Spare Tire Canyon - Saturday April 10

Meet Time: 9:00am
Meet Place: 4 Sons Gas @ Carefree & Cave Creek

Plan: A relatively simple trip. Spare Tire Canyon into the slots to 11 Mile Wash ending up at the Verde River for a late lunch and a dip n fish if you wish.

Trail Rating: 3.0-3.5
Trail Length: 8mi (+3.mi down main wash to Verde)
Trail Drive Time: 1:30

Trail Restrictions:
No full size (due to narrow canyon walls)
Some lift, some skills
No locker requirement
Sliders recommended

Trail Description:

Spare Tire Canyon is a relatively tame trail for narrow vehicles; anything wider than a Cherokee (XJ) and you'll do no more than wedge yourself in the canyon real good. Rumor has it a Humvee attempted this and wedged in the canyon so bad that a helicopter was needed to remove it.

The trail (FR 404) branches off the main wash and heads immediately into a narrow canyon. Recently the sand has built up enough to allow Cherokee through without incident, however this is always subject to change. In the past, even Wranglers (YJ) with their wider tracks had problems; now that section has about 2 more feet of sand on top.

After the narrow twisting canyon, the trail climbs up to the top of a ridge, giving you a nice view of the hills around you. After running on the ridge, it drops down into another wash along a knife edge. In past years, there used to be a large rock in the middle of the hill just to give you that extra spook; recently this rock has been removed.

After the knife edge, the trail travels up the wash. There are multiple lines to choose from so you can make it about as difficult as you want. In 1999, a chunk of the canyon wall fell and created another tight squeeze. You'll want to watch those rear windows on the Cherokees on this one.

A little more twisting trail with a few optional boulders to play on and this trail is done. This trail can be done with a small group of Jeeps in a few hours. This trail has been adopted by the Arizona Rough Riders and they perform trail maintenance and clean-up on it twice a year.

Reference: http://www.rockrats.org/RR/Trails/View.asp?T=16

Vid of the slot area courtesy of HvyHau8272
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Thanks to the Arizona Rough Riders for this trail's upkeep

Drivers List:

1. Yellowsub and Silversides (TJ)
2. Avis (XJ)
3. Brotobeast (TJ)
4. Quadfire (CJ)
5. Bill88 (XJ)
6. Cecil (LJ)
7. T-Ray (SASx)
8. Lostoffroad (buggy)
9. Sy (Toylet)
10. Sweathog (XJ)
11. Guest (TJ)

*PreRun Pics & Report

In. If I ain't well by then I might as well be dead. lol

Count me in looks fun

I'm in for this one!

Dana and I were just out there last Thursday night running 11 Mile. Still had water flowing towards the end. Trees and other green stuff were looking good.

I'll keep editing the first post with more information like mileage and start time (Trail Length: 7.25mi [+3.75mi down main wash to Verde])

If you look at Needle Rock in Google Earth you will see the play hills at the river

Count me and my kids in. We will do some fishing at the end!

i might try and make it out for this.

Ill be in Vegas that weekend (Jen's helping her mom with the Passion Play this year and this is my return trip date to get her)

I am playing at CCV that weekend, so I'm out too. : (

Bummer, Kids B-day party. Have a good one 8)

I'm tentaive in for this too. The narrow-ness has me worried, but if Chris is taking the Lost buggy out then I'll be fine.

I'm In. Plans changed....forget what I said before. Sweet....:redface:

Team yellow and I preran this trail today.
SPT took a lesiurely 1.5 hrs to run.
More details and a few pics to come

so is it filled in or not to bad. im not too worried about the narrowness of it ive been in much tighter. im thinkin ill take up the rear and tim can follow if i cant get through we'll cruise down 11 mile wash and meet the group at the end at the verde.

There's a couple short and simple rock garden spots in the first canyon where some clearance is needed. The climb out of that was the biggest obstacle since it is a Moab-esc fin except with loose AZ dirt- It's a 1000 ft straight climb in under a 1/10th of a mile. The next 1/3 of the trail is above on the hills and is cake.
The narrowest part of the 2nd canyon was outer edge of the TJ tire to outer edge of other with both rubbing and one having to climb a little.

Sun wasn't cooperating but here's a sloppy quick reference pic:

I'll post some more pics tomorrow.

I'd still stand by the 3.0-3.5 rating.
I destacked (not stacked by us) the first obstacle after the big boulder and Jonathan almost hit his door :)

btw, the narrowest part was where the GPS showed I stopped with the X that late night that I was out exporing alone. If I had only gone 380 more feet I could have finally turned around instead having to back up blindly for the 1/4 mile :rolleyes: lol

lostoffroad wrote:so is it filled in or not to bad. im not too worried about the narrowness of it ive been in much tighter. im thinkin ill take up the rear and tim can follow if i cant get through we'll cruise down 11 mile wash and meet the group at the end at the verde.

Sounds good to me.

Here's a sneak peak (tightest spot at 2:50)
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Heading to the lookout spot




Fisher Michael

ok that looks like a lot of fun on the climb out. now im excited.

*PreRun pics and report added: Spare Tire Canyon Prerun 3-13-10