New River Canyon/Sheep Bridge

[Guardrail 1]

I loaded the kids and my stuff into Big Jake this weekend and headed up I-17 to Table Mesa Rd to run New River Canyon. That was my first time there. The trail was pretty easy, only requiring 4wd in a couple of spots. Nothing technical, just steep. I took a right on FR 17 and headed to the top of the mesa. I hoped the road was going to smooth out once I got to the top, but it didn't appear to be, so I turned around and headed back down. Have to check out the views another time.

 

When we got to FR 37, we went down to check out the river there. The lone shade tree was occupied, and we didn't have time to explore further, so we turned around and continued up FR 41.

 

When we got to FR 24 (7 Springs Rd.) we took a left and headed out towards Bloody Basin Rd. We took a right there and went down to Tangle Creek where we stopped for a late lunch. Met a couple of guys with Jeeps there waiting for some friends with a flat bed because they had damaged the suspension of one of their jeeps on the Red Creek trail. They had managed to limp it back to this excellent little area.

 

From there, we headed down to the Sheep Bridge. After a decent look around, we forded the river and headed for Horseshoe with the intention of fording just below the dam and heading out on Horseshoe Lake Rd. When we got there, it was running too high to ford. Some guys had done it earlier in the day, but I'm thinking they had opened the gates at the dam some by the time we got there. One of the channels was above waist deep and running VERY fast. I wasn't going to try that!

 

It was now after 6:00 p.m. We were forced to turn around and head back out past the Sheep Bridge and out through 7 Springs. Got a flat tire on the way and had to change it in the dark, but made it home alive, ready for another adventure.

 

You can see pics and one video of us crossing the Verde here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.165165476976659.1073741829.100004496228452&type=1

 

and here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=165169240309616&set=vb.100004496228452&type=3&theater

[gcdaz 5]

Really nice pictures Brian. I was wondering where the ford and the hot springs were in relation to the bridge. Sounds like it turned into a whole adventure. Thanks for the write up.

[Guardrail 1]

Really nice pictures Brian. I was wondering where the ford and the hot springs were in relation to the bridge. Sounds like it turned into a whole adventure. Thanks for the write up.

 

Thank You!

 

The ford is almost directly under the bridge, just on the upstream side. You can see it in this photo:

 

 

The ford is in the shallow water to the right of the bridge where the people are wading. The hot spring is in the reed thicket on the right side of the photo. Right near the north (right side in the photo) end of the ford, there is a trail through the reeds that goes right to it.

[matt@expaz 2]

Nice! We did almost the same exact trail a year or two ago, sans the crossing of the river by Sheep Bridge. We looked for the ford downstream (the one that isn't anymore) and didn't find anything acceptable. There was one possible spot that we tires going across, but it was really deep there and I didn't see any exit more than 100 yards from shore. We also never saw the hot springs, I didn't know about it until AFTER the trip :-(.

 

It's a LONG trip out from Sheep Bridge. It sounds like you got your flat about the same location as I got my transmission temp gauge warning light on. Love the pictures and video of you making the crossing. Somewhere I've got a reference to a phone number you can call to see when they are opening the dams to know when the water will be high or low. If I find it, I'll post it.

[theksmith 5,778]

check this out:

 

http://www.watershedmonitor.com/contentView.aspx?DT=2&KW=WW_LwrVerde

 

i don't know what an acceptable flow rate getting through any of the legal Verde crossing is. the CFS doesn't tell you a ton by itself. it all depends on the width of the river at a given location as to what "a lot" of flow would be.

 

i guess you could note the flow rate before heading out to a spot and then you would have a mental picture from then on as to what that particular CFS looks like in that spot.

[Guardrail 1]

Nice! We did almost the same exact trail a year or two ago, sans the crossing of the river by Sheep Bridge. We looked for the ford downstream (the one that isn't anymore) and didn't find anything acceptable. There was one possible spot that we tires going across, but it was really deep there and I didn't see any exit more than 100 yards from shore. We also never saw the hot springs, I didn't know about it until AFTER the trip :-(.

 

It's a LONG trip out from Sheep Bridge. It sounds like you got your flat about the same location as I got my transmission temp gauge warning light on. Love the pictures and video of you making the crossing. Somewhere I've got a reference to a phone number you can call to see when they are opening the dams to know when the water will be high or low. If I find it, I'll post it.

Thank You! I got my flat at about mile marker 16 on 7 Springs Road. Didn't have a flashlight either, had to use the ambient light from the headlights. Got it changed though in maybe 20 mins.

 

I actually found the ford on Google Earth. I was looking for it downstream where it used to be, but stumbled across it when checking it out after you wrote your story at your website. That was the "Where in Arizona Am I" that I won. That prompted me to have a good look around. If you look really close, you can see it on G.E.

 

BTW, Thanks K, I'll check that out. When I was younger, my Dad used to keep track of that flow below Horseshoe. If I remember right, we could ford it on his 4-trax 4x4 if it was below about 1,100 CFS. Anything above that and it was too high. But that was 28 snow melts ago, and that ford has changed A LOT since then.

[Guardrail 1]

check this out:

 

http://www.watershedmonitor.com/contentView.aspx?DT=2&KW=WW_LwrVerde

 

i don't know what an acceptable flow rate getting through any of the legal Verde crossing is. the CFS doesn't tell you a ton by itself. it all depends on the width of the river at a given location as to what "a lot" of flow would be.

 

i guess you could note the flow rate before heading out to a spot and then you would have a mental picture from then on as to what that particular CFS looks like in that spot.

 

Interesting, I just checked that and it doesn't show the flow out of Horseshoe. Or at least I didn't see it. It said Horseshoe was at 29% capacity and Bartlett was at 100%, but it didn't show the flow between the two. Am I missing something?

[Russ Chung 54]

Interesting, I just checked that and it doesn't show the flow out of Horseshoe. Or at least I didn't see it. It said Horseshoe was at 29% capacity and Bartlett was at 100%, but it didn't show the flow between the two. Am I missing something?

I don't see it either in the watershedmonitor.com site

It does show on the Salt River Project site: http://www.srpwater.com/dwr/ click the link to go to the "Reservoir release" section of the report. On April 24, it was 375 cfs.

[Guardrail 1]

I don't see it either in the watershedmonitor.com site

It does show on the Salt River Project site: http://www.srpwater.com/dwr/ click the link to go to the "Reservoir release" section of the report. On April 24, it was 375 cfs.

 

Yup, that one's pretty good. I checked the release from Horseshoe from Sunday and Monday, it was the same 375 CFS. Hmmm. Maybe I tried to ford at the wrong place? Maybe I was just chicken? Anybody got any insight about this ford?

[Guardrail 1]

Attempted to ford in a Dodge; unsuccessful.

 

Ended up having to Dodge the ford.