- Joined
- Mar 12, 2004
- Posts
- 2,647
- Reaction score
- 1,043
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.
The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
- Thread starter mosesburb
- Start date
lectric80
3/4 ton status
I've always wanted to run some of the old 66, good to know so much of it still exists south of me. 
Always love seeing updates to this thread, whether trip updates or repairs/upgrades.
And, I'm taking your advice, although on a smaller scale for now, we are planning some day trips and hopefully some longer trips this year in the new 4Runner. First one is this Sat, going to go looking for an old mining settlement from the turn of the century. Should make for a nice test of the 4x4 and give the kids some fun stuff to talk about.
Always love seeing updates to this thread, whether trip updates or repairs/upgrades.And, I'm taking your advice, although on a smaller scale for now, we are planning some day trips and hopefully some longer trips this year in the new 4Runner. First one is this Sat, going to go looking for an old mining settlement from the turn of the century. Should make for a nice test of the 4x4 and give the kids some fun stuff to talk about.
Man Im always jealous of your adventures, you've got to share how to get to all these places here in AZ you go to so I can go have fun!
Quoted as the truth
Thanks guys!! Glad you enjoy them too!!
Whatever happened to the "We The People" decal on the windshield? Did that disappear after the hail damage episode? It looked neat while it was there...
It stayed on the busted-ass windshield when it came out. I have some more here, but I have been going through windshields like they are free since then, so I haven't put one back on yet.
I've always wanted to run some of the old 66, good to know so much of it still exists south of me.
Thanks!! Stay tuned, there are plenty to go through here.
Sounds great!! Post up some pics so we can ride along too
.Thanks!!
As far as what route to take to get there, it is usually just run-of-the-mill roads. If you need specific directions shoot me a PM, but not much of what I post is very difficult to find on a map. There is a book called Backcountry Adventures: Arizona. That is a great book with a lot of excellent information and trail ratings so you can determine whether your skill level and vehicle equipment will allow safe passage. There are some great map programs available for laptops/notebooks and even smartphones. I usually don't rely solely upon that type of equipment, but it is very handy when it all functions correctly. The USFS maps are probably the best maps to have to show roads and also whether a road that is there is actually open. That is sometimes the hardest thing to figure out is whether the roads are still allowed to be used.
I didn't realize there was that much of the old Route 66 left, that's cool. Northern Arizona is so beautiful, I love all the history and scenery.
As always, your suburban and the trips you take it on are awesome and make me want to finish mine asap. Keep it up, maybe we'll meet out there someday.
As always, your suburban and the trips you take it on are awesome and make me want to finish mine asap. Keep it up, maybe we'll meet out there someday.
There is some of Route 66 left in the very Souteast corner of Kansas.
Martin
Martin
There is a lot of it left in Az... Most of it renamed SR66. According to this >http://www.national66.org/resources/faq/... Still 85% driveable!
http://www.national66.org/resources/faq/ said:
Does this mean that some sections of the road are no longer open to the public, or simply that a Prius won't get you there?
I'm thinking it means the second option. If so, it'd be a fun trip to drive the length of it in something that's not an "ordinary car." 
I've been on sections near Seligman and Kingman (where it crosses I-40), but only for a few miles at a time (unless you count the sections that are underneath I-40).There you go making the bucket list longer again!
Does this mean that some sections of the road are no longer open to the public, or simply that a Prius won't get you there?
There you go making the bucket list longer again!
Definitely lots of old abandoned sections not accessible by "ordinary cars". Lots of Prius stuff too...
Funny, the last time we met, yours was running and mine wasn't. Glad to be a motivational force to finish a project
.There is quite a bit spread throughout its entire length. Some states have more than others. Ironically, I found myself on an old unmarked stretch of 66 in rural Illinois a bunch of years ago. We're rolling north out of Chenoa heading toward Pontiac, IL, and I'm looking at the surroundings, type of road we're on, the layout of the lanes etc. and thought to myself that it HAD to be an old stretch of 66. When we got to where we were going I pulled out my map and looked at it and it was obvious on paper that it was the old alignment we had been running on that had been bypassed by I-55 years ago. That was my first introduction to old 66. Now I know when I was younger I traveled some here and there, but paid no mind to it as it was just another road, but recognizing that piece in Illinois piqued an interest in the historic angle of the highway and I found myself running it whenever I could justify it. It has character that the "sanitary" interstates could never muster.
Thanks again, man!! I see an odd location under your name. Did you finally pull off the move??
Does this mean that some sections of the road are no longer open to the public, or simply that a Prius won't get you there?
There you go making the bucket list longer again!
Not really. Most of the 66 that I have been on, regardless of state, can be driven in most any vehicle. By not being the fastest or most direct comes from being broken up in its alignment by the interstate highways that "replaced" it. In many areas the grade of 66 was so ideal the engineers simply tore it up and laid down the interstate. In other areas, they moved the interstate off of the 66 grade by a hundred yards or a couple/few miles. Oftentimes this was caused by access to properties along 66. Say you have a house or business on 66 and the new highway comes through. If your house or business doesn't get dozed by eminent domain, then access to the property must be provided. In many cases it was easier to shift the grade of the new interstate over a bit and use the old grade of 66 as a frontage road or an access road. It already exists. It goes where you need it to go. Just leave it be and build your new road over there instead. Done and done.
What this leaves you with is a lot of the original road that can not be driven on it one continuous shot. It's all good road, just not all connected together. As far as being accessible by Prius?? I would have no idea for sure as I have never been in one (or plan to be...
)
This was a trip we ran the day after Thanksgiving 2012. Our friend Bill from Colorado (the guy with the white Ramcharger from our UT/CO trip) was coming down (with is dad too) to bring a 6.2L to my buddy Lance for his Suburban. It was agreed that some sort of run needed to be made while he was here. Lance put together a route and got a few of us together. It was a rather odd group of vehicles--one that I'm sure has never been assembled before or since. We had my '72 Suburban, Lance's '70 Suburban, Bill's Dodge with a 24V Cummins, another friend of ours Waymon with his Lexus GX470 and another friend Rou with another Lexus GX470. Yep, two three door Suburbans, two Lexus GX470's and a reliable Dodge, all in one group.
So we set out Friday morning heading east out of town. Our first stop was they Boyce Thompson Arboretum. It is a really neat place with thousands of different types of vegetation to look at. I took a bunch of pictures of that, but figured if someone was interested, it would do them more good to just go to their website https://arboretum.ag.arizona.edu/ and take a virtual tour if they were interested. We spent some time there and then headed on toward Superior. Superior, Miami and Globe are mining towns from the way back. Massive amounts of copper have been pulled from the ground in and around these towns for well over a hundred years. Along the way, I recall that there is an overlook of an open pit operation south of Superior so I suggested it and it garnered enough interest that we decided to venture down and check it out. While passing through Superior, off in the distance, an old smelter site is visible (the tall smokestack and pile of black slag are good visual clues):
We turn south at Superior and head down 177 to a road that takes you into the viewing area. We stopped and had lunch here while watching the massive haul trucks go from point A to point B and back. Absolutely amazing how large this site is. One thing I failed to do was a series of pics to stitch together into a panoramic. This is about the best pic I have of what we saw:
It would take probably about ten to fifteen pictures just like this to encompass the entire site that is visible from the overlook. In that picture, if you look at the telephone pole in the middle of the pic, then look about halfway down the pole on the right side, there is a shovel and a massive haul truck in the pic. They look like dots from our vantage point.
So we packed up and headed back up the road to Superior and then headed over toward Miami and through Globe. We continued on 60 until we started dropping into the Salt River Canyon:
This is a very scenic area that is very striking when first approaching it. After reaching the bottom we pulled off onto a trail that heads back west. Very shortly after that we were greeted with the river that is the namesake of the canyon; The Salt River:
We would loosely parallel the Salt for the first part of our journey. A view from a little further down the road:
And again:
As I understand it, the white bluffs in about the center of the picture, are the source of the salinity that gives the Salt River its characteristic name:
More nice scenery:
A neat little pool near a fording we had:
Getting toward the end of the day. The desert really comes alive with the contrast of light and shadow. A view off to the south near where we camped for the night:
So we set up camp near the river. Bill cooked us some of his insanely tasty fried chicken and we sat around and watched a video on a projection screen of some cats back in the 30's taking reliable Dodges across Africa (I think it was). Really neat video and it makes you think of what we "need" today to do what they did with cars back then. Stay tuned for the next installment!!
So we set out Friday morning heading east out of town. Our first stop was they Boyce Thompson Arboretum. It is a really neat place with thousands of different types of vegetation to look at. I took a bunch of pictures of that, but figured if someone was interested, it would do them more good to just go to their website https://arboretum.ag.arizona.edu/ and take a virtual tour if they were interested. We spent some time there and then headed on toward Superior. Superior, Miami and Globe are mining towns from the way back. Massive amounts of copper have been pulled from the ground in and around these towns for well over a hundred years. Along the way, I recall that there is an overlook of an open pit operation south of Superior so I suggested it and it garnered enough interest that we decided to venture down and check it out. While passing through Superior, off in the distance, an old smelter site is visible (the tall smokestack and pile of black slag are good visual clues):
We turn south at Superior and head down 177 to a road that takes you into the viewing area. We stopped and had lunch here while watching the massive haul trucks go from point A to point B and back. Absolutely amazing how large this site is. One thing I failed to do was a series of pics to stitch together into a panoramic. This is about the best pic I have of what we saw:
It would take probably about ten to fifteen pictures just like this to encompass the entire site that is visible from the overlook. In that picture, if you look at the telephone pole in the middle of the pic, then look about halfway down the pole on the right side, there is a shovel and a massive haul truck in the pic. They look like dots from our vantage point.
So we packed up and headed back up the road to Superior and then headed over toward Miami and through Globe. We continued on 60 until we started dropping into the Salt River Canyon:
This is a very scenic area that is very striking when first approaching it. After reaching the bottom we pulled off onto a trail that heads back west. Very shortly after that we were greeted with the river that is the namesake of the canyon; The Salt River:
We would loosely parallel the Salt for the first part of our journey. A view from a little further down the road:
And again:
As I understand it, the white bluffs in about the center of the picture, are the source of the salinity that gives the Salt River its characteristic name:
More nice scenery:
A neat little pool near a fording we had:
Getting toward the end of the day. The desert really comes alive with the contrast of light and shadow. A view off to the south near where we camped for the night:
So we set up camp near the river. Bill cooked us some of his insanely tasty fried chicken and we sat around and watched a video on a projection screen of some cats back in the 30's taking reliable Dodges across Africa (I think it was). Really neat video and it makes you think of what we "need" today to do what they did with cars back then. Stay tuned for the next installment!!
That looks like a cool trip, is this the trail you are talking about:
Yeah, that's the trail we are on in this part of the journey. If you go there, keep in mind you will be on San Carlos Apache Indian land so access fees will be charged. I forget exactly how much they were, but I do remember they weren't cheap.
Oh, ok. Do you pay for that there or at a station some where?
There is a little information shack type thing there where you put your money in a receptacle. It's all on the honor system, but if you get caught out there without having paid, you are on THEIR land and you are a subject to THEIR laws and courts. Now that I think about it, I think I am wrong on the tribe. I think when you cross the Salt River right there, you leave The San Carlos Apache land and enter White Mountain Apache land on the other side. Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure I was wrong initially.
What this leaves you with is a lot of the original road that can not be driven on it one continuous shot. It's all good road, just not all connected together. As far as being accessible by Prius?? I would have no idea for sure as I have never been in one (or plan to be...
I was using that as a stereotypical nice-road-only vehicle. The kind you never take to fun places.
The original question was about whether the road is physically gone/inaccessible or simply unfriendly to "normal vehicles." It sounds like the sections still there are pretty nice, just hard to drive sequentially due to the newer roads criss-crossing everything. Sounds like an invitation for a road trip...
Yup! End of November. Really wanted a Cummins on that trip over... 30,000 lbs+ and 3mpg
Wow!! Like Sanford and Son gone mobile. How many trips did it take??
3 gooseneck loads so far. 2 more sometime this year. (Parked 2 burbs and pickup bed trailers at a friends house east of Flag) Actually typing this at my in-laws in Tempe. Taking a boat we inherited home, not on my original move itinerary.
Oh, and my rental house in Mo. is 2.5 miles south of Rte 66...
3 gooseneck loads so far. 2 more sometime this year. (Parked 2 burbs and pickup bed trailers at a friends house east of Flag) Actually typing this at my in-laws in Tempe. Taking a boat we inherited home, not on my original move itinerary.
That's not too bad considering the sheer volume you had going on there. Sell off some of that rust-free sheetmetal when you get there to pay for fuel.
Ha!! You trying to get me to make an appearance again?? LOL!! The lure of the mother road was just too great for you.
