Looking for people to go offroading with. Never been in desrt before. Need some advice in places to go in area and things to watch out for.

 

where in phoenix are you located? im in mesa off power and I60

 

off yorkshire for now. just staying somewhere for now nothing permanent. where vis mesa from there?

 

if by yorkshire you mean up by the 101 and i17 then i am about 45 minutes south east from you if there is no traffic...so kinda far

 

livin off the 202 and brown now. thats not to far from you right?

 

Yeah that's not far at all

 

Head up to Flagstaff (About 2 hours North of PHX). Great camping and just about the whole area is offroading. I used to go to school at NAU and off roaded all the time. My favorite spots were down Lake Mary Road. I havent been there in about 3 years so I'm sure some places have closed. I would go within the next couple of months before it gets cold because it is gorgeous up there this time of year. Enjoy!

 

Couple of one-day trips: Drive north on I-17 to the Bumble Bee exit, take the road to Crown King and then you have the choice of a rough road down the North side of the Bradshaws to Mayer and back to the I-17 south or or an equally rough, but longer, road down the west side through Wagoner (some amazing ranches back in there) eventually intersecting route 89 near Kirtland Junction. Then drive west on 89, go down Yarnel Hill to Wickenburg, take the 60 to Morristown, and take Route 74 east past Lake Pleasant back to the I-17 at Carefree Highway. Make sure your truck is in good shape, don't try either route alone, and get decent maps before attempting these drives. Also stop in the Crown King store on the way up to ask about on road conditions before taking any other road out of there other than the one you came in on. I used to be a test driver for an auto manufacturer and these were my favorite four wheeling routes. They vary from graded dirt roads to rocky creek beds, some pine forrests, some white-knuckle sections, and some stream crossings during the wet weather.

 

Sounds awesome but just moved out here and know no one to venture out that way with me and totally agree not doing it alone. Anything not to crazy in the east valley area or is all the fun stuff up north?

 

you are actually very close to some very popular areas, if you take power north it turns into bush hwy. this will take you past the salt river tubing area and past the saguaro lake. then eventually it will go over hwy 87. on the other side of the hwy is what is known as sycamore creek, if you follow the main path it takes you to a dried up river bed and tons of trails. this is about 15-20 min from where you live.

there is also 4 peaks, instead of going over the hwy, go east on it and take the next exit, which should be the exit for 4 peaks, bunch of trails back there too

and there is also butcher jones, which is just past saguaro lake on the right side of bush hwy. i have never been back there but heard good things

 

Speaking of Butcher Jones area, way back in the 70s when it was "closed" there was a way through the fencing and into the wash. You could drive miles up the wide, sandy wash and there was no shortage of quail or even Javalina up there. We offroaded there quite a lot back in the day.

 

Its getting to be about that time of year that the weather is nice. We need to get a camping trip set up, we're big fans of sycamore.