Reno Pass and the Bluebird Mine (Arizona)

I have a book titled "Guide to Arizona Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles A. Wells. Once in a while we find a trail in this book that we want to explore.

We found one called the Reno Pass that we have wanted to explore for some time now. Each time we decide to go it rains or snows preventing us from going but we finally got our chance.

We heard that the Sunflower side of the Reno Pass was closed so we started on the other end at the Transfer Station across from Punkin Center. This is the FS 524 road.

The book rates this trail as difficult but we decided to give it a try anyway.

The road starts out great and in the distance you can see the Mt. Ord Mountains and the lookout tower. The lookout tower is on the dark peak on the left hand side of the picture below. All you can see from here is a small white speck.

As you can see, we got quite a bit of moisture this year and everything is very green and beautiful.

About a mile or so up the road there is a small two track that leads off to the left. This little two track leads to these Indian Ruins. This is a beautiful area with a creek off the other side of the hill.

In the area of the ruins we found a beautiful little purple/pink flower called Filaree.

All through the canyons of Reno Pass we found flowers of many varieties. The picture below shows the Arizona Poppies. The blue flowers I found out, thanks to Vivian P, are called Lupine. Thank you, Vivian, for your comment on my Beautiful Arizona Poppies article.

I have no idea what type of flower this is but it was pretty growing in the rock.

These are the blooms from a Manzanita bush.

I have no idea what the next pictures are but they sure are pretty.

We continued on up the 524 road and came upon a concrete basin of some type. There was probably a mine in the area and this was more than likely used for water storage. We didn't want to walk around the area too much because it was loaded with cat claw bushes so we didn't find an actual mine.

At this point of the trip we were within about a mile of the Mt. Ord fire tower. The dark zigzag things going up to the tower are the stairs. It's up there pretty high. I've been in these towers before and they provide a beautiful view but if it's windy at all it can be a little unsettling.

At this point the road became too rough for us to continue on safely. The road was just too washed out. When the quad is almost straight up in the air and on one or two wheels, that's enough for me. So we decided to turn around and head back to the vehicles. The trip was well worth it though since we made it most of the way and there were beautiful views of the mountains in the distance as well as the canyons we drove through.

Since our Reno Pass trip was cut short we decided to head across Highway 188. We drove through the small town of Punkin Center and headed to the mountains behind. We took the 896 road out to the Bluebird Mine.

The picture below shows Tonto Creek. We had to cross this but it wasn't too bad. The mountains in the background are the same mountains we just came from. If you look closely at the largest peak, almost in the center of the picture, you can almost see the Mt. Ord lookout tower.

This is an old military truck that was probably used at one time to carry locals across Tonto Creek.

The mountains behind Punkin Center are loaded with all kinds of desert plants. This picture shows Palo Verde trees (left), Ocotillo (long, spindly plants), Prickly Pear cactus (behind an ocotillo), and Cane Cholla (right bottom).

We also had some beautiful views from here.

I've tried to research the Bluebird Mine on the Internet but since there is more than one in Arizona, I'm having a hard time finding the information. I would imagine that gold was taken from here but I don't know what else was mined.

The mine sits in a rugged but beautiful little canyon and you'd never know where it was until you were practically right on top of it. There are a few remnants left behind. There is a mine entrance but heavy bars have now blocked it off. The heavy bars are used on mine entrances now rather than chain link fencing partially to keep people out but also because these areas are used for bat habitats and allow the bats plenty of room to fly out at night.

The rock walls in this canyon were just awesome and all the plant life living within those rocks were absolutely beautiful.

Well, the day was getting late so we decided to start heading back to the vehicles. On our way back we turned around long enough to see Picture Mountain. All over the sides of this mountain are rock slides; the lighter colored areas with no vegetation. The rock slide on the right looks like a running horse with an Indian for a rider and he's supposed to be holding a spear in the air.

Also on our way back we passed acres and acres of what is called Jumping cactus or Teddy Bear cactus. I call it Jumping cactus because teddy bears are soft and cuddly; this cactus is not. If you walk by the plant and accidentally bump it, pieces fall off the plant and cling to you.

We had an awesome day and except for the wind, the weather was perfect for a quad ride.