Cruz Adventures is joined by Southwest Trekking

After 4 years of talking about it, John and I were finally able to get out on an adventure together. We discussed taking a trip over the weekend on a Thursday, had it all confirmed and planned on a Friday, and left on a Saturday morning. Joining us on this journey would be John's wife Caryl, my sister Kirsten and my friend Preston. I must recognize Preston for taking a lot of the amazing photographs you are about to see.

Once John mentioned wanting to go Sycamore Canyon, I got on the phone with Preston and we spent all of Friday night pouring over maps picking out the perfect overland route. This route would have us traveling on average 15 hours a days, most of which, were off pavement. It was a true adventure! So, I spent all of Friday packing up the truck and ensuring that Kirsten was prepared. Kirsten and I woke up early on Saturday morning to meet John and Caryl for coffee and bagels in Tucson. After the "go juice" and "five pieces of bread stuck together" we made a quick stop at Autozone and headed up toward Phoenix.

Upon weaving our way through traffic and construction we made it to Phoenix and picked up Preston!

Your adventure is not complete without Beaver the balloon!

You can feel the intensity and excitement in the air!
Lunch time! We decided to stop in Jerome for lunch, and man was it a good call!
After lunch, we picked up our first plotted trail system and didn't see pavement for the rest of the day.

John's bad ass FJ/adventure trailer setup.

Someday I plan to travel the entire length of this trail (Canada to Mexico). It was neat that we were able to travel part of such a historic trail.

Preston decided it would be funny to place this cow pie on my seat during a break.

Colorful Lizard!

Finally reaching the cool stuff. The nice thing about living in Arizona is you can experience the desert heat and cooler mountain temperature all in the same day.

Our camp was situated right on the rim of the canyon!

John's setup and my setup.

In contrast, Preston and Kirsten's sleeping quarters. Looks like someone forgot to bring a rainfly!

Once camp was setup we spent some time chatting and admiring our location before dinner.

Dueling chefs!

Then it was time for Cigar's and Knob Creek! Nothing but trouble....

L.E.D. light madness! Hey, you need to be able to see in the dark, right!? This proved to be an excellent upgrade to the interior lighting system in the cruiser.

I was greeted by Preston, and what seemed like a team of camera men the minute I opened my tent door the next morning.

We ate breakfast, put on our packs and went for a hike along the rim. You can see the Cruiser along the rim as we leave camp. Pretty cool....

John and Caryl blazing through the trail!

Such vision he has for things.... Who would have ever thought to climb this?

After completing the hike we ate lunch and parted ways from John and Caryl, who needed to get back to Tucson.

Packed up and ready to continue on with our journey.

On our way out we saw these Deer.
Another great photo by Preston

Then we came across these little guys. We must have spent 15-20 mintues staring at them as they went from hole to hole.

Beautiful canyon along our route.

Mud encounter!

Passing through Sedona during a short stint of pavement driving between routes.

Filling up in Cottonwood. I was taking pictures while Preston did all the work!

Picking up our next overland route, which would prove the most challenging. It's already getting dark and we aren't even close to our destination...

Getting darker.....

And darker.....

It finally got dark as we transfered from one trail system to another and began our ascent up the next set of mountains. Along this route we encountered a small bump in the road... Our navigation skills must have been suffering from the exhaustion (15 hours of driving) and lack of food as we took a wrong turn up a steep, loose, rocky and narrow trail. Part way up this trail, things began to look a little sketchy. This section was pratically as wide as the cruiser. To the left was a rock wall, to the right was a cliff, and in the middle a small water fall ran down the rock wall and through the road off the cliff. With it being dark, everyone tired, and having taken a wrong turn this was the last thing we wanted to deal with. So, after passing through this section twice while wearing gold plated diapers we were back on our route and on our way to camp.

We finally made it into camp at 9:30pm! Cooking Spanish rice and Ahi Tuna. It was delicious!

Happy campers after the excellent meal... I'm not looking for any sponsors, but that's me holding a New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale. To put it simply, it will take your breath away as it did mine....

The next moring we woke up, and I made breakfast burritos.

Packing up once again and ready to take off on yet another intense overland route.

Cow encounter... The vegetation along this route was interesting. Interesting soon turned into even more interesting as we found ourselves traversing through a steep, narrow, and tight canyon with low slung brush and trees. You almost felt as though you were in the jungle it was so lush. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of this section as we were so focused on getting the Cruiser out of it without too much damage...
Sign of civilization!

Nice mature pines as we make our way to our lunch spot in the small mountain town of Crown King.

Similar to the canyon in lushness factor, that we had to traverse through earlier.

Reaching our destination in Crown King.

Lunch was great in Crown King, and we slowly made our way down from the mountain back into the hustle and bustle. I must say that this was one of the best trips I have been on. A special thank you should go out to Caryl and John for being part of this trip. Your company was so amazing! We wish we had it during the more challenging and remote parts of the trip! I also must thank Preston for his Photography and Navigation skills. There is no way I would have been able to shoot as many of the amazing pictures that he did while driving! Preston also kept us on course (for the most part), and we always found our way as a result. Kirsten added humor and light heartedness during camp. It was good to see her out after her serious car accident.

We saw an intense amount of wildlife. Aside from the pictures, we also saw Elk and a Mountain Lion. Both of which, at different times ran across the road in front of us! I look forwad to returning to these places, and hopefully accomplishing the same route with the same people plus some additional vehicles! Stay tuned for the Mt. Graham trip....