Back in April, I was visiting my parents in Sun City and decided to make a drive. Went east on 89 past Yarnell and before kirkland junction, I made a left on (I believe wagoneer road) Went past some nice looking ranches and after a couple miles of dirt roads it turned to pavement for about .5 mi. Then I think it was nf362 for awhile. Finally ended up it a large canyon where to continue east, the road ascended and after a little creek ther was a ledge. Was this the senator hwy? It was at this point, I had to turn around as I was by myself and the x is stock. And had bent up the side rails, thank god for a come-along.. Continued on to Cow creek rd and came out at lake pleasent. Had a great time, saw only one other vehicle. Does anybody have any picutres of the area. Enjoyed it so much forgot to use the camera.
Thanks
Jere

I made a left on (I believe wagoneer road). sorry should read right as I headed south..

Shhhh, don't tell everyone how cool it is out here..

Sounds a bit like the Crown King Trail?

Glad you had a good time, next time you should see if you can get a yokle to tag with you.

If you came back on Cow Creek road, then you were most likely on the "back road" to Crown King.

Thanks for the input, Does any one have a map of the area?

My best guess is you came upon either Camp Creek rd, or Castle Hot Springs rd.. Both intersect the "backroad", and even Cow Creek rd.

How long were you driving (hrs), and at any point were you in pine trees?

so far so good, I have been trying to plot it on google earth. I know I went past a couple of campgrounds, found a ranch that poerty that made me wonder how they got in & out. Found a mine that had about a 40ft + mobile home, bulldozer, semi cab and couldn't believe that they were running rigs like that on these trails. Saw an abandoned generator on a trailer along the trail. As for time, I had coffee and pastries in yarnell, then started exploring. I think from the time I left 89, I'd say probally 4 hours on the trail. But I turned off at every turn to explore more. Trees were mostly scrub pine,but when we hit the canyon there were a little larger. When we tried to go east (?) in the canyon, we could see taller pines as this appeared to be going up.(was this the senator hwy?). As I said, here I had to turn around and continue south/southwest. went across a good size river bottom. Then after about an hour/hour n 1/2 came across better graded roads, a couple of small little settlements before comming to the nice graded roads above the lake.
Does this help??

A couple of days later, I tried to find castle springs, but since I seemed to be wondering aimlessly, never did find it. But, makes you wonder, how they made it back there in the day, doesn't it?