A week ago I heard from a guy that lives at Tip Top about a trail to goes from Tip Top to Crown King, but he warned us that he saw it once and it was so bad that it would be hard to even hike it, but then he mentioned that a few months back a group of bikes attempted to run it and he never heard them coming back, so they either made it to Crown King or they're dead..

With that said, have any of you ever heard or ran that trail?

i know where your talking about. ive been way back there and last time we did a 30mile loop and im pretty sure we found the trail that you would take to get to crown king. we were just under crown king. our comp spot was at 5600 ft and form there we climbed to 5800 before dropping down into another canyon just southeast of crown king. ive been re setting up my rig for exploring and i have a good size ariel map of the area.

just looked at my map. yes i know where it is. the problem is that a few miles past packer you enter a wildland/forest preserve. if you get caught its a pretty good fine and possible vehicle tow. but i do know where it is and i can tell you it hasnt been drivin in a long time.

lostoffroad wrote:just looked at my map. yes i know where it is. the problem is that a few miles past packer you enter a wildland/forest preserve. if you get caught its a pretty good fine and possible vehicle tow. but i do know where it is and i can tell you it hasnt been drivin in a long time.

yeah some guy on Virtual Jeep Club, did mention that it is a single track trail to CK, and that it is a Wildlife refuge.. that sucks.

update! i found another way to crown king without going through the refuge. its awesome. i cant wait to run it.

lostoffroad wrote:update! i found another way to crown king without going through the refuge. its awesome. i cant wait to run it.

Did you ever run this?
We found a way from West Table Mesa to Cow Creek road by way of Columbia. Did it a few months back with AZBC. Pretty easy for the most part. But of course much more South than the original trail in question.

Chad wrote:
We found a way from West Table Mesa to Cow Creek road by way of Columbia. Did it a few months back with AZBC.

Cool Chad. We were exploring a bit in the same area before it got hot
Cow Creek to TM - Columbia - Fort Tule

Printed out a big ol map and will go back when it cools

Skatchkins wrote:Cool Chad. We were exploring a bit in the same area before it got hot
Cow Creek to TM - Columbia - Fort Tule

Printed out a big ol map and will go back when it cools

Been to fort Tule and surrounding area a year or two ago. Combined it with a mine exploring trip we took.

We drove past (going down) that same Subaru near Columbia, lol. Poor guy.

I believe the route you chose from Cow Creek to TM was under water in one area the last time i tried it. Not to mention, i have heard that it's gated now, closer to the TM end? No?

I love that area in general. I have spent alot of time there over the years. There is a guy on AZBC that has spent countless hours in the area exploring and mapping it. He is the perfect guide. His trips are a history lesson on top of a hike or 4X4 trip. Unfortunatly he has stopped logging on AZBC lately so no recent trips.

I would ebjoy tagging along in the future if possible. I tend to shoehorn the truck through the tight jeep trails. Pinstriping adds character.

actually we ran some new dirt 2 wkends ago. found where the old ridge line rd form horsetheif basin ties in. gonna go back with the bikes and see if its doable in a rig. i know the area very well as ive spent a lot of time hiking and camping up in the area.

the funniest thing is this past trip we run into a toyota tacoma at the milk ranch, the guy shows me a google earth map saying they are going to ck. im just laugh and say, you cant get to ck this way, especially with that vehicle.

we did take another rd west that gets to within .25 miles of the ck trail. ill update when we go check that rig line trail out next.

lostoffroad wrote:actually we ran some new dirt 2 wkends ago. found where the old ridge line rd form horsetheif basin ties in. gonna go back with the bikes and see if its doable in a rig. i know the area very well as ive spent a lot of time hiking and camping up in the area.

the funniest thing is this past trip we run into a toyota tacoma at the milk ranch, the guy shows me a google earth map saying they are going to ck. im just laugh and say, you cant get to ck this way, especially with that vehicle.

we did take another rd west that gets to within .25 miles of the ck trail. ill update when we go check that rig line trail out next.

Yeah, i was also told that the route through Milk Ranch was not passable by a couple of different people. We didn't even attempt that route on our last trip.