Anyone explored AZ Ghost towns. I've been to a few in yavapai county. Was thinking of trying to get to Harqua Hala Observatory this weekend. Anyone been there?
I have been through Copper creek mine sites in Mammoth(old chineese huts, post office, etc remain), and the Helvetia gravesite and settlements (Gunsight pass trail), and last month we toured the Patagonia area down Harshaw road. Plenty of ghost towns down that way.
Here is a pic of the Copper Creek post office. What is left that is.
This is cool. I would love to check some of this out with some AZFJs.
We should definitely schedule something! Whether we go on a camping trip up north and find some, or we wait until the weather gets tolerable and schedule something then!
Howdy! Ironically we owned land in the Harq, but I've never been up there. It was built by Nat. Geo. if I remember right. I'd like to go up, but I'll wait a couple of months for the temps to drop. If you live near Scottsdale, there is an old bookstore started in the 50's that sells new and old books of the west, called Guidons. Mr. Cohen knows his history and has great books on the mines. They even have an on-line site, Google Guidons Books. Cya out there.
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There are some interesting ruins to get to by way of relatively tough trails. The Martinez canyon mine building is pretty big, and so is the one up at Sunflower mine. Stock FJ's can't handle Martinez. I helped prove that you can still drag one through most of the way anyhow. Sunflower would probably max a stock rig.
There's a bizarre ghost town that's not on any map I have, and it's up the "Great Western Trail somewhere north of Bloody Basin. I took my wife and dog through that way before I had kids. My dog got creeped out by the cows hanging out in the ruined doorways of the buildings. I think he thought it was a town run by cows. If so, he wouldn't have been entirely wrong.
There's a maritime ruin on the way out past Castle Hot Springs on the way to Wickenburg by whatever trail that is. The drive is super moderate. A decent 2WD truck would probably make it with only a few spots of wheel spin.
The maritime ruin is actually a giant barge that was apparently used to dredge the arroyo when it was flowing - looking for gold. I guess there was enough around to justify a pretty massive machine. It's pretty bizarre to see a huge boat in the middle of the desert though!!
The Cochran coke ovens are kinda bizarre too... I think squaters tried to make them into funky desert huts at one time. I'm not sure if you can still get there - it may be closed... I haven't been there in years.
At the top of Box Canyon there's an abandoned farm house which is pretty well preserved. (for those of you who want to do some mellow rock crawling that a stock FJ would have no problem with - go to Box Canyon. It's one of the more scenic canyons in the Florence Junction region) and there's multiple degenerated structures up along the way to Crown King. There's one at the bottom of the canyon as you ascend into the pines that I haven't been down to... If anyone gets to it before me, warn me if there are squatters. I hate running into squatters.
There's a bizarre ghost town that's not on any map I have, and it's up the "Great Western Trail somewhere north of Bloody Basin. I took my wife and dog through that way before I had kids. My dog got creeped out by the cows hanging out in the ruined doorways of the buildings. I think he thought it was a town run by cows. If so, he wouldn't have been entirely wrong.
Tell me more, we're up there alot, the Brooklyn or the Rosalie??? As soon as it cools down, we'll be back to the Native ruins.....Thanks
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There's a maritime ruin on the way out past Castle Hot Springs on the way to Wickenburg by whatever trail that is. The drive is super moderate. A decent 2WD truck would probably make it with only a few spots of wheel spin.
The maritime ruin is actually a giant barge that was apparently used to dredge the arroyo when it was flowing - looking for gold. I guess there was enough around to justify a pretty massive machine. It's pretty bizarre to see a huge boat in the middle of the desert though!!
is that off of 74 or is off of castle hot springs road? sounds interesting and is real close to my house - I'd like to go explore that one of these days.
I took my family to the Goldfield Ghost Town out in Apache Junction, its touristy, but I still thought it was nice. Plus its hard for my dad to get around, and this was easy enough for him to get in and see the sights. Then we did Tortilla Flats after that. Its nice out there with the lakes in the mountains and everything.
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