My dad has a cabin up there-- I've probably driven that stretch twenty times this summer alone, and I've camped and hiked all over there before then.
The worst stretch of 260 is between Payson and the Rim for elk, in my experience, though "your mileage may vary" ... it's not a hundred miles. Maybe thirty? Which would be 180 elk accidents a year. And that, I can fully believe.
The deal with elk is that:
1. Some of them have no fear. There's a bull elk with a tremendous rack near Tonto village that has NO fear of cars and will walk right out in the road in front of you. I usually see him with a younger, smaller bull. At a guess, he's being fed by someone because he's totally fearless of cars and is often there on weeknights, often in the median between Tonto Village and the Control Road. As unafraid as he is, and as big as he is, they're doing him no favors. He'll be on someone's wall by spring, if he doesn't end up in someone's lap at 55mph first.
2. They're very hard to see. Someone here mentioned the eye shine -- when I drive that road, that's what I look for at night. The eyes reflect green. ANYTHING that reflects back at me from the woods that isn't immediately identifiable as a road marker causes me to hit the brakes on that stretch of road. They're damned hard to see because the hide doesn't reflect much. They're even hard to see in daylight because they freeze up completely before they bolt and they're the same color as the trees.
My dad's cabin is on Ellison Creek -- there is a large herd of cows that inhabits the area. Even when I know for a FACT they're likely to be on the road late at night when I'm driving in, I've still nearly hit them because you can't see them until they move.
3. They'll be on both sides of the road and when you approach, they have an instinct to clump together -- which means they suddenly dart across the road in front of you because their buddies are on the other side of the road. BOOM!
I've personally seen two collisions with elk, plus one dead one by the side of the road (car already removed) plus a drunk who swerved on a dirt road, overcorrected, and flipped his truck when an elk (very possibly the bull mentioned above because it was in that area!) strolled out in front of him. He missed the elk, but I don't think he got out of the DUI.
A few tips to avoid hitting an elk:
1. Do not speed. Ever. Period. Drive under the speed limit at night. Ignore the gorilla in the big honking truck up your bumper on that road. Slooooow is your friend.
2. Do not let your guard down on dirt roads or during the day. I had a deer step out in front of me and freeze up Saturday in broad daylight. She just stopped dead and stared at me. We also saw a yearling elk in broad daylight a few feet off the Control Road, all by himself (which is unusual), on Sunday. I crept by at about five mph expecting his buddies to be around, but he was the only one I saw, and he only stood and stared at us.
3. If you see one elk, assume there are more. Slow down. Waaaaay down.
4. Just because you're "in town" don't assume you can't run into an elk. People feed elk, attracting them to rural areas with houses like Tonto Village and Christopher Creek and Kohl's Ranch, off the top of my head. Tonto Village is the worst in my experience but YMMV.
5. Be particularly wary in areas with dense brush along the side of the road -- the Rim Road near Woods Canyon Lake is particularly bad.
6. Nighttime and early morning/evening is the worst. But they'll also come out after a monsoon storm.
7. Remember, slooooow is your friend.
8. A jumbo starbucks frappucino helps keep the level of alertness up on those long drives back to town.
:):)
Leva
Route Editor
Route Scout
(go easy on me Rick)
