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Kevin W. and myself started out from the 4 Sons Chevron in Anthem about 8 AM on Saturday morning. Jack had planned on going but sent me a text message saying that he was unable to make the run.
We went up to Cordes Junction and had a quick bite to eat at McDonalds and then took off on Highway 69 to Prescott. We turned off on Fain road, but the old Fain road is closed, so we went over by the new Yavapai County Fairgrounds and hit Highway 89Alt. From there we drove up almost to the top of the pass from Prescott to Jerome and hit trail NF-104. We waited for Jeremy and Brandon (and Joe-Joe, their beagle) to meet us there, as we arrived a little early. We met up and started down the trail.
As this part of the trail is county maintained, it was relatively smooth but a little dusty, as there are full-year residents up in this area. About 2 miles up the road, we turned right onto NF-413, as NF-104 goes to the top of Mingus Mountain.
We headed off to the southeast, winding our way around the mountain in a counter-clockwise direction, with outstanding views and vistas. The trail got steadily bumpier as we went along, we could see that in the early spring this trail could have been very muddy.
On the south side of Mingus, you could definitely tell this was a dormant volcano, with all sorts of rocks and minerals in the road. We saw quartz, mica, marble and granite, along with some volcanic rock along the trail. We stopped a couple times, once to take a group picture and some scenic photos, another to photograph a horned lizard that definitely had chameleon like properties, blending in with the rocks. We also stopped at the head end of the water supply for the town of Jerome, it was back in a cave with a large steel door and many locks on it. From that point, the road follows the water line over to the town of Jerome, and has very little change in elevation, although it is still very rough.
About 3 miles out of Cottonwood, we turned right on NF-493 which eventually turns into Mingus Avenue in Cottonwood. We went past a couple of mines that are still in operation, at this point the road was well maintained.
I called Rick E. from one of the mines and asked him to meet us for lunch in Cottonwood. Brandon and Jeremy opted not to have lunch with us since they had left 2 of their dogs in camp over near Prescott.
We met Rick at a small place in old Cottonwood, called "The Tavern". It has a nice fare, and serves both lunch and dinner, and is a sports bar, as they have over 20 flat panel monitors around the inside of
the building. We ate outside, all the while the European Sports Car Club was driving by on Main Street, coming from Jerome and headed on their way to Sedona.
We parted with Rick and headed on the journey home. It was quite windy when we left town, and the farther we drove, the windier it got. I estimate that we were bucking 40 to 50 MPH headwinds, so needless to say, even with the new fuel injection, it was a slow trip back to Phoenix. The jeep seems to handle highway driving better now, and did not heat up as like in the past.
Kevin and I arrived back at my home around 4 PM, and I promptly went to take a nap.
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