GWV Fall or Spring wilderness retreat in Sycamore Canyon

[Jhanananda]

For the last week I have been moving the research lab from Chino Valley to Sedona.  I have been taking the Jerome-Perkinsville Road as a wilderness short cut, and esthetic break from the warehouse life, and using the opportunity to scout the area for a future wilderness retreat.  Here are photos I took this weekend.

Shortly after I started on the Perkinsville Rd from Chino valley a herd of antelope ran across the road in front of my van.  I was not able to get my camera out in time, but got them grazing a safe distance from me.



At this time of year there are lots of wildflowers to be seen along the road side. These are Apache Plume

Four O'clocks

Currants in bloom

Morning Glorries

Wildflower

Wildflower

Prickly Poppy

There are lots of views to be had along the way, such as Sycamore Canyon

Mingus Mountain

The old mining town of Jerome

This morning after camping out over night off the Perkinsville Road I came across this antelope.  It just stood in the road expecting me to drive around it.

Further down the road I saw this coyote looking back at me.

[Jhanananda]

I have been driving the 36 mile dirt road between Chino Valley and Jerome through Perkinsville every day for the last week.  I think the area will make an excellent location for a December retreat near Sycamore Canyon and the Verde River.  At the Verde River the elevation is about 3,545 ft, which is only 1,000 ft higher than the site I was suggesting along the Gila River, south of Phoenix for the winter retreat.  And, it is a lot closer to Sedona.

[Michael Hawkins]

Any idea about water availability, Jeffrey?  Are there public campsites back in there?

[Jhanananda]

Thanks, Michael for posting your question.  As far as I know there are no services at all at the campsite I have in mind, but there is a road that seems to lead to the river off of the Perkensiville-Jerome Road, and it appears to be well-graded. 

Last weekend I even saw that a group had arranged a camp there, and had left 2 cars by the Perkensiville-Jerome Road to direct people, and those two cars were regular low clearance 2-wheel drive cars, so the road there must be well graded all of the way to the river. But, I doubt if there is even an outhouse down there, let alone drinking water, but the river runs year round, and has beavers and water fowl, blue heron, etc. 

I do plan to drive the road at some point, and do some camping there soon to check it out.  Photos will follow.

By the way, my road navigation GPS has the Perkensiville-Jerome Road, and this side forest service road on it.  I have an older GPS, which I found had all of the Forest Service Roads, as well as all of the paved roads, up to a few years ago.  I plan to take that extra GPS with me, and log the campsite on both GPSes, so that either GPS could be used to navigate to the site from anywhere in the world.  So, I could send you my spare GPS for you to navigate to the winter retreat site, wherever it turns out to be, if you are interested.

Yesterday I drove round trip on the Chino Valley-Perkensiville-Jerome Road to retrieve my bus and finish cleaning out the warehouse in Chino Valley.  So, I do not expect to be back along that road until I am ready to do more scouting for campsites for future retreats.