Cypress Thicket - An ATV Ride

Since so many of you like my stories about our ATV rides here is another one.

This one took us to some unexpected places; we got lost, didn't care, and had a great ride.

To start this ride, take Main Street west through Payson and past Green Valley Park. When you come to a dirt road there will be a pull-offt o your left. This is the beginning of the Doll Baby Road (FS 406). This is where we offload the quads and begin our ride.

As you are driving down this road be ready to hold your breath because you have to drive right past the sewage disposal plant. NASTY!!! Humans are just plain gross! LOL.

Continue driving on the 406 road until you come to the 193 turn off to your left. Drive on the 193 until you come to the junction of FS 414 and 193. Take a right onto the 414 road.

Here you will begin to drive through the Cypress Thicket area. This area is looking much better now but it was burned pretty severely in the Willow Fire back in 2004. The fire consumed more than 100,000 acres and was started by lightning.

This area is still very beautiful and more and more plants are starting to thrive again. Robert tells me that this is bear country. Oh great! I'm not much of a bear person but it would be cool to get a picture of one; from a really huge distance.

As you are driving on through the Cypress Thicket you will be watching the Mazatzal Mountains getting closer and closer. It's really a spectacular view. (Try pronouncing it Mad-As-Hell and you will be pretty close).

When you get to the point of the picture below there will be a cattle guard. To your right there is another trail that leads up the hill. This is a trailhead that will take you through the Mineral Creek area. I believe it ends up being a walking trail but I'm not positive.

Okay, here is where I got two really weird pictures. Robert turned around and looked back the way we came and up on the hill to the left he saw a figure that looked to him like a moose. (Not in Arizona honey! LOL!). Anyway, we wanted to get on with the ride so I just took two pictures of it, one of the pictures is zoomed in.

Now, here comes the fun part. Robert swears up and down that this is actually just a tree that has fallen over due to death from the fire and that what you see is the root system that used to be in the ground. My mom, on the other hand, swears up and down that it is a dead cow that has died for whatever reason and has fallen into the brush surrounding it and that it is in that "leathery" state after all the delicate parts have ... well ... gone away.

What do you think??? I don't know. I might have to go back and find out for sure. LOL. That would be a hardship. NOT!! So go ahead, open the picture up, zoom in if you can and let me know what you think.

Okay, break's over, time to hit the road again. Normally you would just keep driving on the 414 road but we just had to get lost. We took a side road (the 451) just to see where it went. This road ends up at a spring that ran really good during the snow melt and rain that we had and cut a pretty deep gouge into the earth. Robert climbed over to the other side and found the old tailings of a mine but nothing else.

We decided to continue on the next fork of the 451 road thinking it would just end there but it continued on around and around. We didn't really know where we were going to end up. We crossed several flowing creeks and were able to get the quads wet. FUN! This is our friend Chuck playing in the water.

This road proved to be pretty rough and quite a challenge. At different points I had to let Robert off the quad just so I could manage the thing. (It's very hard to steer with two people on these things).

Anyway, we followed this road through creeks and cypress thickets until we finally came back to the 414 road.

We stopped and took a break somewhere in here and I managed to get a shot of Robert in his "keep the head warm" hat. LOL. I couldn't resist putting it in this story. This is why I can't see a darn thing when I'm riding in the back.

Okay, continue on the 414 road until you come to the 442 road to your right. Take the 442 road up until you come to a cleared off area, kind of like a pull-off to the right. Here Robert found an old mine track. We looked across the creek and also saw what looked like an old rock house. It was! Cool! We also found one of those GeoCache type pipes. Inside there were only a few business cards so we just put them back.

Continue on the 442 road as far as you can go. We had to stop because of a huge washout that we didn't want to try and cross. This area is known as the Collom Mine but not much is left other than the old rock house. We decided to stop here and have lunch. It ended up being the perfect spot right beside a flowing creek and I got lots of great pictures.

Sycamore leaves in the creek.

A bubble floating by. It kind of magnifies the rocks underneath.

This picture of the forest floor turned out better than I expected.

Okay, back to the ride. By the way, this is my view when I'm on the back. LOL. I told you I can't see a darned thing! I will be so glad when summer gets here.

When you've had your fill of mines that aren't there anymore you can back track to the 414 road and continue in the direction you were going before. When you come to the 1550 road make a left. This road becomes the 513 road and then the 193 road. You will follow this road all the way back to the Doll Baby Road (FS 406).

If you watch to the right as you are driving on the 1550 road you will see to your right some tailings, also from a mine. This mine was known as the Zulu mine but there isn't much left here either.

Follow the 406 road back past the stinky sewage disposal area. Hold your breath! LOL. Now wasn't that worth it?