benman

Seven Springs road was closed indefinately by the Maricopa Sheriffs Dept on Saturday. Although being extremely frustrated that they were closing this Forest access point for a seemingly stupid reason, it was understandable that they didn't want to be pulling hundreds of people out of the deeper snow above Tonto Hills. Heck, there were thousands of cars driving around and hundreds people parked off the road packing snow onto their hoods, roofs, windshields - I even saw a guy tape a small snowman to his bumper! I guess thats the thing to do in AZ when it snows... if you can't go wheeling in it that is.


After being told by a very rude MCS officer directing traffic on saturday that the entire Tonto NF was closed due to the snow (by his personal authority) we decided to find out for ourselves.

Table Mesa road, bright and early the next day revealed not a living soul, let alone any indication of closure.

Beginning at about 2000ft elevation, the snow that the first portion of the trail saw was long gone, but the higher elevations were blanketed and shrouded in foggy clouds.


Sections of the trail were pretty soupy but there was virtually no traffic, and we didn't encounter any stuck vehicles (well, kind of).










Once we reached about 3000 ft elevation, there was a solid blanket of white which only got deeper as we went higher.


The only one getting stuck was me. Here I am testing my luck in a 36" snow drift, which got the best of me. This is where a hi-lift and some tow strap can save you from a stupid long walk for no good reason. (Luckily we were prepared)


This is looking SW towards New River

benman

Approaching New River Mesa at 4000' there was a consistant 12-16" of snow on the ground with drifts much deeper than that.


We were the first ones on this trail!


This climb up the mesa was the hardest part and took several attempts to clear the rutted and rocky obstacles hidden under the snow.


Here's a view of that climb, after we got back down


These mountains are about 5500' in elevation, I believe the tallest one is Benchmark Mountain


Since the trail was virtually invisible under the snow, I tried to maintain course using primarily the GPS to drive.


After getting the rear axle stuck between two rocks, putting a nice hi-lift slip dent in my tailgate and finding out that I had developed a fuel leak and was on E, we decided to head back. We did make it to the western edge of the mesa but missed our goal of the southern tip by about a mile.


A view from Cave Creek Road


Made it to the gas station on fumes to round out one excellent adventure!

Good Times

wow amazing! simply amazing!

Tofer

awsome pics! your crazy for wheelin in the snow solo.

benman

Yeah, I don't think I would ever wheel alone in the snow in an area I wasn't familiar with, or one that I knew the snow wouldn't be virtually gone in 24 hours. It worked out this time, and was quite exciting. I'm sure WESTY will chime in, and add his take on the trip. There was three of us in the truck, with just enough water, crackers and power bars to last a day or two. We had the absolute minimum that I would ever venture out in the snow with again.

Doomist

Awesome Pics, bet it was alot of fun!

westy44runner

Awesome trip! Not only was it a great day of snow wheeling, but a complete adventure from beginning to end.

Solo snow wheeling if you are prepared is completely safe, we got stuck numerous times but between the hi-lift and our inginuity we had no problems whatsoever getting out, the only bonehead move of the trip was not topping off the tank before...oh yeah and trying to drive through 3-4 foot snow drift! hahah
and probably the entire robbers roost trail I had us on!

Next time we get another low elevation snow storm I've got an even better trail, you guys thought that was crazy huh? I need to get new tires soon and get back on the trail.

Elvota

Great pics. Sounds like an killer time. Looks like you cheated and put the top back on the Runner though.

DPS had a lot of stuff randomly closed around 4 Peaks when we went the same weekend. By the time I found "short cuts" to get where I wanted, the road was open... only to have the 4 Peaks main road closed. After a shortcut, they had opened that one two.

Spent most of the day just getting around road blocks that had no reason. One cop actually looked at my truck and asked if I had 4WD.

Found some different routes though, and got to school a huge lifted Chevy pickup up a muddy rut he tried and then bypassed. That was fun.

AllTimeHigh

nice pics man... that must've been scary wheelin the unfamiliar snowy territory

crawler#976

That could be a once in a lifetime trip!



Looks like the heaviest snows were south and east of us...we got the '05 out Sunday and had fun near Williams in up to knee deep powder!

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/7438/snow25ha.jpg

Epic Ed

I knew I wasn't the only one considering doing Table Mesa -- I should have sent you an email. Next time we'll all have to head out in the mess and blaze trail. Excellent photos!

Ed

i_love_tacos

That is freakin awesome dude. Nice work guys!

lee

dear global warming,

there is no snow in boston, and tons in arizona. YOU WIN.

signed,
-the world