Bradywgn71 671 Posted August 21, 2022 Link to photos from the trip. Now time for more coffee! Sarah's photo album 3 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dzJeepChic 2,372 Posted August 21, 2022 Love your pictures @Bradywgn71! Especially the one of Ryan and the cinnamon bun - of Marty's face! LOL, are you going to eat that??? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,531 Posted August 21, 2022 (edited) Another beautiful day on the books with the ORP family! In what was originally planned as an overnight trip from Sedona to Flagstaff and around the San Fran Peaks, we turned this into a day trip for fear of a nasty monsoon forecast. As luck would have it - not a drop of rain the entire time we were out there! All sun, all the time. We met up with the crew at the Red Rock Cafe, just south of Sedona in the village of Oak Creek. Awesome food, great music, good vibes. Check them out if you're ever in the area! They sell a 3 lb cinnamon roll that will feed a family of 23. 😅 So who was there? A mix of familiar faces and some new members - which was great! @Curly in his TJ - "Barbie" @shellback91 in his JK, "Betty Lou" @Bradywgn71 in their souped up monster of a WJ, "Hope" @Scott Miller + Kim in their clean new JLUR @Mike and Kristen Inkrott in their Range Rover LR4 @alexshel44 rocking the Jeep KL Trailhawk Our route was about 70 miles as planned, but due to some hiccoughs on the way and some rockier than anticipated trails, we cut it short a little bit. All-in-all - it was an awesome trip with awesome people! We kicked off with what I really consider to be one of the Crown Jewels of the area: the iconic Schnebly Hill. @Curly in Barbie - the rest of the line-up in tow: Always gonna grab photos of The Balrog @shellback91 looking shiny in Betty Lou: Stylin' & Profiling! Barbie looks great in the rocks! Alex's sweet KL Trailhawk: One of the many gorgeous vistas on Schnebly Hill. The town of Sedona in the background - the Sedona Airport can also bee seen on a hill in the background. It's impossible to take a bad photo of @Mike and Kristen Inkrott's LR4. Hope, looking right at home! Alex is all smiles after reaching the top of Schnebly Hill and earning that Badge of Honor! After Schnebly Hill, we made an attempt on FR153A, but it proved to be a strong moderate, beating up some of our stock rigs. We made the decision to turn back around to the main road. FR153A has some A-MA-ZING campsites that overlook Sedona. There aren't many that do, these are it. You need to be in stock Wrangler at a minimum to get there without too much trouble - or choose some careful lines. The camp spots are very small, large enough for 2 vehicles each - there are about 3-4 total spots that we noted. After joining back up to the main road (FR153) made our way under the i17 and rode through the Coconino NF on our way up to Flagstaff, using as much dirt as possible. The general idea was to connect up with Horse Park Road (FR700). To get there, we had to take the path less traveled, first using FR226 to FR228A to FR220, then on to FR700. FR228A was a bit of a surprise - plenty of bouncy rocks, but doable in a stock high-clearance vehicle. The trail was beautiful and not well travelled - plenty of shade from the pines! The rocks are sharp - we ended up needing to change a flat - seemed like a pinched sidewall. It was great to see everyone jump in to help out and we were on the road again in about 15-20 minutes (once we all scratched our heads on how to free the scissor jack from it's prison! 😁) Here's @Mike and Kristen Inkrott just after conquering FSR228A - big smile on Kristen's face! Alex - emerging from the trees! We took a break for lunch after 228A for about 45min and had some good conversation. Was great getting to know our new ORP fam a little better! After lunch - it was off to the races with FR700 - a nicely maintained dirt road where we were able to lay down some miles pretty quickly. @Curly clued us into a hidden gem that lies along this road - an old stone train trestle, over 100 years old. Click here for a look on the map. Tim noted that the stones were all laid down by hand, with supporting beams fashioned from logs. Tim provided a great photo of the same trestle from the 70's that his father took (link). I went back to check the maps this morning to see if I could associate the bridge with any details. This is an overlay of the 1930 USGS topographical maps for the area. You can see the train route on the map - which is the same railroad bed that FR700 was built upon. There doesn't seem to be a connection, or the map alignment is off slightly (they were hand-drawn, afterall). Maybe it was a spur track, or it simply wasn't captured on this map at all! I went back to the 1900 USGS maps and there were no tracks in the area (per the map). Super interesting area - really appreciate you sharing it with us Tim! Here's an interesting photo of the trestle with a healthy Ponderosa Pine growing right out of the center! I believe I heard someone say they thought it was about 50 years old at this point. We continued on laying down the miles and stopped for the day at about 4pm with this beautiful view of the San Franciscos over what I'm calling a "mini-cinders". There are some small campsites nearby with this view - I'll definitely be coming back here. I'd love to see sunrise and sunset from this vantage point. So there you have it! A long, but awesome day. At the end of it, we put about 62 miles on the rigs in 8 hours, climbed from 4,500 ft to 7,800 ft, went from red rocks to cool pines - all in the sunshine. Hope you guys enjoyed the trip! If you took any photos and would like to share - please do - and I hope to see you on the next ride! Edited August 21, 2022 by 4x4tographer Spelling 3 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rodrakejr 13 Posted August 21, 2022 Great photos! Looks like a fun trip. Wish I could have joined you all! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curly 766 Posted August 21, 2022 Quote: I went back to check the maps this morning to see if I could associate the bridge with any details. This is an overlay of the 1930 USGS topographical maps for the area. You can see the train route on the map - which is the same railroad bed that FR700 was built upon. There doesn't seem to be a connection, or the map alignment is off slightly (they were hand-drawn, afterall). Maybe it was a spur track, or it simply wasn't captured on this map at all! I went back to the 1900 USGS maps and there were no tracks in the area (per the map). @4x4tographer I found the blog where I first learned of the RR trestle. Not much info in it about the rail line. Mentions it was built in 1930 and is 250' long. The name is the Saginaw-Manistee Allan Lake line trestle. You can read about it here, towards the bottom of the page. http://arizonarailsruinstrails.blogspot.com/2017/02/more-trestles.html#comment-form 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shellback91 1,633 Posted August 21, 2022 (edited) Great photos Ryan & Sarah! That is a great write up Ryan! It was a long, somewhat bumpy in spots but overall awesome day! The "Mini Cinders" area is an appealing camping spot, so does the area where we had lunch. Edited August 21, 2022 by shellback91 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shellback91 1,633 Posted August 21, 2022 8 hours ago, dzJeepChic said: Love your pictures @Bradywgn71! Especially the one of Ryan and the cinnamon bun - of Marty's face! LOL, are you going to eat that??? All I could hear in my head when that thing was delivered was Wilford Brimley talking about The Diabeetus! 🤣 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,531 Posted August 21, 2022 56 minutes ago, shellback91 said: All I could hear in my head when that thing was delivered was Wilford Brimley talking about The Diabeetus! 🤣 You look very concerned for my welfare Marty! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shellback91 1,633 Posted August 21, 2022 22 minutes ago, 4x4tographer said: You look very concerned for my welfare Marty! I was very concerned and a little afraid to be honest. 🤣 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike and Kristen Inkrott 19 Posted August 22, 2022 What an amazing day playing in Sedona’s backyard. @4x4tographer put together a great route and was an outstanding trail leader, overall guide, commentator and even mechanic. His easy trail rating may be questionable (🤣), but the company and scenery were first rate! Props to @alexshel44 for wheeling his Trailhawk like a boss. Some Classic views from Schnebly Hill road: Beyond Schnebly the views were just as stunning: And I’m not sure if these are the result of the very active monsoon, but the mushrooms were competing with the wildflowers! Finally, many thanks to Chris & Sarah and their beautiful pups for running sweeper during this trek. Hope is a monster and looks like it could eat “LRRRRY” the Land Rover, but was always back there protecting our six! Many thanks to all for such a memorable day! Mike & Kristen 3 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
