Crown King and Tip Top Mine

So we had to escape and when we saw that Crown King was having Oktoberfest we had to go!!


Weather was perfect!






Sooner or later there won't be any trail left in this section. I remember when it was just a foot deep rut int he middle of the trail.


We came up behind a large group of guys helping a couple of almost stock International Scout's ended up being in front of us. Cool guys and cool trucks. Weird part is that they hadn't run this trail since last December. Neither had I. In fact, I ran up on them a year ago the last time I was on this trail. What a coincidence!
Last year:

This year:


Hanging out and watching it get dark.


The Scout was stuck on a good size boulder which was keeping the tires off the ground mostly so they just spun.


The cool part is that after we all helped to get him through together I happened to get stuck on the same rock! I credit it to being in a rush, but oh well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! The Scout club guys stayed around to help me out. Stand up guys. After stacking a couple rocks and a dent in my gas tank skid that cost me a couple gallons of capacity (which I later measured at the gas pump. No leaks though, just a total volume loss) we were on our way to Crown King. We pulled into town and the place looked great. Really going off for Oktoberfest!


Not really of course. It was going on in true CK style. We grabbed some PBR's and burgers. These meals always taste so good because they are well earned.


Lots of crazy old fellers at the bar. This guy was speaking some good ol country gibberish all night.


We camped up near Horsethief Basin and woke up to a Werewolf in London sort of vibe. Perfect Halloween place!


We ran down to the Saloon where they had nicely kept my camera which I left on the table the night before. Gotta love honest folk.
Nice coffee mug. (by the way, the coffee was good, really good. Surprisingly great for the setting)


Read and learn.


Jon had to head back to Phoenix so we went exploring the Horsethief area.






We headed for Tip Top. Tip Top is a cool old mining town known for Silver and Tungsten. Check out this thread. You can buy the town and mining claim!
http://forums.ghosttowns.com/showthread.php?14356-For-sale-Historic-TIP-TOP-mine-ghost-town-located-in-Yavapai-County-Arizona
Here are a couple of old pictures of the town.






Lots of history. This link has an overlay that someone put together nicely of what it looks like then and now.
http://three-six-zero.com/TipTop1888_2010/TipTop.html

Rolling into town.
















Climbing up to the main mine shaft.






Spider gears.



Straight down!


Old Boiler.




The road ahead was really rough. We just walked it.






We headed back a different way and saw some cool remnants of a pretty big building with some outlyers.

Rocky slow going.



The Beastmaster! It looked like some sort of pivoting mechanism that was once towed behind a semi. How anyone got it this far out here is a mystery. The road must have been MUCH better then.




Stretch those legs!!
And 1

and 2

And three. Good relax.


I have my own automatic gate opener. ;-)


These flood plain areas were really pretty!


We made it back over to the Lake Pleasant area and headed home. We did take note of all the yahoo's riding quads without helmets and even saw a kid point his rifle at us on accident as he absentmindedly waiting for his dad to walk back from adjusting some targets... Ominously this morning I read an article about a couple of kids in the hospital with head injuries who flipped their quad and about a little girl who shot her little 4 year old sister in the head accidentally because the parent wasn't paying attention...So sad. gotta respect weapons and motorized vehicles properly...