[yew]

After hiking the Highline Trail/AZT near Pine, and camping on the Fossil Creek Rd, I started driving back toward northwest Arizona, to try to bypass incoming cool, wet, windy weather. Just as I was pulling into Camp Verde, AZ, about 1 mile east of I-17, the Chevy Aveo from Budget rental car company out of Las Vegas airport died. The RPMs just sputtered down to zero so I pulled over and turned on the hazard lights. It was a 10 minute walk to a pay phone. This was lucky. The car could've died "out in the middle of nowhere". It was a totally frustrating fiasco calling the non-assisting Budget roadside assistance, the non-assisting GMC/Chevy roadside assistance, Cottonwood, AZ towing company, Flagstaff towing company, GMC dealership in Cottonwood, and Budget in Las Vegas. Everybody kept saying to call somebody else. Eventually, the car was towed into Cottonwood and I was stuck at the dealership. The fuel pump died even though the Chevy Aveo rental car only had about 4300 miles on it. Of course, the fuel pump was not in stock and there was a parts order delay so I could not leave that day. I had to get a hotel and the GMC dealership got me an Enterprise rental car until the replacement arrived. To salvage the end of the day, I spent about 3 hours driving the Red Rock Road loop in Sedona and squeezed in a 45 minute hike at an old ranch that cost $8 per day to visit. The $8 is charged by a concessionaire permitted by the US Forest Service. There are a lot of tourists at this old ranch on national forest land.

redrock near Sedona, AZ

There's also a Red Rock Pass which you need just to pull over, park and take a tourist photo, even if you don't use an outhouse, picnic table trash can or trail. It's just a way to squeeze money out of tourists since Congress and the Presidents will not appropriate enough money to maintain all the public facilities Sedona tourists use. Atleast this Red Rock Pass is one way of milking foreigners of their money. They need to pay too. I pulled over for about 1 second to steal a roadside photo from The Federal Government but then a USFS law enforcement truck drove up so I pulled away quickly. Since Sedona is so built-up and touristy, I went back to Cottonwood. Next day, Budget had a replacement car towed down from Flagstaff which I could return to Las Vegas airport. 1.25 days later I was really back on the road. It was very windy with dust storms and scattered showers so I drove through the mining town of Jerome and over the high pass near Mingus Mountain and Woodchute area. I went for a short walk and took this picture.

Mingus Mountain area from near Woodchute Trailhead on Prescott National Forest, near Jerome, Arizona.

Since it was cold, windy and the scenery looked superficially like central or eastern Oregon (which I love but didn't come to AZ to see that), I drove on to northwest Arizona. Next day, I drove through Meadview to Pearce Ferry in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The desert from the interstate to Meadview is checkerboard BLM and private so there's some housing development. It doesn't have a remote feel like Nevada or even elsewhere in Arizona. There's a Joshua Tree forest on the way in. My goal was to make it as far as I could into the canyon toward Columbine Falls. The weather was not as good as the forecast claimed. It was cool, cloudy and overcast. A storm cell was to the west. A storm cell to the north, up in the AZ Strip was raining. I parked up on a ridge near an interpretive sign and took a 70 degrees azimuth to the west end/mouth of the Grand Canyon where the Colorado exits thorough the Grand Wash Cliffs.

sign at Pearce Ferry parking area, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona

How to get to the Grand Canyon from the west. Yellow is the desired route. Red is the route taken. Tamerisk choked washes that were awful to bushwhack through are not shown. From Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona.

A sea of Satanic tamarisk a.k.a. salt-cedar covered the old dry lakebed and blocked a beeline route straight to the Colorado where it leaves the Grand Canyon. This changes everything. Columbine Falls was no longer an option. Not even close. First was a 10 minute bushwhack through tamarisk which wasn't that bad because it is older, taller and more open.

a relatively open tamerisk area. Lake Mead used to cover this ground before it dropped.

Surprisingly, I bumped into surveyor's tape marked with measurements around the old edge of the lake. Fresh boot tracks were present and this was a burro path. It was easy to follow which I did to the first finger ridge.

chicory flower near Pearce Ferry

Then the rough hiking began. I bushwhacked through tamarisk to the banks of the Colorado to see if there was a feasible riverside route. There was not.

dense tamerisk near Pearce Ferry

Colorado River near Pearce Ferry

Colorado River near Pearce Ferry

Atleast 4 small tamarisk choked washes with low ridges of desert in between were crossed. One had a little water and swarms of yellowjackets.

wildflower near Pearce Ferry, Arizona

tamarisk choked wash near Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona

Grand Wash Cliffs/west end of the Grand Canyon from Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area

barrel cactus near Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area

By this time the clouds were thickening, winds picking up threatening rain. This did not stop the nearly constant drone of helicopters and above shuttling tourists for an aerial overview of the Grand Canyon. Here atleast, the helicopters are at a high altitude but you hear helicopter noise about 3/4 of every hour, usually 3-4 in the air at a time. Since Lake Mead has dropped so low and the old lake bed is covered with a tamarisk forest, the route to the Canyon's mouth at the Grand Wash Cliffs is very circuituous. I crossed atleast 9 ridges and washes, draws and even what could be considered a small canyon. After, 3.75 hours I made it to a high ridge about 1 ridge over from what looked like the real start of the Grand Canyon. There were 3 cows grazing in the wash below This is near the boundary of Grand Canyon National Park and Lake Mead Rec Area. It was cloudy with a few rain showers and gusty winds.

west end/beginning of the Grand Canyon

ocotillo and Grand Wash Cliffs from the route from Pearce Ferry

west end/beginning of the Grand Canyon

west end/beginning of the Grand Canyon

On the hike back it began to clear up, dry up with winds dying down. Some of the photos above were taken on the way out since the light on the way in was not very good due to overcast skies. It took about 3 hours to hike back. On the way back I got a good look at a coyote. There was also a sizable covey of mated-up Gambel's quail. They have a comical call and look funny running through the brush. There were also numerous wildflowers.

wildflowers near Grand Wash Cliffs, Pearce Ferry

wildflowers near Grand Wash Cliffs, Pearce Ferry

wildflowers near Grand Wash Cliffs, Pearce Ferry

wildflowers near Grand Wash Cliffs, Pearce Ferry

Grand Wash Cliffs from the route from Pearce Ferry

Grand Wash Cliffs

barrel cactus near Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Grand Wash Cliffs/west end of the Grand Canyon from Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area

looking north to The Big Bad Tamerisk Bush along the Colorado River west of Grand Wash Cliffs east of Pearce Ferry

Grand Wash Cliffs/west end of the Grand Canyon from Pearce Ferry, Lake Mead National Recreation Area

It felt good to have a mild sunburn and be covered with dried sweat and dust back at the car. Aaahh, a good day in the desert once it warmed up and dried off. Next day, I hiked the Mt Nutt Wilderness near Kingman for 3 hours, took a shower at an RV park in CalNevAri then flew back to Washington. Budget rental car at the Las Vegas airport did not charge me for the entire week I had their car.

[David¹]

Well Budget Rental Car is one of '10 Brands' not expected to survive the year. That being said GM isn't doing all that well either You never fail to find some new wilderness area I've previously did not know about. Thanks for the report.

[Hikingqueen]

Sorry about the car drama, the wildflowers were not out when I was there last month, nice to see them.