This is an overview of the Northern Arizona adventure we took in October and early November. The trip lasted a little less than a month, 26 Days to be exact and was roughly 600 miles. We started our adventure in Kingman, Arizona near the Nevada border not to far from Las Vegas. We headed northeast on Route 66. It was a cold, windy first day, but the ride was beautiful with rolling hills and nice shoulders. The first night we camped on some public land just southwest of Truxton.
The next morning was really cold, so we lounged around camp drinking hot drinks and waiting for the sun to warm us up before we hit the road. We continued on Route 66 to Peach Springs where we were thinking about taking the Road to Supai and crossing over to the Grand Canyon from there, however, we talked to some people from the Outdoor Recreation Office who told us they didn't know what the road was like and we also heard from the grocer that the road to the Grand Canyon, beyond Supai, maybe fenced off and that we probably couldn't get through that way. So we decided to stay on route 66 and head to the Grand Canyon Caverns where we spent our second night.
Camping at the Grand Canyon Caverns was nice. They had hot showers and since we were the only tent campers we had a big area to ourselves. Also, there was a restaurant with wi-fi at the camp ground, so we decided to eat there and do some work on the computer. I wish we could have checked out the actual caverns, but since we got in late and are on a bit of a budget we decided not to go.
The third morning warmed up some from the previous two days, a nice relief. We had a nice ride into Seligman, however, about 4 miles out of Dan's tire went flat. Upon close inspection the actual tire had shredded and repairing or replacing the tube would be pointless. So Dan started walking to Seligman while I road ahead and secured us a spot at the KOA. I walked back to meet Dan who was by this time already in town. It was our good fortune that one of the employees at the KOA just happened to be going to Prescott, AZ the next morning for a dentist appointment and was willing to take Dan along with him to purchase a new tire. Yippy! With the tire fixed, we stayed one more night at the KOA.
We then headed to the Route 66/Interstate 40 Intersection. Today was the first day we rode on the freeway. It is definitely a different experience. It was nice in that the shoulders were very wide and we could stay far from the traffic, however the exhaust from the traffic was stinky and you had to be careful of trash and sharp objects along the shoulder. We ended up camping on some public land off of Welch Rd. The camp area was a little sketchy, we found several boxes containing what appeared to be the remnants of meth labs. But there were a couple of RVs around so we decided it was okay.
The next day we stayed on the freeway all the way to Williams. In Williams we picked up some groceries and stopped at a coffee shop to check email and what not. We camped about five miles outside Williams at Kaibab Lake, which was a very nice little spot with a good number of people fishing. The next day was a short one. Dan's Panier popped off, hit is spokes and destroyed his back tire. This happened within 1000' of Kaibab Lake. I rode my bike into Williams where I was able to rent a vehicle from the Railside RV Ranch. We went into Flagstaff and were able to buy dan a new back tire. We returned the rental that day and spent the night pretty much across the street from where we slept the night before.
With Dan's tire fixed we headed north on Hwy 64 up to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was amazingly beautiful. The colorful layers of rock and the deep gorges were breathtaking. I must say we were pretty disappointed with the Park Service and their facilities for bikes. At the Grand Canyon it costs $12.00 for a bike to enter the park, about half of what a car pays $25.00, that is all well and good, but for bikes it is an individual cost so Dan and I, each on our own bike, had to pay just about as much($24.00) as a car to enter the park. That means a group of 4 friends on bikes would have to pay twice as much to enter the park than a group of four friends entering in a huge, gas gusseling SUV. Where is the logic in that? Whats more, Hwy 64 had pretty nice shoulders all the way up to the park entrance. Once inside the park however, those nice shoulders disappeared. So I ask, why is it bicyclists have to pay so much for so little? In the main tourist area of the park they did have a couple of bike racks, but that is all I saw for the amenities for bikes. Bicyclists getting ripped off? I'd say so, and the environment of our National Parks too!
Leaving the Grand Canyon we decided to head south to Flagstaff on a dirt road that parallels the Arizona Trail rather than taking Hwy 89. Most of the Arizona Trail was really nice. Nice wide dirt roads without many washboards. There were a few tricky parts though. One section was a double track jeep trail that was just a bit to narrow for Dan's trailer (The Doggy Ride) to fit on, so he had to go fairly slow to keep the doggy ride from bouncing too much. Also, FR-417 and 416 were rough going, they were very rocky and steep. Riding up them with the trailers was impossible, at least for us. So we ended up pushing our bikes most of the way. After FR-416 the road turned back into a nice wide dirt road which was very pleasant. The last place we camped along the Arizona Trail was in White Horse Canyon near the base of Mt. Humphreys. The next day we caught Hwy 180 and took it all the way into Flagstaff. We were unsure of Hwy 180 because there are virtually no shoulders and we were afraid it was going to have heavy traffic. However, it was very nice, there was relatively little traffic and although there were no shoulders, the road was nice.
From Flagstaff we headed south on Lake Mary road. It was hard for us to find camping along this road. Our map showed that most the land was public land, but there we signs everywhere saying no camping, even off of the Forest Service roads, which seemed strange to me. Lake Mary road is a popular road with cyclists from Flagstaff, it has a nice wide shoulder, beautiful scenery and not a lot of traffic. We stayed on Lake Mary road until we hit Stoneman Lake road, a nice wide dirt road that leads up to Stoneman Lake. We camped at Stoneman Lake and were surprised to find a bunch of extravagant homes located on the northeast side of the lake. The lake was not much of a lake at the time we were there. We wanted to fill up with water, but were unable to because the water was too far out past a muddy flat.
From Stoneman Lake we headed west to Interstate 17. We took I-17 down to it's junction with Hwy 179, the shoulder on I-17 was rocky and fairly miserable to ride on. At the junction of I-17 and Hwy 179 we took FR-618 another nice dirt road. Riding along FR-618 was one of my favorite parts of the ride, the scenery was gorgous. We camped along the Wet Beaver River, which was one of our only wet camps we had in Arizona. It was really nice so we stayed two nights, took a bath in the river and took some time to read and write in our journals. We then kept heading south towards Hwy 260 which we took into Camp Verde. From Camp Verde it was a long, hot, steep climb up I-17 and down to hit Hwy 169. The should of I-17 was much better here than it was out of Stoneman Lake, thank goodness.
We took Hwy 169 over to Dewy where we hit Hwy 69, the most miserable road of our ride. There was a decent shoulder part of the way to Prescott, however that shoulder disappeared around Prescott Valley. The traffic was horrible too, it was the only time on our ride that we had something thrown at us from a passing motorist. I was so happy to get into Prescott and off of Hwy 69. We were in Prescott for Halloween so we decided to go out on the town. We went to "Whiskey Row" and enjoyed the many bars and bands that were celebrating the holiday. We stopped by Sounds and Cyclery to say hi to Ed, Dan bought a tire from Ed earlier in the trip.
From Prescott we headed north on Williamson Valley Road, lots of traffic and not much of a shoulder, but you get a nice view of Granite Mountain. We then headed east on Campwood Road, a nice dirt road with some washboards, but they weren't too bad. Campwood Road was one of my favorite parts of the ride, it was beautiful and rolling, with some pretty steep sections, but overall really nice. We headed into Bagdad where we realized Dan's back wheel had been losing spokes. He lost about four. There were no bike shops in Bagdad or bus services or car rental shops so we decided to head south to Wickenburg and rent a car there, no bike shops in Wickenburg either. By the time we got to Wickenburg Dan's wheel lost a few more spokes and was the shape of an egg, but luckily for us it held out. We decided that Wickenburg would be the end of our trip. We needed to get to Reno and with this last detour we would be set back quite a few days.
It was a beautiful trip and a great learning experience. I can't wait for our next trip!
