Off-Road Jeep Drive to Dripping Springs

On January 28, 2017, we finally had a chance to take our new Jeep (nicknamed, "Dusty") out on a real 4WD back road.  Our friends Tony and Dee Dee recently also bought a Jeep, and they joined us. We were very happy they did, because their Jeep has a winch on the front - just in case someone like us lands our Jeep in a ditch.

One very popular 4WD road in the Quartzsite area, where we were camped, is a 5 mile drive to Dripping Springs, a real spring that drips water inside a hillside cave.  Here is a map of the road network in the area:

Along the way, we had the chance to see three different ruins of stone cabins located at the sites of abandoned gold mines.  Our first stop was the cabin at Gold Nugget Mine:

A mile or two up the back road, we found the Belle of Arizona Mine and its stone cabin ruins:

Not much was left of the ruins, but they stood out against the desert hills:

We paused long enough for a group selfie:

Our next stop was Dos Picachos Mine and its cabin ruins:

"Dos Picachos" means "Two Peaks," and, indeed, the mine was sited in the shadow of this eponymous mountain:

After Dos Picachos, we set off Jeeping up and down and over the ridges and washes toward Dripping Springs.  One steep climb was pretty scary because the road had a huge rut in the center, with narrow tracks for the wheels on either side.  Tony and Dee Dee drove up ahead of us, then Tony jumped out to snap this photo of our Jeep navigating the climb.  He just missed a dramatic photo when our rear wheel went down into the rut, lifting one of our front wheels high into the air!

We neared the furthest point of our drive, and so parked to have lunch and something refreshing to drink:

After lunch, we drove to the top of the highest viewpoint and could see the site of Dripping Springs in the distance under a high cliff:

Because the reference materials we could find suggested we should not try to drive our Jeeps through one final slot canyon to reach Dripping Springs, we parked the vehicles at the viewpoint and hiked down through the slot canyon.  Here is Kathy celebrating her discovery of a cute little cholla grove along our road:

As it turned out, we probably could have driven the slot canyon.  However, our hike was pleasant and we enjoyed looking at the rocks, plants, geology and terrain.

We finally reached Dripping Springs and first sought out the cabin ruins:

Nearby are several sites with extensive petroglyphs that surely predated the construction of the stone cabin:

Further up the wash, at the base of the cliff, we found a small cave (shown behind Tony, Kathy and Dee Dee in the photo below) where water dripped constantly, resulting in moss on the cave walls and green plant grown along the flow of the water as it came out of the cave (visible on the right in the photo below).

Since we had taken the ridgeline route in, we decided to drive back out to the highway along one of the washes, which made for interesting variety.

All in all, the trip was a grand adventure and a great maiden voyage for our little Dusty.  Thanks to Dee Dee and Tony for joining us on this off-road trek.  We hope to embark on many more, and to try out some of them with these good friends.