) we turned left on a gravel road.
First we aired down:
Then we moved forward on an easy gravelroad towards the mountains:
We came closer and closer to the mountains…
…and turned left at 12S 47820X 366178X towards Box Canyon:
The canyon is pretty wide at the beginning ant gets closer…
…and closer on the way in:
At the first small obstacle I realized, that I did not have my 4WD working. Somehow the shifter cable was loose and I was not able to switch into 4WD. The colleagues checked, whether we could do a t’trail repair’, but it was not possible due to the mass of underbody protection, which would have to be put away, before reaching the transfer case. But there is also a ‘2WD line’ and so we continued.
There are a lot of rocky fun sections on the trail, but there is always a possibility to go around, so that 2WD was not a problem.
Here a few pictures of the vicinity:
The route through Box Canyon is an old stagecoach route.
Soon we arrived at a stagecoach station:
And after a short distance we arrived at a waterfall, which marks the end of 2WD travel.
Here a few pictures of the colleages, playing at the waterfall:
As I did not have 4WD, I had to winch me up the waterfall. Fortunately Dave was giving me a anchor point with his jeep, so that I could go up easily.:
After the waterfall we were again on an easy gravelroad:
We had a short stop at ‘lower Woodpecker’ to see some petroglyphs:
Here a picture of ‘V Notch’, an obstacle on lower Woodpecker trail. This part of the route is closed , as far as I heard.
From there we went back to US79, which we met at 12S 46723X 367095X. The trail is moderate besides the waterfall. One has to judge his own driving capabilities, to decide, whether he can go up there or not. There is a big network or trails around here. Some of the better known ones are Martinez Canyon or the Ajax Mine trail.
Here one can also download a gpx file of this trip:
Tracklog: Box Canyon, Florence Junction, AZ (1409 downloads )
And the map gives an overview over the region, we visited:
