A Slow Drive Over The Mountain (mostly pictures)

Location: Dazzo's Restaurant and RV Park (el. 2,000 ft); Wikieup, Arizona

(click pictures to enlarge)

The one thing I came to Wikieup to do was to make the trip over the mountains on Chicken Springs Road. I not only wanted to see the views along the route but I was also interested in something I had seen on Google Earth. In the valley on the other side of the western mountains it appeared, on Google Earth, that the valley had been subdivided into 1 mile by 1/2 mile grids. Dirt roads had been bladed straight as an arrow with each road having a unique western name such as, Dale Evan Road, John Wayne Road, etc. I wanted to see what this looked like in person and Chicken Springs Road would take me right to it. 

I leave here tomorrow and I'm not sure yet which direction I'm going to go. I guess I'll make that decision when I pull out onto the highway and either turn north or south. 

The rest of this post will be pictures with captions. 

This is the beginning of Chicken Springs Road. It was wide and smooth. That description would apply to about 2 miles of its 15 mile length.

A warning sign,,, but it doesn't seem appropriate at this location, but I knew it would up ahead.

This is one of the low shoulders they were warning about.

I took this picture because the rocks looked interesting. As I was downloading the pictures from my cell phone to the laptop, I noticed the pinkish light coming down from the upper left. My first impression was of God looking down on his creations. After looking a little more, the rocks looked to be of a child looking back up to God. The flat rock on top would be the child's hair and the bump on the left would be his nose. The rocks on the farthest right would be his hand with one finger pointing up, which was the symbol in the 70's meaning "One Way" (through Jesus). 

These were the first live things I saw on the road after about 10 miles. I was only able to drive about 10 mph over most of the road so this was after about one hour of driving.

This is the valley on the other side of the mountains. It is the one that Google Earth showed as being subdivided.

One of the many roads that has been built in the valley, complete with Street Sign (Bonanza Road) and Stop Sign. I didn't go down any of the streets because Google Earth also showed a couple trailers/houses scattered out in the valley. I figured some of them may be survivalists that are living off the grid and those type of people don't take kindly to strangers. They may have confused me with "the government coming to help them".

This is the beginning of the return trip of 15 miles. On the right is one of the many Joshua Trees in this area. They were named by the Mormons that passed through the west. The trees reminded them of Joshua with hands held out in prayer. 

Road leading to the mountains that are to be crossed.

This is the entrance to the only ranch along the road. I'm not an expert in Brands, but I figure that brand is the "Bar S".

As I was taking a picture of the entrance to the Bar S, this pitiful creature came walking out of the desert. I hadn't seen anything move in a couple hours so it gave me a start. One horn up and one down. He looked to have had a rough life. He just walked by me on his way to the watering trough.

One of the views from the top of the mountain looking down into the valley where I'm camped.

Another view from the top, looking east. You can see the road leading to the valley below.

I had to get Freedom in one of the pictures.

That is the town of Wikieup down below. Liberty is parked down there beneath the big American flag.

This is the picture from yesterday where you were suppose to try to see the "Sleeping Maiden".

This the clue to finding the maiden.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.