Our last trip to Alamo Lake was an almost entirely new adventure. Yeah, we went to some of the same places but this trip was all about exploring new trails from our lake side campsite.
Mark read about The Arizona Peace Trail and wanted to check it out. Turns out, Alamo Lake is almost in the very center of it.
The Arizona Peace Trail began in 2013 as a joint venture between BLM and AZ Game & Fish. lots of trails, old mining roads that they connected between Bullhead City in the north and Yuma in the south. By January 2014, the team had recruited 14 different OHV clubs who together with the support of BLM, AZGFD, Yuma County, La Paz County, and Mohave County would form the Arizona Peace Trail, Inc. The Arizona Peace Trail, Inc. gained official non-profit status in July 2015. Their mission is to develop, maintain, and promote one of the nations premier OHV trail systems.
Mark bought the Peace Trail book and used it as our guide for this trip. There are miles and miles of the trails, some are widely traveled dirt roads every car can use while others require a Jeep or Side-by-Side and careful navigation. We encountered both kinds on our trip.
As soon as we set up camp, we hit the trails. We went to the area we call Wall Canyon, hoping to get farther into it. No luck, we were stopped in the same spot as earlier trips. It still is such a pretty trail though, I like going each and every time we are there. We also still stopped at the Wayside Inn in the afternoon. It’s a cute little place with great beer prices and a very clean bathroom.
Mark spent some serious map time on the Polaris Ride Command App during his hotel downtime on work trips. This place called Swansea intrigued him. It looked like we could get there from the campground but he wanted to be sure. He also found that we could get all the way to Desert Bar near Parker. We’ve been to Desert Bar several times but never via Alamo Lake. It would be a very long ride and Mark was a little concerned about gas. If the trail was easy and we could go relatively fast then we would be okay. If it was rocky or had steep climbs, then we might need to carry extra gas with us. We also wanted to have a ride where we could go somewhere for lunch. Alamo Lake is very remote with nothing close so riding to Wikieiup for lunch could be a fun little adventure. The camp host for C Loop was a very nice and helpful man. He and Mark talked for a long time upon our arrival about Mark’s ride ideas. He told Mark that yes, we could get to Swansea and that it was a great ride. Yeah. Now we just needed to decide yes or no on Desert Bar and Wikieup.
This trip we also planned to get across the river! There had been no big rain storms that poured water in the lake like our first trip.
Swansea is a ghost town literally in the middle of nowhere. It dates to 1907, before Arizona was even a state. It was a large copper mining operation that stopped in 1924. At the time, the cost to process the ore was more expensive than copper was selling for. There are several buildings in various conditions still standing. A restoration looks to be underway as we saw several signs designating what the buildings and/or foundations were and some were fenced off.
The ride there was fun. We left from the campground and headed down the big wash toward Wayside Inn and hung a right on a wide dirt road. We zipped along this for a bit before making another right. The camp host gave Mark an alternative route which consisted of turn right on the big dirt road, pass the second set of power lines and turn right onto the trail that has a big pipe running along the trail. Turn again on the trail with the little pipe. Go to a transformer looking thing and turn left to Swansea. I think these are the best kind of directions. We didn’t encounter any wild burros on the trail but did see the first of many cows for the trip as almost all of the area we rode is an open range for cattle.
We turned on the trail with the pipe and went up and over a little mountain. It was a chilly day and you could feel the temperature drop as we climbed. We stopped at the top of one mountain for a potty break, someone in our group has a teeny tiny bladder. I didn’t mind because the views were vast. It was a clear day so we could see for miles. It also gave Mark a chance to double-check our directions.
After we turned on the trail with the little pipe running along, we crossed many washes. Up and down we went over hills, crossing washes then up the other side hill that reminded me of a roller coaster. As we came down one hill toward a good sized wash, we noticed a car smack in the middle. My first thought was someone needed help until we got closer. The car had clearly been there a while because of the debris around the tires. We checked to make sure it was empty then continued on our way, with a picture of this car named General Brad Lee.
As we got close we could see Swansea up on the left. We turned at the transformer looking thing and made our way up the hill. It was a big operation in its day. There were a lot of buildings still standing, or at least parts of buildings. We also found many mine shafts that had been covered for safety. It was hard to see just how deep the holes were, they were very wide across the opening which told me they were very deep. We dropped a rock and timed until we heard it hit but how do you know if the rock is hitting the side or the bottom. It was a faint ping so we all surmised the rock hit way down deep.
We walked around looking at the old buildings and reading signs the State Park System erected. While we walked we talked about what it was like for the people who lived and worked there. Can you imagine that harsh environment with no air conditioning?
Our next stop was going to be somewhere on the other side of the river. We just had to find a trail. There were many trails on our app that got close to the river. The key was finding one that got close enough so we could see the trail on the other side. We went down another fun wash with really tall walls. As we zipped through I told Mark that I’d like to sit on the top of a wall during a storm and watch the water run through. As we got closer to the river the terrain changed from barren desert to really green trees and several ponds. We went ahead to find a path across the river but came back with sad faces as this was not the spot. It was a fun detour nonetheless. We eventually made it across and wound around on a fun trail until we found the waters’ edge on this side of the lake. As we stood at the edge of the water, you could see the different camping loops of the campground across the lake. We took a very silty trail across the top of the lake where the river empties in. We were not going to use that trail in the morning, for sure.
Our last day was going to be another completely new trail, we were heading up to Wikieup for lunch. If you’ve ever driven from Phoenix to Las Vegas, you’ve gone through Wikieup on State Route 93. After talking about Desert Bar, we decided going somewhere with a gas station was probably better.
Thank goodness the trail picked up on the other side of the lake in a different spot! We went the long way, by the old house along the river and through the tree covered trail. There wasn’t a full canopy of leaves but there were more than our first time riding through. This crossing was a lot more fun. The sand was much harder packed so we didn’t fight sinking with every turn. The water was just wide enough to make a splash and splash we did. There was a group of people stopped on the bank so of course Mark gunned it as we hit the water. I was not ready for the cold water splashing and squealed rather loudly. Everyone behind us had a good laugh at that. I hoped we were coming back at this same spot because I wanted to get video of the splash crossing.
The trail was narrow with some branches flicking in the RZR as we drove by. Suddenly a rusted out bus appeared on our left. We were not expecting that. After that, it opened up into a series of trails and washes until we reached a well-groomed dirt road. We skirted several mountains with interesting rock formations along the way to that groomed road. To me, this one looked like person’s face with their hands folded together. Mark said I was crazy. What do you see?
We were looking for a ghost town when we stumbled across an old cemetery. Each grave was covered in rocks, some with dried flowers tucked in. Some had plain white crosses and others had detailed headstones. There was even a WWII veteran. The most recent burial with a date was 1998. I love the stories old cemeteries tell. This one told the story of a local family with many relatives buried here. The sign outside the fenced area reads: Maintained by the American Motorcycle Club.
After the cemetery, we were on this groomed dirt road for a while and it wasn’t very exciting. “Boring” came over our rugged radio several times. This was all part of the adventure, guys. A right turn that went up a mountain came just in time as I think a few in our group were ready to revolt. What goes up, comes down and we could see the town of Wikieup in front of us. Whew, no revolt.
We needed to break up the boringness of the well-groomed dirt road on our way back. We saw a mountain with a bunch of antennas on top and decided we needed to get up there. Trucks have to get up there so the road has to be good enough for the RZRs. Well, most of the time anyway. This little road was a short, steep trip to the top so it had several switchbacks. And, the road was deeply rutted from recent rains. It was quite the adventure both up and down.
Back down the boring dirt road we went, through the washes and along the mountainside trails. We soon passed the rusted out bus and were at the water crossing again. This was going to be fun. Mark radioed for the rest to hang back and after we crossed I got out to video the others coming through. Everyone made a big splash as they crossed. The videos are too big to add but you can catch them all on my Instagram page, mandmhittheroad. They are wild. Unlike our first trip to Alamo Lake, nobody got stuck.
Our last night around the campfire was filled with recounting the highlights and boring lights of the trip. We laughed at the crossing videos and of the sketchy road up to the cell tower. Matt brought out his portable speaker and talk soon turned to music. While I like the music, I really like reliving a trip around a campfire. I can’t wait until our next trip.
Once again a really fun trip and when we got to the river Gail told me to go ahead and “go for it” so I did and we both got soaked but still laughed all the way through.
Another really fun trip. When we did get to the river crossing Gail told me to “go for it” and so I did. We both got soaked but laughed (she squealed a little) all the way across. Loved it and all the other trail riding.