Exploring Arizona- abandoned, wrecked cars & trucks, old hiways, etc

Jim,,,If you are ever out this way,,make sure you drop us a line. Would love to take you out to see the state. People think of Arizona as nothing but a desert,, there are 7 climatic regions in the world,,,6 of the 7 can be found in Arizona!!! The only one we dont have is artic tundra. About sea level to over 12K feet & everything in between!

 

Awesome thread, I've have spent most of today going through it. I'm in Arizona and find it amazing. I live just west of Tucson and the most I've ever seen is abandoned smuggler vehicles. I have some mixed emotions when it comes to disturbing some of these vehicle. If it clearly abandoned I don't see why someone couldn't take a part to save another vehicle. In a way its recycling our own mess we as people have made. To take a vehicle from these kind of situations just to crush and get some beer money, I find appalling.

Anways, bottom line. I wish you guys the Best, stay safe and continue having fun.

 

Here is Keith with an Oldsmobile he found. We think it is a '37-'38 vintage.



This is the mine we visited as well.

 

I guess I will add some pictures from the hike yeaterday!!! This outing started at 5 am & got back home around 10 pm!!


Hiking down into a canyon!! What a view!!!



On the "trail" very overgrown with many rock slides in the way.



Still on the trail going into the canyon. Steve doing some rock climbing!!




Here is the group at the entrance to the mine we visited. Steve, Mark, Henderly & myself.



Just inside the mine entrance.



Further in was totally filled on both sides with mining tailings from deeper inside.



Steve & Henderly



Mark & Keith



Was very cold & damp deep in the mine. Several pictures have a ghost cloud from my breath.



Here is a pic of the ore vein they were mining,,,asbestos!!!



On the trail hiking back out,,,long hike in but much harder getting out!



At a local ghost town.





Group picture before heading home! What an outing!!

 

This is a shot inside the mine also. Sorry for the hazy shot but for some reason all of my interior mine shots turned up with this haze???



Another mine shot.



This is a pic looking across and down at the pond at the bottom of the waterfall (waterfall was dry that day). It's about a 800 ft drop.



This is Steves GTO backed into one of the abandoned buildings at the ghost mining town.



Mark L

 

To explain the mine shots. The entire mine is really totally hollowed out with some of the original rock left strategically for pillers to hold the ceiling up. What looks like piles in the mine is the tailings or rock seperated from the good ore/rock. When they start the mine they throw the tailings over the side, off of the ledge at the entrance. This is a pic looking down on the tailings outside the entrance.



This is from the back of the canyon looking across at the canyon wall where the mines are. The white that you see on the side are the tailings from the mine we were in and the pic above. The mines are located right at the top of the white "beards".



Inside the mine at some point they stop dumping the tailings outside and build walls of stacked rocks. This is the tunnel/passege they made by putting up wood stands, then piling the rock up, building walls that eventually holds the finer tailings.



Keiths previous post pic is much clearer.
This pic shows one of the passages flanked by the piles of tailings, rail ties in the floor for the ore cart rails, and several different passages diverting off left and right from this passage. This mine was huge. Easily 100 yards to what we think may have been the back of the mine. Easily 100 yards to the right and another 100 yards the left of the entrance. If all tailings were to be removed you would have an open chamber at least the size of at least two football field and possibly bigger.



You can see that the piles of tailings do not reach the ceiling or offer any support of the mine ceiling. I believe that any of the wood supports that you see are there for holding the tailing walls up against the piles of tailings and not for the roof support. I do not believe they would offer any resistance to the unbelievable amount of pressure that must be pushing down on that ceiling from above. It's a very errie feeling to be in there thinking about all that weight and material pressing down on the roof.

Mark L

Mark L

 

Mark,,,The haze is your breath!! Cold air with hi humidity in there. You breath out hot air, thats what you get! When I realised what was happaning to my pictures, I would turn my head to exhale, then hold my breath & turn back to take the picture.

 

Great pics guys!

 

Hey Steve & Keith, this is a great thread. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. I sure hope to join up again with you this winter. Maybe we could talk Jack (Phatrat) into coming back.
I'm wondering if that's the same cave we went into in March, and if you found out how deep the water is in the cave where we turned back last time.
Also wondering if Steve's GTO is the same car that was in black primer last year.
Take care, and keep 'em coming.

 

Different mine,,much harder to get to. Same car, in grey primer. We will be going back to the other area soon. Jack said he's not coming back this year.

Later,,,Keith

 

I understand where you are coming from. Abandoned on the side of the highway & a wreck at the bottom of a ravine are two totally different animals. Where we are finding most of these cars & from their condition its obvious that someone died in the wreck. To me, thats hallowed ground. You pay your respects & move on without disturbing the site. To me thats like going into an old ghost towns cemetary & walking off with a headstone marker. Not right, shouldnt be done. Same as a plane wreck or sunken ship.

 

I like this statement.
I would like to go with you but I have a lung problem and walking on flat ground is tuff enough so keep the pictures coming.
Mike

 

Completely agree when it comes to the wrecks, I will admit that whole scenario isn't something I thought about.

 

Long shot here, but anything going on around the x-mas holiday? In-laws are moving to Phoenix next week, and that means i gotta head out there for x-mas.

 

Possibly,
We are not planning that far ahead at this time. My guess is we will go to this area another time or 2 depending on what we find. We have already scoped out our next hike in the same area to a place we have not been to.

We also want to start exploring other parts of Az north and north west of Phoenix area on up towards Flagstaff.

Some of these hikes include a lot of climbing, others do not. We do not always know what we will find.
This last hike, we expected to visit the large mine again so, came preparred with lanterns, etc to have a lot of light. It was much better and less creepy than last time when we only had a few flashlights.
Check with us closer to the time.

 

Very good chance there will be. Summer is just too brutal to go exploring. Weather usually is not bad. Light coat at most & once you are out hiking the coat comes right off. Just keep an eye on the thread for updates. We usually dont schedule anything that far in advancedue to everyones schedule. Usually only a couple weeks notice at most. Would love to have you tag along.

 

TOO slow!!

 

Keith, I do remember you talking about the haze from your breath but it did not sink in to my thick skull until you mentoned it again in the previous posts. Mark L

 

No problem....when i saw this post, and found out the inlaws are moving....I figured that i'll get a chance to explore one of these years....I keep an eye on this so i'll be watching closer to the time and as future visits are planned

 

Maybe I should of whacked you with one of those rocks laying around?? Think that would help?

 

I'll be watching this thread. I am in the Verde Valley and hope to join any trips up this way.

Curly

 

If you know of anything of interest in your area, please post it here. You could also be our guide if you know of something out of the ordinary.

Our primary interest is old , abandoned hiways and roads and vehicles. Also, mines, buildings and anything of interest of yesteryear.

 

No Keith, then you'd just be making dust to go with the steam. LOL!!!! You know it wouldn't help my sitia-tion. Mark L

 

If you really want to go on a challenging hike there's a B17 that crashed up on the peaks during WW2. Someday I'll get up there too see it! I've heard its challenging to get to though...which is good so that people don't steal shit! Oh yea and out by parks I've been told that there's a bunch of Model A's just sitting in the woods too.

 

Anyone who's reading this and thinking about maybe going on one of their hikes. DO IT!!! I had a ball with these guys back in Feb.

 

Thanks Guy!! LOTS better than sitting around at a car "show" all day!!!!

 

Things have been kinda creepy here at my place in the desert the last few days. After not seeing any snakes in a few years. I found and killed 2 diamondback rattlers in the last 2 days! One last night and one the morning prior! Hate those darn things. Surprised to have 2 here in October but, it is still close to 100 degrees in the afternoon. Go away you awful things!

 

Both in the same place Steve?? If so,,,keep an eye out for more. May have a nest back in there.

 

Sadly no Keith. The first one ws towards the middle on the east end. The one last night was right up near my work area. It was underneath the '68 Tyree Firebird funny car when I first saw it. We ended up ( Todd and I ) killing it under the motorhome. very spooky very creepy. I am not at ease.

 

Wow,,Dont think there will be any issues nights but make sure you make a lot of noise during the day.