Depends, most areas a 4x4 truck is just fine. A passenger car too surprisingly enough. There’s gold all over the central and western parts of the state and some of it is handily roadside. There’s some south of Springerville too! Some of the first times I went prospecting was with mules. A friend operated a stagecoach using a four up team of mules at Apache Land Movie Studio near the SW corner of Superstition Mountains. Had never been on a mule before, but plenty of horses. I couldn’t believe how well they took to the terrain. Gotta say, in that kind of rugged country I’ll take a mule over a horse any day. Sure footed as shit without a care in the world where as a horse would balk and get the skitters.
With the TV shows like Alaska Gold and the like, recreational mining has really gotten popular. Since then the easy access spots have got hit hard. So moving deeper into the less accessible areas has become a must in the last ten years or so. The recent popularity of side by sides makes it even a little more of a need to get in where the trails are too tight for them to go. I’ll usually 4x4 in close as possible with my quad on a trailer and camp gear in the truck. Making a base camp I can use my little 450 CanAm quad to get into really tight washes and ravines that see little to no traffic. You still have to do a fair bit of bushwhacking on foot eventually most times as yeah, you don’t need to be making any new trails. Believe me, there are more trails all over the desert than you’d think. That said there are also vast areas of rugged country with nothing other than game trails. Most washes are good trails and considered to be roads. Quads are the best way to go. You can cover a lot of ground fast with them without destroying your truck or the environment.
Lol, Death Valley is a trip in the summer! Camped out there for three nights in July when I was twenty something after picking up a mountain bike I had Tom Ritchey of San Rafael, CA build me. A dry heat I can handle, but when the “Monsoon” humidity comes I’m done for. Especially at this age, I hibernate in the AC or head to the high country.
Sounds like a blast! I have a Grizzly 660 for the tight trails up here. I bet you've seen plenty of petroglyphs too? Anything interesting around the water holes? Arrowheads?
I forgot to mention Canyon DeChelles, that was right up there with the rest of them, fascinating place.
Oh yeah, Canyon de Chelly is a beautiful place. I’m glad the Injuns got that whole NE corner of the state. Can you imagine a WallMart, Home Depot and a slew of other big box shitholes at the base of the Mittens in Monument Valley.
Gotta say I think I’ve seen more petroglyphs in Utah and Colorado than here. They are certainly around though. Haven’t ever found one that was off a beaten path holding the possibility of it being a new find. Water holes are usually well used by cattle so if anything interesting was around one it are long gone now. Lol, arrowheads, never found one in my life! I know a gal in Williams that finds them like crazy up around there. She had two five gallon buckets of them last I was up that way some ten years ago. Probably has four buckets now. She’s a magnet to ‘em.
Quads are a great way to explore the desert on. Did you guys hit Cochise Stronghold and or the Chiricahua National Monument when on your Tombstone visit? South of Arivaca to the border is gorgeous country too. A guy could spend a lifetime exploring Arizona and still not see it all. I’ve heard it said lifetimes could be spent just exploring Lake Mead area or the Lake Powell area, or the Grand Canyon and not see it all. It’s true.
I remember driving by/through Cochise Natl Forest but I dont remember seeing Cochise Stronghold. I totally missed Chiricahua National Monument, we didn't quite make it that far southeast. My journey to the southeast ended at Bisbee before turning around and heading back to Round Valley. We spent too much time seeing the tourist attractions in Tombstone I guess. I even saw "the worlds largest rose bush" in Tombstone ... not exactly on my list of amazing sights. My aunt used to give me a subscription to Arizona Highways magazine every year ~1970-1990. Between the high quality pictures in AZ Highways, the rock and petrified wood she sent, I've been fascinated by the beauty of AZ since childhood.
I've found a few dozen arrowheads here in Maine. I thought they might be plentiful in the southwest. I'd have a blast on an ATV in AZ! Yes, if I was born in the southwest, I'd probably be a desert rat too! I don't care for the city life. I have a 4 season camp in the Western Mountains of Maine, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, hiking, rafting, ATV trails, ponds, lakes and streams abound. My camp is at the base of a 3700ft mountain (that's tall here, lol!), very small annual population there. Winter low temps can hit -35F. Unfortunately the mosquitos and black flies try to carry you away in the spring and summer. That is the only downside - and another feature I loved about AZ, very few annoying flies. I haven't seen much of Colorado and have never been to Utah (other than a 4 Corners visit.)
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