Can I drive past Sears Kay Ranch?

[Alston_Neal]

As the title says, can I drive past the ranch? It is FR 1058 off the Cave Creek/ Seven Springs road. This would be the road going east just before the Sears Kay ruin parking lot. I can see on GE the road passing the ranch and heading east. We've hiked to the road from Camp Creek falls and now would like to drive in.

[chumley]

The topo map indicates that there are gates on both the east and west sides of the ranch. Satellite imagery only shows the one on the east side.

Strangely, I don't recall passing through that gate when I last hiked the road (and my comment says there wasn't a gate )

But I think it's pretty clear from the signage that they're not fans of visitors passing through.
https://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=303249

[Alston_Neal]

I see the west side gate on GE just above the ranch. Hmm and it's open....well at least when the photo was taken. I guess my question is can you drive on a forest road up to the ranch and then past the ranch back into the NF? BTW I tried finding a phone number for the ranch, because the obvious would be call and ask. Hence the post.

[chumley]

@Alston_Neal
Good question and I'd like to hear an answer from anybody who has tried. I've run into situations like this before, and the land owner usually has the right/ability to prevent passage through their property. If I owned the ranch I wouldn't allow unrestricted access to traffic across my property.

[kenjacobsen]

Actually, I just did yesterday.
The road passes the ranch's gate and, if you take it straight at the creek crossing it goes to someone's property, but if you jog to the right it starts to go up the hill.
The gate at the top of the hill is a huge metal thing, I assume belonging to the Forest Service, BUT it's not locked and I opened it, drove through and closed it.
The Jeep road after that is great –lots of rocking and rolling on a sandy surface, route 1058 as mentioned.
The weird thing is, on the way back, there's a crummy old sign that says "No Trespassing" that faces AWAY from the property, so I didn't see it at all going up the hill.
I had to go back that way, legal or not, so I did. It's only a short distance between that sign and the public road in.

[te_wa]

where ya tryin' to go? Rome?

[big_load]

BUT it's not locked and I opened it, drove through and closed it.

Doing that always makes me nervous. Will it still be unlocked when I return?

[RowdyandMe]

@big_load
Bolt cutters!

[kenjacobsen]

@big_load
I really suspect that it's a Forest Service gate -it's a major metal monstrosity, not a barbed wire fence.
And FR 1058 has two more exits out of that area -one to the south and one to the east.
The one to the east has a similar heavy metal gate.

The Sears Kay entrance was just a whole lot closer to where I wanted to hike.

[CannondaleKid]

Will it still be unlocked when I return?

If there's no lock hanging on a chain at an unlocked gate I've never worried the gate would be locked on my return.

[ultrazona]

@kenjacobsen
Does this road meet up with Bartlett Dam Road somewhere down the line?

[kenjacobsen]

@ultrazona
Yep, that's where it meets on the south end, and it meets the road to Horseshoe Lake on the east.
I have to warn that I've never driven either, but it all looks like good Jeep road.
At least from Google Earth.

[kenjacobsen]

@CannondaleKid
Actually there IS a big padlock hooked to a chain but it turns out it's locked only to itself.
You've got to pull out the giant metal bolt to find that though.

[kingsnake]

Anybody been up FR 1058 the last six years? Access still clear from Cave Creek Rd to the powerlines? How's the road surface, SUV-able?

[kingsnake]

I called the Tonto National Forest to check on the status of FR 1058. They confirmed that while they do control the road outside the ranch, the bit that within the ranch's boundaries is in fact private property. Do with that information what you will.

FR 1058 does connect to Horseshoe Dam Rd. (~3.5 mi.), or you can try FR 2063-FR 1058 (~4 mi.) or FR 2063-FR 2070-FR 1058 (~5 mi.). Not sure what those roads are like, but they are all = = = = type dirt.

[rcorfman]

I believe the gate to 1058 from Horseshoe Dam Road is locked. I do know that people park there and ride dirt bikes on it as I believe there are some OHV trails. I've parked there before and walked the road for a ways, then split off to climb Kentuck Mountain.

[kingsnake]

@rcorfman There's a gate on the east end of FR 1058 as well? Is it locked?

I was wondering about that. On sat view, FR 1058 looks rough.

I did check Maricopa County lots & property records, and the ranch is actually six lots: five owned by the same family trust, the sixth (at the northern tip) a claim owned by an unrelated individual.

Also, there's two washes that skirt the southern end of the ranch, that look like fairly easy foot travel, and don't add any distance or aeg to the Maricopa Trail crossing.