Arizona Run XVII

[r3dd0g]

Every year a local Nissan Group (although there weren't many Nissan's this year) does a week long trip through the Arizona wilderness. Last year we did the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, this year was the Mogollon Rim.

We started out up on top of 4 peaks. 15 trucks ended up being up there for night zero (the night before the run starts). Some of us were there for 2 nights, we just spent the whole day before the run relaxing at camp knowing we'd be running the rest of the week.

Drone shot:

3 of the rigs had just come up for the weekend, so the rest of us headed down to Tonto Basin to officially start the run.

We headed North from Tonto Basin across the desert and up towards Young. We eventually popped up onto the rim on the Young road and headed to our campsite for night one.
Somehow the only picture I have from this day is a drone shot of camp...

We headed out of camp the next morning towards an overlook on Chevelon Canyon Lake.

From there we headed North through Chevelon Canyon, then South down onto Promontory Butte for night 2's epic campsite.

 

[r3dd0g]

Fall colors were coming in nicely.

Camp

We headed out in the morning West across rim road 300 taking a couple loops North meandering through the forest

We stopped at Clint's Well for fuel then headed out towards Clear Creek. We stopped for a late lunch at a hiking trailhead for Clear Creek, some people hiked down, others headed towards camp. We decided to be lazy and headed to camp.

We headed West in the morning and started getting into the bumpy trails heading towards Camp Verde.

After we passed camp Verde we headed North by Wet Beaver Creek and on to our next campsite.

 

[r3dd0g]

We ended up making it through the bumpy section quicker than anticipated, so we got to camp pretty early. A few people headed into Camp Verde for supplies, the rest of us just relaxed at camp.

The campsite was close to Clear Creek Canyon, drone pictures showed how close to the canyon we were.

We headed out in the morning for more bumpy trails.

 

[r3dd0g]

We cruised across the bumpy high desert at a nice slow pace and ended up at camp back in the pines.

The next morning we headed North again towards Cow Lake and Lake Kinnikinik for a picnic.

After lunch we all loaded up and headed to our final campsite just North of HappyJack.

Happy, tired dogs after 8 days of camping.

 

[r3dd0g]

I've got quite a bit of drone footage that I need to process, then I'll get it uploaded to youtube and posted.

 

[r3dd0g]

Here's the first video from the first couple days. It's still processing on YouTube, but it will eventually be available in full 4K.

 

[Blazooki]

when you do the rooftop tent camping..where do the dogs hangout at night?

 

[Tweekls1]

Awesome pictures as always! Don't know why, but I really dig the old ford.

 

[r3dd0g]

when you do the rooftop tent camping..where do the dogs hangout at night?

They sleep in the truck.

 

[max 02]

Awesome pictures as always! Don't know why, but I really dig the old ford.

Me too! Seen the plate on the front of it. Wasn`t he a member on ck5 ?

 

[r3dd0g]

Nope, he's always been a Nissan guy. In fact he runs the biggest Nissan offroad forum out there. He just wanted something bigger, but he switches vehicles like most people change underwear.

 

[78K30]

Me too! Seen the plate on the front of it. Wasn`t he a member on ck5 ?

There is a guy on here that used to go by that name then he had it changed to Something that escapes me right now, had a sweet suburban build and a crew cab that I don’t think ever got finished.

Loved the trip report! That’s beautiful scenery that’d I’d love to experience someday

 

[83ChevyK5Blazer]

https://ck5.com/forums/threads/suburbicon-urban-escape-vehicle.317423/

If I remember right he was desert rat, then shortened it. He was building a sweet rig.

 

[r3dd0g]

Video number two. It's a time lapse of us setting up camp, nothing too exciting, but I like it. Eventually I'll get the rest of the video processed.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Was a pretty diverse group for being a 'Nissan' club.. Nice pics though!

 

[r3dd0g]

There were more Toyota's than Nissan's this year, but there's always a diverse group.

 

[r3dd0g]

There's an article up on fourwheeler.com from this trip now!

http://www.fourwheeler.com/events/1712-meandering-the-mogollon-exploring-backbone-of-arizona/