| |
|
| | |
|
| Car Camping | 4.90 Miles |
875 AEG |
| | Car Camping | 4.90 Miles | 1 Hour 30 Mns | | 3.27 mph |
| 875 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
[ show ]
| partners | | Grasshopper and I have been wanting to explore the area around Park Tank in the Sierra Ancha Mountains and on into the northeast side of the Salome Wilderness for about 3 years. The only thing preventing us was the drive into Part Tank on the 4WD road, FR2752, which would get us close enough to that area to do day hikes out of camp. Checking out FR2752 in March, 2021, I found it blocked with boulders where the road follows the bottom of upper Turkey Creek. GH discovered this summer that those boulders had mysteriously disappeared and so we put together a plan to establish a Camp Grasshopper near Park Tank and spend 6 days doing day hikes to explore that area.
The drive on FR2752 was high clearance 4WD requiring a lot of careful maneuvering through the creek bed rocks driving in 1st gear low range to avoid damage to the undercarriage or puncturing the tires, even with 10-ply rated all-terrain tires. The maneuvering around large rocks gets some interference from the road side trees and bushes. My FJ had a fresh set of AZ pinstripes at the end of this drive. The road goes in and out of the creek bed several times over the first mile and then has a 1.5 mile climb up out of the canyon with some rough patches along the way.
After an hour of searching we found a campsite meeting the demands of our two car camps. It turned out to be a good location on the old unmaintained FR2747 a half mile northwest of Park Tank near the starting points for several of our planned hikes We would find a nearby gate in a sturdy barbed wire fence that made for easy access to the west side of Park Creek and a well worn cow trail that led to the top of the ridge to the southwest. It is an isolated spot - we didn't see anyone else including any vehicles the 8 days we were there. We did however have visitors to our camp. This is an active cattle ranching area and cows passed by late in the afternoon on three days presumably on their way to Park Tank. They were elusive and stayed mostly hidden in the forest surrounding camp as they passed by complaining of our presence with loud mooing. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
