Yuha Day Trip 

surfponto

Administrator

Posts: 1364

Took a day trip with the dog out to Yuha Desert.
I had wanted to get out to the Shell Beds since I was a kid and a friend gave me some fossil oysters. Figured I would swing by the Crucifixion Thorn Wilderness Area and then head out to the shell beds from the 98, maybe catch the geoglyphs etc., end up at the Dunaway exit and head out to Superstition Mt. area to visit some friends camping out there.
I have driven past the sign for the Crucifixion Thorn area a bunch of times and the map shows a campground, so I wanted to check it out. Not what I pictured, and may have been nicer in the past + it turns out the Crucifixion Thorns are right by the road anyway....
Heavy USBP presence but they were very friendly.
Forgot my map of the Yuha trails (turns out the maps are not that accurate, at least for me) It was fun, but the deep power sucking sand is not easy in our little samurai.
Made it to the shell beds, but I think many of the trails are sort of washed out or have meandered around. It was fun, but I want to go back and explore a little more when I have time to spare.
Pics and captions are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111004590236580500907/albums/5820349641107685665?authkey=CJbLg4X675j_Lg

Dave

PS one of the wind turbines was spinning on the way down, slowly and maybe just for show since the newspaper article said they were powering up. Also noticed on the way home in the dark that each tower has a blinking red light on top and a bunch of them blink in unison. All night long.....

tommy750

Posts: 1049

Most of the area is "limited use" which means you need to stay on the designated trails and have a street legal vehicle. However a couple of the larger trails are "open" which I think means anything goes, but not sure, you may want to double check with BLM.

Here are the only 2 readable maps I was able to find.

tommy750

Posts: 1049

Yuha Basin / Bluffs brings back so many memories, it has always been mystical / magical, at least to me. First went there in early sixties when I was young, hiked most of the basin, the well (had water in the casings then), concretion and mud hills, pebble terraces with agate, quartz, jasper, petrified wood and palm, and of course the shell beds. Walking the bluffs there were 5 to 6 foot cleared circles, desert varnish heavy on the repositioned rocks, been that way for at least centuries, cannot remember if the geoglyphs were even known or fenced, but do not remember a fence. Melting old adobes were at the turn off road from highway into Yuha, by Coyote wash a few wattle and daub adobes also slowly melting.

Picked up a wrecked Datsun 1200 fastback in 1970, bought a wrecked counterpart (rear end damage) and welded them together, a couple of lift shackles and it was off road, all of Yuha was open, air out of the tires, R's kept up to 3k or over and went everywhere, never got stuck (what a lucky stupid kid I was) In the early 70's it was one of the off road places to be, very crowded on weekends, Yuha even served as a short course off road race track, I was there on the first Honda three wheeler and the place was being ruined, I stayed on the roads and would almost fall off and wreck a couple of times because I was looking at rocks and or plants, look there is desert holley, 'crash" look arrow weed, petrified wood, crash crash crash, I was not that good on a three wheeler.

It was easy to get lost in Yuha even after having been there a hundred times, but you could climb a bluff and always see the bunker, get your bearings, Bunker has been gone for a long time. My kids learned how to ride (on three wheelers) in Yuha, always went on destination rides, never understood making "tracks" like a hamster on a wheel, what is the purpose. By then a pipe corral had been put up around the bluff geoglyph but there was a hill climb diectly to the East and behind the enclosure, and the morons got in, I do not known how many times my family and I put boulders at the base of the hill climb, to try and block off the #%*!%& who had to destroy everything. I knew it would be closed to ORV's eventually and I agreed.

Stopped going in early 80's, kids almost grown and interested in other things, been back once or twice since. Why no one is there now has alot to do with the un-checked illegal immigrants entry, when the US economy was good, I understand campers, motorhomes left un-attended, while you took a ride, were often broken into.

Glad to see people going back, probably never camp there again, but a day trip is great,



Wow, what a great recollection of the Yuha area. My first trip there was this past August after the big storm. Was the only vehicle out there and the place looked fairly pristine considering how our deserts go. In view of your description of the past use, looks like it may bounce back. Except the geoglyphs which are so trashed it makes you want to cry. Thanks for sharing. Tom

AdventureGraham

Posts: 170

That looks like a cool loop. (I assume you did the blue highlighted route) Do you think my F350 and camper could make it through?

anutami

Posts: 491

I stayed on the roads and would almost fall off and wreck a couple of times because I was looking at rocks and or plants, look there is desert holley, 'crash" look arrow weed, petrified wood, crash crash crash, I was not that good on a three wheeler.

.

anutami

Posts: 491

Nolan (anutami) wrote:

Here is a recent video on my MTB trip to the goat canyon trestle looking at all the old railroad material and not looking where I was going. I clipped my front tire on the railroad tracks! Good thing I did not do this over the edge of the cliff!

[hijack thread] That is a cool spot to! Did you go check out the abandoned tunnel there? This tunnel ends quickly and has no supports in it [/hijack thread]

Hijack thread continues...Sorry..

Daren, had to check it out, but didn't venture too far... we almost have the same photo