Burro Creek and other Central AZ places to visit!

[jd1923]

Living in Central Arizona we are surrounded by so many great day trips! Less than an hour to Jerome and Cottonwood, 1 1/4 hours to Sedona, 2 to the Grand Canyon. Check out Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Area, even better (2nd largest canyon in Arzona) just 90 minutes, just past Williams. Just to name a few!

We're here for 3 nights, at $14 a night or $7 with the Lifetime Senior pass. Where can you get 3 nights in a most beautiful canyon for $21. No hookups, but a dump station and a separate freshwater station. 85 miles and 2 hours from our home.
Burro Creek Campground | Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov)

NO cell service though. Starlink would be great to have here. Also, no TV or even radio reception in the canyon. At just under 2000' elevation, winter is the season here. Low mid 30's last night and at 1:40 PM it's now 62 (a cloudy day today, otherwise it be 70+). It's too hot in the summer here. Half the sites were empty, many of them listed FF on recreation.gov. I'm thinking if you could get service here, this place would be fully booked.

Stopped for lunch at LUCHIA’S RESTAURANT - 136 Photos & 97 Reviews - 15797 S Hwy 93, Wikieup, Arizona - New American - Restaurant Reviews - Phone Number - Yelp Highly recommended on any Phoenix to Vegas trip, quick stop on the Hwy 93 just north of Wikieup, AZ. They have guest Wi-Fi.

Much more re our trip when we get back home this weekend, as we plan to spend our remaining time offline! Note in the first pick Charley is busy watching Dad setup camp.

Edited January 20 by jd1923
Expanded Topic Title

[MAX Burner]

Awesome looking set-up, JD!  Sweet!

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Burro Creek is a nice spot, we driven in but just to check it out.  It’s on our list of places that are convenient and nice.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Is that a black and white springer spaniel looking out your door?

[topgun2]

48 minutes ago, Wandering Sagebrush said:

Is that a black and white springer spaniel looking out your door?

Sure does look like Charly knows when to let Dad do all the work, but, still keep an eye on him just to make sure that he does it correctly.😊

Bill

[Mike and Carol]

Looks like a great spot!  We enjoy Dead Horse Ranch State Park and the surrounding area.  We’ll be leaving for AZ Monday.  Mike

[MAX Burner]

19 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

We enjoy Dead Horse Ranch State Park and the surrounding area.  

Dead Horse:  great location near Jerome, AZ...  Jerome reminds me of Bisbee, AZ not far from Tombstone - may stay there on the way back to NM.  Safe travels @Mike and Carol!

Cheers!

[Mike and Carol]

1 minute ago, MAX Burner said:

Dead Horse:  great location near Jerome, AZ...  Jerome reminds me of Bisbee, AZ not far from Tombstone - may stay there on the way back to NM.  Safe travels @Mike and Carol!

Cheers!

We lived in Sierra Vista/Fort Huachuca for many years.  Love that part of Arizona!  Mike

[MAX Burner]

10 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

We lived in Sierra Vista/Fort Huachuca for many years.  Love that part of Arizona!  Mike

Couldn't agree more, Mike.  We've got long-time friends living in Sierra Vista.  FH - just down the road from Bisbee!

[jd1923]

On 1/17/2024 at 3:29 PM, Wandering Sagebrush said:

Is that a black and white springer spaniel looking out your door?

Charley is the "Liver & White" Springer, from Texas Springers English Springer Spaniels in Aubrey, TX | TEXAS SPRINGERS He's going to be 10 years old this summer, and we got him as a pup when we lived in the Austin area (past homes in Georgetown and Lakeway, TX).

Honestly, he doesn't care whether Dad does it right or not. Just can't wait to get out, sniff his new surroundings and lay on the camping mat to post guard! Poor guy has gotten older and with a torn left CCL and our new tall mattresses, he now has his own new doggie mattress situated between us on the floor. He whimpers looking up for 5-10 minutes and then lies down for the night. I have no idea how some of you share such little space with your dogs! He's also 65 LBS and were not lifting him anymore!

More on our Burro Creek visit when I collect my thoughts and download a few pictures. Thanks to all who commented!

[jd1923]

We did a drive-through at Dead Horse Ranch State Park a few years ago and it looked like a very nice place to camp! Thinking of exploring the Verde Valley and Sedona areas more closely from this campsite (still on our list, though we've been to Sedona and throughout the Verde Valley dozens of times). The park borders north end of Cottonwood, and the Verde River runs through it, while Jerome is a 10-mile 2000 ft climb SW almost to the top of Mingus Mountain. Sedona does not allow dispersed camping anywhere around their beautiful village (must have a Red Rock Pass to even park at many of the trailheads) and this park is truly the best place to visit everywhere from Sedona to Jerome to Camp Verde, including all the ancient Anasazi Indian sites (Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle and Well).

Don't miss Cornville where the Oak Creek snakes through this picturesque valley town. Everywhere so green it's truly an oasis, downstream from the majestic Oak Creek Canyon, Slide Rock State Park and Sedona, just before it merges with the Verde. Another item on our list is to take the restored Verde Railroad from Clarkdale up the Verde Canyon to Perkinsville, AZ.

Want a truly cliff-hanging scary drive? Drive the dirt road (FS318) from Perkinsville to Jerome along the northside of Woodchute Mountain (don't take your Ollie)! We did this white-knuckled route once, about 15 years ago but never again! Getting to Perkinsville, to see the headwaters of the Verde River is a drive itself, from either Chino Valley to the west or Williams to the north (easier to get to by rail). We've hit every trail in the area on dirt bikes through the years.

Sierra Vista and points SE of Tucson are certainly on our list. That area is about the only part of Arizona we have not explored. Wish we made it a winter trip priority earlier as every winter we head down to "the Valley" and points beyond. However lately, the locals of Central and Northern Arizona will not travel that direction until they get the US border back in control (our family too). SW AZ, from Quartzite to Yuma is OK, but be truly careful, packed and ready, if you venture to SE AZ at this time.

[jd1923]

The first night the sun truly lit up the Burro Creek Bridge (Burro Creek Bridge spans farther than most in the Southwest - AZ Wonders). Picture taken is zoomed in from our campsite #6.

The next morning you can see the moisture of the creek swirl out of the canyon to form paisley shape clouds surrounding us (sorry no pics of this). The day became cloudy, partially clearing later leading to a most spectacular sunset!

[jd1923]

When we returned from having lunch in Wikieup (posted above), we just wanted to hike nearby the campground to get down to the creek at a couple of points. The first two pics were taken hiking towards the bridge and then down to the creek. The last one was taken from the bridge on the campground road.

[jd1923]

On our last day, we went back to Wikieup to drive up a very special road.
Off US-93 head west on Chicken Springs Rd.

We don't drive endless miles of dirt much anymore, after dozens of dirt bike outings over the many years we've had our Arizona home. We drove up about 4 miles to take pics, collect a few rocks, "you got some splainin' to do, Lucy!"

The road is a well maintained Mohave County road, 4x4 unnecessary, but airing down for the washboards would be a good idea. A ways up and off this road to the south you can reach Alamo Lake too, the back way behind the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness.

I read about this route in, "the Back Roads ARIZONA, 40 scenic trips." Believe it or not, when you hit paved roads again it will be on I-40, way south of Kingman, where the Interstate turns again west towards Topock, AZ! From the book,
"The Joshua tree is the emblem of the Mohave Desert just as the giant saguaro is the emblem of the Sonoran Desert. As you drive over the mountain, you'll see both saguaros and Joshua trees--the two deserts are overlapping."

Just 3 miles up this road, we did see one big Joshua tree. It looked lost by itself on the side of the road! Burro Creek has 100s of saguaros and we saw 100s more driving home until we hit elevation, the climb up to Prescott (saguaros flourish at 2000 ft +/-). After enjoying this area so much, and being so close to home, we will get here again and hope to drive the distance (must install an onboard compressor)!

Any of you getting bored of Quartzsite? Check-out Alamo Lake! It's under 2 hours, take I-10E for a short to US-60E to Salome, turn left at Wenden, AZ and straight north to the lake. Elevation there is only 1200' so it should be near as warm as the Q. It appears that campsites are available: Alamo Lake State Park | Arizona (azstateparks.com)

[jd1923]

I realized Chris had taken a picture of the lone Joshua tree, looking down at Wikieup and the Sonoran Desert below. He somehow drifted away from his family on the other side of the range in the Mohave!

[topgun2]

I don't like crowds or even most of my family either!🤪

[jd1923]

13 hours ago, topgun2 said:

I don't like crowds or even most of my family either!🤪

And why do you think we live in Arizona!?

[MAX Burner]

On 1/20/2024 at 11:31 AM, jd1923 said:

I have no idea how some of you share such little space with your dogs! He's also 65 LBS and were not lifting him anymore!

HA!  Couldn't resist quoting you on this one, JD!  Magnus (4 years next month), the white one hails from Colorado Springs, Oscar's pedigree, OTOH, totally unknown to us.  Doesn't matter, IMO, he's a rescue about 10 years, also 65lbs, but he's still able to jump up to his rack (with the help of the table top on top of the rack rails).  Plenty of room for all 4 of us because the "boys" usually curl up into little "Husky Doughnuts":

But then again, sometimes we need to deal with serious "Dog Logs" in the passageway:

HA!  OMG, we love traveling with these two Knuckleheads!

Cheers!