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| Anderson Mesa - Deep Lake, AZ | | -
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| | Anderson Mesa - Deep Lake, AZ | | | |
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Anderson Mesa - Deep Lake, AZ
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| no partners | | I spent two days exploring the forest roads on Anderson Mesa and also took a short hike into Deep Lake (gps route attached). Anderson Mesa is located east of the Lake Mary road. Access roads off of the Lake Mary Road are the Marshal Lake road and the Ashurst Lake Road. These are gravel roads graded for two wheel drive, low clearance vehicles. The forest roads branching off of these two roads however quickly become extremely rocky and some times quite steep requiring 4- wheel drive, high ground clearance and a low range transfer case to crawl over the rocky stretches. This area is in the Coconino NF which has restrictions on which roads can be legally used and are shown on a free Motor Vehicle Use Map. The Coconino NF website also has a link to a Garmin GPS compatible MVUM map which I downloaded on to my Garmin Oregon GPS to help keep me legal. This map also shows which areas are legal for dispersed camping. The GPS version worked quite well but I still accidentally drove on a few "illegal" roads because there are so many it can get confusing.
The mesa is dotted with small "lakes" or wetlands in surface depressions formed when the ground collapsed into underground voids 1 to 10 million years ago. These wetlands attract waterfowl in wet years but all the ones I visited were dry except for a small amount of water in water "tanks" dug in the bottom of these depressions to provide water for cattle. Even without water, these wetlands provide great scenery with lush marsh grasses and towering Ponderosa Pines around the perimeters. I was first drawn to "Deep Lake" thinking it must have water if it is deep - wrong. It is in one of the deepest depressions - about 80 feet deep but a ravine on the south side probably prevents it from filling to more than a few feet deep.
Over the period of two days I drove two routes from the Ashurst Lake road north across the mesa to the Marshal Lake road. My first route started out going north on FR 82. It drops down into Mormon Canyon where I saw a very large bobcat cross the road about 75 yards in front of me. He didn't hang around long enough for pictures. This route starts to angle norteast and eventually led me to an old abandoned ranch house and barn - I'm guessing it was the Winona Ranch because the road that led to it had that name. It was interesting to wander around the ranch and speculate on what life was like living in this remote place. There was an old piece of machinery which piqued my curiosity. It had two cable winches, huge iron sprockets and belt pulleys and an oscillating mechanism that would have lifted one of the cables up and down with a weight on the end. My guess is that it was once used to drill wells although it did not have a tower attached to it like other well drills I've seen.
The second day I drove north on FR 129A from the Ashurst Lake Road. It parallels a section of the Arizona trail passing near Horse "Lake" and Vail "Lake". This road passes across the flat mesa covered with junipers and scattered Ponderosa pines and within site of at least four of the lakes/wetlands. Lots of cattle on this route. There are great views of the San Francisco Peaks through out the area. I had to backtrack 3 miles when FR 769A near Vail Lake was blocked by a barbed wire fence with no gate. From the numerous repairs it looked like others had simply cut the wire and continued on their way. In the two days spent exploring these back roads I never encountered another person but did see a jeep parked back in the shade of some junipers. |
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