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Pleasant Valley, AZ


earthdancer

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Mountainborn, I know you & Butcherknife have done a lot of traveling in the Mogollon Rim area of AZ. Have you, or anyone else on this forum, ever discovered Pleasant Valley? The town of Young sits at the base of this valley... 9 miles of paved road and a great little restaurant at the south end of town called The Antler Cafe. At the north end of town, after the dirt road resumes you will see an old timey bridge in the right and a sign saying "Haigler Creek". Turn left and pass thru some beautiful remote AZ countryside for about 12 - 20 miles (I never was good at judging distance!) When you get to Haigler Creek, it is boondock at it's best! You can watch the trout hiding under the rocks! See wild turkey come around about dusk and pretty much have the place to yourself! Last time I was there they had installed a pit toilet, but that was about it! To get there from the south....... go to Globe and head up highway 88 towards Lake Roosevelt. There will be a sign "To Young" and highway 288,turn right and it will lead you up the well maintained, breath takingly beautiful dirt road drive through the White Mountains. If you are coming from the North, from Payson, head east on highway 260. You will come to a bump in the road called Kohl's Ranch and look for the Young sign Highway 288 and head south. From either direction you will be passing in and out of the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

From the south, the dirt road is about 60 miles and from the north it is about 40 miles to the town of Young. I suggest you go in one way and out the other as the scenery is amazing! I hope to go there again very soon! Geri

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Geri, as a kid I lived in the Globe, Miami, Claypool area and have been to Roosevelt lake many times. Somehow we have never been to this wonderful place, and yet it was so nearby ! I have cousins that still live in the area and have heard them talk about it's beauty, but somehow we have missed it. Butcherknife and I have just added it to our Bucket List !

Here is a link to the town that isn't any more, I went to school there. It is now an open pit mine.

http://www.primghar.com/rayariz/ray_kid.htm

I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold)

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Oh ! Yeah ! Now We see why we havn't been there, though we had heard of it. It is one of those hidden gems that one has to give of one's self to attain. In a remote and wild place. It is at the gateway to the Haigler Wilderness. Yep, we just gotta' go !

Here is the aerial view:

 

Visible in the photo is the Mogollon Rim It's self, and what appears to be, going through the North South East West orientation marker in the top right, is the FR 300 which mostly follows General Crook's Fort Supply Road. This is the home of a much written about range war that all but wiped out two whole familys in the late 1800's.

A very cool place Geri ! Thanks for the heads up !!!

EDIT:

OOps, I just checked another source, that's not Crook's Trail, that is Chamberlain's Trail or FR 200

I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold)

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If I remember right....... there are several markers along the way to Haigler Creek about the range wars. First is on the left and I think the other 2 were on the right side of the road..... but when I last passed through, it was pretty overgrown with summer grass and almost impossible to read from road..... but being snake cautious :o I opted to read what I could from the road and keep my feet outta the grass ! I promise, this is a good place to visit. True, it's more than a bit out of the way... but isn't that what camping is all about, finding those hidden gems ??? Surely someone else reading this thread has a "hidden gem" camping spot they would like to share with us ???

Thanks for the map too..... !!!

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Geocache located near the grave markers of two people that were killed in the Pleasant Valley Range war. Here is the link:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=938edbc3-904d-4848-932f-3957f2dec826

I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold)

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We were avoiding the snow when we turned South on US Hwy 77 at Holbrook. It was snowing so bad that it restricted our speed somewhat.

We knew that Pleasant Valley was also recieving a good measure of snow so we continued on south to Globe, spending the night at the Apache Gold casino.

I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold)

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