n.az. 3/13/08 ride report, jerome to peach springs
It was a little spur of the moment.. Kim & i talked about it a little last week, then Tom emailed me Wed. & we all decided to ride.
The plan was to meet in Jerome at 9am, take the perkinsville road & other dirt roads up to Drake, then up to Ash Fork. From there get on old rt. 66 to Peach Springs. That was the main destination.. bia 6 goes down to the colorado river & has views of the grand canyon, crosses water a couple of times, & would be a great ride of about 20 miles.
But i will stop with the narrative & get straight to the pics.
Just outside of Jerome, on the perkinsville road. It had been freshly graded in spots, but that made the surface a little more loose. This is Tom on his honda 650, & Kim on his drz. I'm also on a drz.
Here are the riders: Kim, Tom, Scotty
This is further along the perkinsville road.. a couple of big elk leaped & bounded across the road. I stopped & tried to watch them go down the hill, but they were already out of sight. There are views of mt. Humphreys in the background.. That is in Flagstaff.
We crossed the verde river at perkinsville.. not much here.
We had one low water crossing.. here are the obligatory pics of that..
Tom
Kim
Me
This is one of Tom's of me coming into Seligman.
We stopped for lunch in Seligman at the snow cap drive-in.. a very colorful place with lots of history.. it's been written up in Az hiways mag. I should have taken a few pics of it.. the proprietor was the son of Juan Delgadillo, who opened it in the 30's.. he was a corker!
We went on from Seligman, heading up to Peach Springs on old rt. 66. It was pretty open & barren.
I did see a couple of bald eagles, but they wouldn't stop & pose.. they were after some of the local prairie dog colonists, who also wouldn't pose. I'd stop to take their pics, & they'd dive into their holes... probably muttering something about the pesky papparazi.. We also spotted a couple of antelope, but that was it for the exotic wildlife.
Now you may notice the photos abruptly ended. We got into peach springs, & stopped at the lodge to get a permit to drive down diamond creek road (bia 6). The clerk informed us that as of march 1st, only river rafters & patrons of the lodge can drive down to the river... & no motorcycles!! We muttered & grumbled a bit, then thought we'd look for another opinion. We drove through the picturesque reservation residential area, & came to the start of the primitive road we wanted to ride on. Sure enough, there was a sign with what could have been a bike with a slash through it... i told Kim it looked more like a quad, but neither Tom nor Kim wanted to be arrested by the reservation cops & visit their colorful jails. Disgruntled & disappointed, we reluctantly turned back.. It was about the money, & we weren't in the loop.
We stopped for gas at grand canyon caverns, & Tom wanted to take us on a scenic alternate route back to prescott, where Kim & I could head back to Sedona over Jerome. It was about 3pm, & we were a long way from home, but Tom assured us we'd make it back in good time.
Well, we meandered along anvil rock road, which turned west & was heading for Lake Havasu.. it did show on my gps that it went south & then tied into a road back east, so we kept going. We went through a gate, where the road became unmaintained, then after a few miles, came onto another gate with a padlock & a sign warning us to stay out. It was now about 4pm. There were no other roads heading east, so our only option was to backtrack to seligman & go home that way. We got on the freeway with about 12 miles into seligman. Tom said to take the second seligman exit, which was his exit back to prescott. I went ahead & took the exit. Tom was next, & we filled up & waited for Kim. After a couple of phone calls, Tom decided to head on home, figuring Kim had taken the first seligman exit, which he had. I doubled back to make sure he wasn't broken down on the side of the road, then headed back. It was past 5pm, & the sun was dropping fast. I decided to head back on the freeway, since it was faster, but it also went through Flagstaff at over 7k ft. It was about 7:30 when i got home. Kim had gotten home right before i did. We did a total of over 360 miles, mostly pavement. We froze going through Flag, & our butts hurt from all the sitting. My knees were stiff & my neck hurt. But we survived to ride another day... maybe not so long next time..
Ok, one more pic. This is from Tom. It is Kim making a big splash going through the low water crossing.
scotty
The plan was to meet in Jerome at 9am, take the perkinsville road & other dirt roads up to Drake, then up to Ash Fork. From there get on old rt. 66 to Peach Springs. That was the main destination.. bia 6 goes down to the colorado river & has views of the grand canyon, crosses water a couple of times, & would be a great ride of about 20 miles.
But i will stop with the narrative & get straight to the pics.
Just outside of Jerome, on the perkinsville road. It had been freshly graded in spots, but that made the surface a little more loose. This is Tom on his honda 650, & Kim on his drz. I'm also on a drz.
Here are the riders: Kim, Tom, Scotty
This is further along the perkinsville road.. a couple of big elk leaped & bounded across the road. I stopped & tried to watch them go down the hill, but they were already out of sight. There are views of mt. Humphreys in the background.. That is in Flagstaff.
We crossed the verde river at perkinsville.. not much here.
We had one low water crossing.. here are the obligatory pics of that..
Tom
Kim
Me
This is one of Tom's of me coming into Seligman.
We stopped for lunch in Seligman at the snow cap drive-in.. a very colorful place with lots of history.. it's been written up in Az hiways mag. I should have taken a few pics of it.. the proprietor was the son of Juan Delgadillo, who opened it in the 30's.. he was a corker!
We went on from Seligman, heading up to Peach Springs on old rt. 66. It was pretty open & barren.
I did see a couple of bald eagles, but they wouldn't stop & pose.. they were after some of the local prairie dog colonists, who also wouldn't pose. I'd stop to take their pics, & they'd dive into their holes... probably muttering something about the pesky papparazi.. We also spotted a couple of antelope, but that was it for the exotic wildlife.
Now you may notice the photos abruptly ended. We got into peach springs, & stopped at the lodge to get a permit to drive down diamond creek road (bia 6). The clerk informed us that as of march 1st, only river rafters & patrons of the lodge can drive down to the river... & no motorcycles!! We muttered & grumbled a bit, then thought we'd look for another opinion. We drove through the picturesque reservation residential area, & came to the start of the primitive road we wanted to ride on. Sure enough, there was a sign with what could have been a bike with a slash through it... i told Kim it looked more like a quad, but neither Tom nor Kim wanted to be arrested by the reservation cops & visit their colorful jails. Disgruntled & disappointed, we reluctantly turned back.. It was about the money, & we weren't in the loop.
We stopped for gas at grand canyon caverns, & Tom wanted to take us on a scenic alternate route back to prescott, where Kim & I could head back to Sedona over Jerome. It was about 3pm, & we were a long way from home, but Tom assured us we'd make it back in good time.
Well, we meandered along anvil rock road, which turned west & was heading for Lake Havasu.. it did show on my gps that it went south & then tied into a road back east, so we kept going. We went through a gate, where the road became unmaintained, then after a few miles, came onto another gate with a padlock & a sign warning us to stay out. It was now about 4pm. There were no other roads heading east, so our only option was to backtrack to seligman & go home that way. We got on the freeway with about 12 miles into seligman. Tom said to take the second seligman exit, which was his exit back to prescott. I went ahead & took the exit. Tom was next, & we filled up & waited for Kim. After a couple of phone calls, Tom decided to head on home, figuring Kim had taken the first seligman exit, which he had. I doubled back to make sure he wasn't broken down on the side of the road, then headed back. It was past 5pm, & the sun was dropping fast. I decided to head back on the freeway, since it was faster, but it also went through Flagstaff at over 7k ft. It was about 7:30 when i got home. Kim had gotten home right before i did. We did a total of over 360 miles, mostly pavement. We froze going through Flag, & our butts hurt from all the sitting. My knees were stiff & my neck hurt. But we survived to ride another day... maybe not so long next time..
Ok, one more pic. This is from Tom. It is Kim making a big splash going through the low water crossing.
scotty
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