This is about the MVRC Spring Trip to Northwestern Arizona, April
8-14, 1995. Why are the "lost photos" being posted here, 13
months later? At the time of the trip, the MVRC Home Page was being invented
by Marc Reitzell, N6NOV. I had five of my panoramic format trip photos
scanned (thanks, Rich Davis) and gave them to Marc. He posted them with some
text, and there they sat. The MVRC page evolved as a purveyor of dB's, MHz,
and equipment photos. Later, I started the first of the dispersed club
committee pages under personal URLs. That is the MVRC Activities page, which
now has a number of trip reports under its wing. In the meantime, the old
Arizona pictures disappeared from the web. I have now resurrected them and
paired them with a detailed report that I had written for the participants.
Thanks to Bob Martin, KD6BRL, Arizona Mohave Road researcher, for asking
about our web pages and triggering this.
- Les, May 10, 1996
The four vehicle group, consisting of Lew, WA6ESA, Doug, N6XKL, Ed and Sunny, KE6AFB and KE6AFA, and Les, W6TEE, with son Matthew, met at Lyons in Elk Grove for breakfast and a Saturday morning departure. The group used 144.47 MHz. as the simplex frequency for the trip. The route was Hwy 99 to Bakersfield, with lunch in Delano, Hwy 58 to Barstow, and I-40 to Needles. The group had reservations at the Travelers Inn.
Sunday's trip was over the Hardy Toll Road, as researched by Bob Martin,
KD6BRL, for a proposed guide book. We drove across the Colorado River and up
Arizona Hwy 95 to the remains of Fort Mohave, south of Bullhead City. (Photo
- Doug, N6XKL, Lew, WA6ESA, Matthew, Sunny, KE6AFA, and Ed, KE6AFB at the
site of Ft. Mohave. The Colorado River and California are in the background.)
At that point, we picked up the first route documented for us by Bob. (I had
been over Bob's trips twice with Bob and others.) This route went from Ft.
Mohave to the area that is now Kingman via Union Pass, which is on today's
Hwy 68. The portion that is documented for travel that is not on modern
highway ends just east of Union Pass. This area is Bob's traditional camp
for his scouting trips. We examined it for our possible return that night.
But the wind was strong enough that we decided to hold out for a more
sheltered area. Rather than continue into Kingman, we spent the last half of
the day on another of Bob's trips to near-by Secret Pass and a hidden arch.
We had lunch at the parking area and hiked into the Secret Pass canyon, which
is in a wilderness area. We then drove to the arch and hiked to it. This
area was sheltered by surrounding hills, so we checked out a side road marked
by Bob as having suitable camping, and stopped for the night.
Monday morning we broke camp and went into Kingman via Hwys 68 and 93. We
visited the Mohave County Museum where we received permission to visit the
site of Camp Beale Springs, an Indian era Army camp with historic ties to the
Hardy Toll Road and the Beale Wagon Road. After walking around the site, we
started the last of Bob's current trips, the route of the Beale Wagon Road
from Kingman to Fort Mohave. This route used Sitgreaves Pass, later used by
the earlier version of Route 66. After four-wheeling to Sitgreaves Pass, we
made our own small side trip to Oatman. This is a town that is becoming a
tourist stop due to its picturesque mining town look and its location on the
longest surviving piece of old US Hwy 66. We spent some time going through
the shops and staring at all the other tourists. We then rejoined the route
in Silver Creek. We looked for a suitable camp, but after several tries were
thwarted by small flying bugs, we headed to Bullhead City for a motel. Ed had
his first flat tire of the trip just outside town. We were unable to get
rooms in Bullhead City, but did get back into the Traveler's Inn in Needles,
30 minutes away.
Tuesday, we started out to work our way down our list of other attractions in the vicinity of Kingman. We took I-40 from Needles to Kingman. Just outside Kingman, Doug's Cherokee experienced carburetor trouble and he wired it up to get into town. It and Ed's tire wound up at the same service station for repair. Lew and I were going to visit Hualapai Mtn. Park, just south of town while we were waiting. But, this was called off just a few miles out of town when we got a call that it would be a three hour wait at the service station. Ed and Sunny would join us for our primary trip to the Chloride ghost town while Doug waited. Chloride might be considered a disappointment after Oatman. It was an inhabited town, without as much touristy stuff and tourists, at least in April. We went up into the hills behind town to get photos, where Ed got his second flat. A can of sealer later, we were back in town for lunch, where Doug rejoined us. The service station mechanic had tweaked the carburetor and declared the tire DOA. Lew proposed camping that night at Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas, rather than any further activities in Arizona. This would put him and Doug's still ailing carburetor closer to home, since he planned on returning a day early. We crossed Hoover Dam, which was a traffic mess, and stopped in Henderson, where Ed got both tires fixed (neither was DOA). We zoomed across Las Vegas on the freeway, and headed to Red Rock Canyon, where we discovered no camping. Back in town, there were no rooms (as might be expected Easter week). Ed and I agreed that we still had lots of things planned in Arizona, so we made reservations at the Motel 6 in Kingman near the Museum. After dinner in Las Vegas at a Kenny Rogers' Chicken joint, the group split up (Cherokees and Blazers!) Lew and Doug camped near the Mojave Road near Baker, then came home. Ed and Sunny, and Matthew and I got to Kingman just before 10 PM.
Wednesday morning after breakfast we started to Grand Canyon Caverns, east of Kingman on old Route 66. On the way, we stopped at the Kingman KOA to check out their Kamper Kabin (already reserved). Since we were going as far as Flagstaff that day, we thought we would try another KOA. After our tour of the Caverns, we stopped at Seligman and reserved a KOA Kamper Kabin for Matthew and me, and an adjacent tent site for Ed and Sunny. (We were the first to use new Kabin #2.) After lunch, we drove to Walnut Canyon NM at Flagstaff and hiked to the cliff dwellings. The next stop near town was the Museum of Northern Arizona, with interesting Indian items. We then returned to the Seligman KOA and dinner in camp.
Thursday, we returned to Kingman and completed our trip to Hualapai Mtn. Park. The campground has a number of campsites and cabins for rent and is probably popular in warmer weather (6000' elev.), although many of the cabins have wood stoves. After lunch at an Arizona Roadside Rest, Ed said he wanted to visit a mine. I chose the Orange Blossom mine on EMHT segment 3, which is not too far off I-40 in California. I had been there twice before, but always following the trail. But with the aid of the auto club map, we were able to pick up the trail from the Kelbaker Road exit, and were shortly at the mine. We came upon two large desert tortoises at two different spots on the gas line road while returning to Kelbaker Road. We then spent the traditional evening in Barstow at the Motel 6, with dinner at Coco's.
Friday was spent returning to Sacramento, without incident, other than lunch at Wayne's In and Out Burger in Fresno. Belmont Ave. has a LONG return route to the freeway. Next time we'll stop at the Shaw Ave. one.
Les Cobb, W6TEE, Sacramento, April 25, 1995
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