Ironwood Forest National Monument

I am thinking of reconning this area on one of the last two weekends of September. I'm looking for another vehicle or two to tag along. Since it's an exploratory run in a new area I think it's best if there's only a few vehicles.

More info about this BLM land can be found here. Highlights may include a some mines, native petroglyphs and ruins, old townsites, and nice backcountry. It's about 30 miles northwest of Tucson and will take a long day.

AzTacoma:

I am thinking of reconning this area on one of the last two weekends of September. I'm looking for another vehicle or two to tag along. Since it's an exploratory run in a new area I think it's best if there's only a few vehicles.

More info about this BLM land can be found here. Highlights may include a some mines, native petroglyphs and ruins, old townsites, and nice backcountry. It's about 30 miles northwest of Tucson and will take a long day.

 

 I'm always game for a little outdoor fun. Is an overnighter out of the question? Do some more of that VOODOO that you do and let me know about a possible date(s) that you are thinking about.

JD

Yeah, I've got some time constraints and would only be able to do a day... however, I would totally understand if you and the fam want to stay for the night. No biggie. Sept 21-22 or 27-28 are open for me and am willing to set the date on anyone's request, although I do prefer Saturdays.

Just to give some more insight of my "concept of operations" on this mission (sorry about the Army thinking), I'm looking to stay light and mobile while prepared for the contingencies that arise from reconnoitering an unfamiliar region. This is not a simple run down a single trail... There appears to be a bunch of roads sprawled out over a fairly large area and exploring it could be a little hectic. That's why I think it's best to keep it at 3-4 vehicles max.

I happened to pick up an Arizona Highways and there's a article on 12 endangered Arizona areas... and one of them was Ironwood. It seems it's only 8 years old, has no management plan, and is presided by a single park ranger... and it located near a large city (Tucson). It's not some fancy national park with a visitor center or much information on how to recreate responsibly. 

Vehicles from illegals and ATVs are taking a toll on the land. Pothunters pilfer old Indian remains. Shooters haul in junk to shoot, or worse yet, shoot up saguaros. This is the Catch-22 we face because we love backcountry wheeling and promote traveling in neat areas yet it seems the more people frequent these areas the more damage occurs. We can all judge the causes and effects but the fact is there are things we can do to help.

Between the dust abatement crap and all the other pressures and conflicts regarding off-road travel, it's all very demoralizing. I'm going to make a committment to myself to try and do more... I think we're at a crossroads and I plan on going down swinging. It may mean getting more active politically, or do more "policing" or trying to educate, or something... I don't know for sure. Two tangible things I do plan on doing immediately is always bring a garbage bag and picking up what I see (within reason) and arming myself with the relevant phone numbers of a particlar area so I can call in if I see anything happening... even if it's after the fact. 

I've always considered myself a fairly responsible outdoorsman, and the last thing I want to do is become some sniveling, finger-wagging enviro-nerd. But what are the alternatives? Lay down and die?

This is a sad post, almost wish I didn't come across it. Chris, you are an intelligent man, what can we do to help? I was thinking a sponsorship program with donations or even volunteer work?

I don't know much about the area, but Ironwoods take hundreds of years to grow and only exist ONLY in the Sonoran desert. The largest I have seen is just the remains of a dead Ironwood tree on my dad's property. He lives at the base of the Goldfield mountains just off, you guessed it - Ironwood Drive in Apache Junction. Lets survey the area and see if we can come up with a game plan.

Its amazing, our own representative don't give a *** unless is means loss of federal $$$!

 I can do 21-22nd of Sept.  I am in Tucson and would like to explore this area.  I am tenetive for those dates as long as nothing comes up of course.  Let me know.

Craig

Yeah, it's just a frustration post, not necessarily focused on Ironwood NM but just things in general. Between all the fires that seem to be happening over the years (on that note it looks like one of my favorite dove hunting areas went up in flames a few days ago) and all the land use and dust pollution issues, gas prices, and everything else working against wheeling Arizona's trailways these days, I'm feeling a little discouraged. I just thought it interesting that the article happened to mention that particular area which i'm planning on checking out.

BTW, he article also mentioned two other very cool areas that I've posted about here, fossil creek and the devil's canyon area. I knew when I went to fossil creek twice back in spring 'o7 that big troubles were gonna happen. That place is just tool cool, too accessible, and too unmanaged. Even before it became well-known I saw a ton of trash, excrement, tree breaking and vegetation trampling. It's not like I'm a huge fan of government regulation but I realized they would have to step in fast to save this place... things like established camping areas, trash bins, outhouses, and law pressence were sorely needed even before the deluge of people going started sweeping in. And the Oak Flat / Devil's Canyon area is a great area to wheel, hike, and take in some spectacular scenery but is pretty close to being completely shut off due to mining pressures.

As far as doing something ourselves, you're the prime mover around here when it comes to organizing and planning. We can talk offline about future possibilities, but sponsorship and volunteer work are solid ideas. It's not like I want to pressure or burden people with save-the-world BS... I was kinda thinking out loud about what I could do personally, but if it's something more than a few people might be into then we can see where it leads.

Craig, if Saturday Sept 20 works for you let's set that date for a probable launch. If anyone is interested lets try and firm up committments pretty soon so we can get our core and maybe an alternate or two.

  AZTacoma,

I can pencil in Sat. Sept 20th if this is still the date you are looking at.  I am actually off from thurs. Sept 18- to Wed. Sept 23. So, as long as we can get this settled soon, I can make that a play date.  I can also do that Sun as well, or just about any day in between for that matter.  Let me know.

Craig

Sept 20- in stone. Me, you, and 1-2 others. Expect a goodly amount of driving...It's a big area and I'd like to cover as much as possible in one pass.

I have not been able to find any sort of trip reports or anything about off-roading the monument, so as I mentioned before, it could be fairly disorganized. Expect dead-end/turn-arounds, random roads, and generally a lot of "unknown" factors along the way. I do have a topo program of the area and GPS, so it's not like we'll be lost, but it's just one of those trips where little is known beforehand. Kinda cool in a way, but not condusive to big, slow moving groups.

I forget, do you have a CB?

 Sounds cool, I don't have a CB but I do plan on getting one soon.  I am wanting one like Ryan has in his Jeep.  Anyone know where to get one locally around Tucson?  What kind of stores carry CB radios?  I haven't found any in places like Best buy or circuit city.  I am looking forward to this one.

Craig

Craig- I'll post some info in the Hardware forum for you on CB's. Ryan and the group helped me when I was looking around.

Coma

 Thanks, I ordered one with a fire stik and cable, should be here this week.  Anyone want to help me put it in and show me where to hook it up?  I will probably figure it out, but any pointers are appreciated.  Thanks.  Craig

06RubicAn:

 Thanks, I ordered one with a fire stik and cable, should be here this week.  Anyone want to help me put it in and show me where to hook it up?  I will probably figure it out, but any pointers are appreciated.  Thanks.  Craig

 Hey Craig,

I plan on changing over to a 75 from my 18 in the future as its more compact. When I do, I plan on using the hook up in the link below for how and where to hook up the Cobra 75.

http://www.4x4xplor.com/cb.html

JD

If you buy it using this link, you would be really cool!

 Ryan, I did use your link to purchase it, how does that work for you.  Hope you get a commission.