Smasher Canyon and Woodchute Trail Weekend Picture Thread

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

Here's a picture to get the thread started of Wayne at Smasher Canyon on Saturday:

 

 

It was a fun weekend of running one difficult trail and one moderate trail that was actually very easy up near Clarkdale and Jerome, AZ. If you have pictures you'd like to share please post them in this thread. Thanks everybody who came out to enjoy this adventure, without you, there would be no adventure!

[gearhead 468]

I had a great time even though I only ran the Woodchute trail. Here is a link to my pics: https://www.facebook.com/mike.harren.18/posts/10208034563536081

[theksmith 4,150]

Wayne was nice enough to give me a ride on Saturday since my new baby Jeep wasn't up to the task for SMASHER Canyon! then Diane and I ended up walking most of the trail and taking pictures.

 

 

Smasher starts off pretty quickly with some decent obstacles. Wayne and George made short work of most of them though.

 

 

Clifford's big nose...

 

 

...and climbing some medium sized boulders:

 

 

i think this pic is a great one of D and Clifford coming up the trail:

 

 

 

about mid way through Wayne got his driver front tire a good 3 foot in the air doing an optional climb... i was too slow with the camera to get the full air shot though!

 

 

coming off that obstacle requires a weird line that might drag diffs and rear bumper. your first instinct is to stay more driver, but that can flop you (so i hear).

 

 

G took one of the bypasses:

 

 

 

the entire area was made up of a white rock that we thought looked like some sort of strange white lava. i think it was a Limestone, but harder than what i'm used to with that.

 

 

Wayne had to move over a couple times on this seemingly "no big deal" spot - sometimes it's the little ones that get ya:

 

 

there were a few different types of flowers scattered near the trail. i thought these tiny purple ones were neat:

 

 

 

near the end are the 2 signature obstacles. first up was some sort of squeeze (i forgot the actual name for it):

 

 

Clifford raked his CB antenna mount a little coming out, but no major damage.

 

 

 

immediately after the narrow spot are a couple challenging climbs. Wayne spanked the first part...

 

 

...but afterwards he got "stuck between a rock and a hard place" on one of the more difficult lines:

 

 

fortunately there was a giant rock directly in front of him to winch to.

 

 

G took an alternate easier line that required a bunch of Austin Powers turns to get lined up for.

 

 

on Sunday we did the easy Woodchute Trail just up the hill past Jerome. there's a little spur to a lookout early one (running in the reverse direction like we did). you could see the San Francisco Peaks clearly in the distance - this was with a 4x zoom:

 

 

i also did a small pano. you can see Perkinsville Road and Clarkdale below us, and the Sedona red rocks in the distance.

 

[91AzXJ 2]

Those panoramic pics don't even look real. Nice job, thanks for sharing.

[jgaz 606]

Great pics! Thanks for posting them.

 

Did you do any side hikes off the Woodchute?

[theksmith 4,150]

Great pics! Thanks for posting them.

 

Did you do any side hikes off the Woodchute?

 

no, it was on Sunday and i think we all wanted to get home before late. we did take one spur that dead ended just short of the highway so we had to backtrack to the main trail.

 

is there something specific to hike to that you know of?

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

Sorry for the delay getting my pictures posted, life stuff got in my way.

 

Friday K met us in Clarkdale and we decided to go check out Tuzigoot on the way to camp. Lucky us, it was National Parks Week so we got in for FREE! There is a nice little museum and huge ruins as well as a very short hike to an overlook of a marsh.

 

From the top of Tuzigoot ruins you can see the museum building and the trail to the marsh overlook as well as Clifford and K's new Jeep in the parking lot:

 

 

Tuzigoot ruins:

 

 

Our chariots await with Jerome on the hill in the background:

 

 

We saw this big healthy snake on the way to camp, a perfect reminder to be watching where you step:

 

 

Camp was not very far from Tuzigoot, and we had views of Jerome, Sycamore Canyon, and a trestle of the Verde Canyon Railroad that spans the Verde River from our little knoll. Friday night Mr. & Mrs. Curly paid us a visit at camp in the Cherokee Chief they're restoring. Saturday morning stockjeep showed up, set up camp, and we all headed a short distance to run Smasher Canyon.

 

At the bottom of Smasher Jeep trail opposite from where you start out, there's a drop-off into a deeper part of the caynon:

 

 

My pictures are mostly repetitive of K's, but here are a few from Smasher:

 

 

 

 

 

Wayne (stockjeep) showing k the line he intends to take:

 

 

I missed the wheel up too because the tree blocked my view:

 

 

G trying to decide which line to take:

 

 

The trail briefly climbs out of the canyon and I managed to get a shot of Clifford on the trail and Wayne & K on top:

 

 

Going into the narrow section:

 

 

Kewl pic of Wayne's Jeep:

 

 

Special effects:

 

 

 

The easy exit ended up being super hard to get lined up for!

 

 

At the exit of Smasher we decided to walk Brutal. All I can say is it looks pretty brutal at the end:

 

 

Last obstacle is a bank to bank undercut ledge:

 

 

The next morning we broke camp and went to meet the group at Number 1 Food Store where we found homemade breakfast burritos so we ate breakfast before starting up the hill toward Jerome.

 

K's new Jeep on the way to Jerome:

 

 

Wayne radio'd to us that he had a flat. His driver front tire had a gash in the sidewall so we helped him put the spare on. With no spare, he had to head home so we all said bye Wayne.

 

 

We continued through Jerome and on to Woodchute Trail, which we ran from the northern end toward the southern end, which was backwards from the way it's presented in the Wells book.

 

It goes uphill through brushy bushes at first:

 

 

Flattens out a bit onto grassy area spotted with yucca, small pines...

 

 

Near the top there's a spur trail that goes to an overlook of the Verde Valley where we stopped:

 

 

 

 

K's Jeep going back to main trail:

 

 

We stayed on the main trail almost to the end looking for a place to have lunch. Then we followed a spur trail to the right still looking for a lunch spot. After a while it was evident that the trail was seldom used, so we stopped on the trail to eat. By looking at the GPS you could see that we were so close to the highway, so after we ate we kept going until we came to this:

 

 

So we turned around and went back to the main trail. From leader to tailgunner in 60 seconds.

 

 

We aired up, said our goodbyes and headed down the hill. Thanks to Curly and Devon for closing the gate!

 

It was a fun exploratory weekend. Smasher had been on my bucket list for years, so I'm glad we did it. Even though it was a fun trail it wasn't really worth the long drive if that's all you're going for. The redeeming feature was running Woodchute and visiting with friends every night. Thanks everybody who came out to play!

 

Here's a link to all the pics I uploaded: Diane's pics

[stockjeep 34]

fun trip, thanks for posting all the pictures

[jgaz 606]

is there something specific to hike to that you know

 

I originally thought so but I think I was reading bad info. I was trying to use a posting on a hiking site and tie the location of the hike to were I thought you were going to run. Just looking for something's in the area for future exploring with the LCPs. (Leather personnel carriers).

[Curly 973]

I think there is a hiking trail on top of Mingus near the start/end of smiley rock trail. It is also called the woodchute trail.

 

Curly