December 1999 - Coke Ovens 

Trail Rating - 2.5+

Trip Leader: Chris Villarreal

Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal


 I am planning on taking the Arizona Rough Riders on a club run sometime this spring to the Coke Ovens and wanted to pre-run the trail and make sure the route I wanted to take was a feasible one. Usually you would get to the Coke Ovens via Box Canyon and then you would take the same way out. This makes for a long trail. I wanted to come in from the east, cross the river and see the ovens, then leave via Box Canyon. To get there we took the Florence Kelvin Highway for approx. 14.5 miles and took a left onto Cochran Rd. We followed this road for approx. 19.7 miles and entered a large wash on the left. From here we followed the wash till we found a fence blocking the wash. At this point we exited the wash and proceeded toward the railroad bridge and followed the tracks NE a ways. We then took the next left and cut back towards the river, crossing where it bends south. from there we followed the main trail to the Coke Ovens. This is a very scenic trail.
Bridge

Here is the railroad bridge you want to head for. The next picture shows the trail right after you cross the river. This is the tightest brush on the whole trail.

Ok, so if you are in a Samurai this section isn't even close to being tight...


Closup of Oven

This was the first run for Howard and Sue in their newly acquired Samurai. It has a spring over lift and larger tires. They had towed it from Pima, down by Safford to do the run with us. Howard proved a very capable driver, following me up some of the steep hills with a stock drivetrain with little to no slippage problems. The next picture shows one of the Coke Ovens up close.


From the hilltop

A view from the top of the hill looking down on the Coke Ovens. My wife Karyn is enjoying the run so far. Way in the distance you can see the railroad bridge.

Here you can see the trail snaking off over the far ridge.

The group rounding a corner into a wash.

We had lunch at the trailhead for "Jawbreaker", A 4+ rated trail. We watched a bunch of well equipped Jeeps head down this hill and into the wash. There is a nice stairstep at the top that can get a few wheels in the air if your not paying attention. Steve's Land Cruiser flexed pretty good on this portion. I don't think he was using either of his Arb's...


Stair Step

Time to play! This section of the trail has a large stair step you have to climb over. We removed the "road" that was built up to provide the challenge nature had intended.


Going down the step. Hey, that was fun, let's do it again.

Doing some more flexing


Car Crusher

Couldn't resist. This sits at the base of a very wicked hill. The ruts nearly swallowed my Samurai when I attempted an ascent. Unfortunately I didn't reload the film. My wife claims I almost went over backwards, my tire was reaching skyward but not THAT badly... I did reload after that and got some of me climbing the hill from another direction.


The ruts were too big to get up the front of this hill, well Steve made it up with his longer wheelbase. We then went around to the side of the hill and I tried a frontal assault. This was all the farther I got using this line, without a locker my rear tire wasn't helping. I ended up making it but I had to zig zag across the ruts.


Crested Saguaro

Here is a rare Saguaro. We made a side trip to some turquoise mines and Steve remembered this was back here.


Something like 1 in a thousand Saguaros have a chance of growing like this. The last photo shows a view from the cactus.