AZ Off Road – Hours and hours of fun sitting at work waiting to take more time off? Or hours and hours of future outdoor fun in the new car? I prefer to think about the outdoor part!
EODAZ – Hope this helps:
If you’re in Florence, AZ….head north on 79 and take Cottonwood Canyon Road east.
Right off the 79 there’s a staging point…but there’s a TON of camping/staging spots on either the north or south side of Cottonwood road. It’s a little over 5 miles to a cattle guard and then there’s a few camp spots after that…but that’s about where it turns into more of a high ground clearance area, and less trailer-friendly.
Getting to the cabin isn’t too difficult…we used GAIA on our phones and followed the roads accordingly. Very difficult to get totally lost, there’s signs at major crossings pointing the way. There’s more than one way to get there, but mainly: Cottonwood Canyon Road turns into Ajax Mine Trail and bear right on to Mineral Mine Road which heads south and eventually turns into Box Canyon Road. Take that a while and make a hard left onto Martinez Canyon Road. That will take you all the way to the blocked cabin road (mainly stick to your right for off-shoots), where you have to get out and hike. At a brisk pace it’s a 10 minute hike to the cabin, in a wash and no way to get turned around. From the cabin you can continue left on a steady incline road that leads to what looks like Columbia mine on the map, which is a long ways off on foot. We didn’t do that. Instead follow the wash right, past the cabin, through the canyon and it’s another 10-15 minute hike to the mining camp.
We found two mine shafts easily nearby. One past the main structure, on the same side of the wash, and one up high across the wash.
The same-side one is relatively accessible, with a steep and slippery descent. Someone was nice enough to tie off a long length of mule tape to hang on to.
It didn’t go very far until we reached a flooded out section. I didn’t bring my waders, so stopped here.
Across the wash and a short hike up, there’s a vertical shaft. Wouldn’t even think of climbing down this one without professional equipment.
There are other mines spread throughout the general area, but this was the biggest and most interesting one we came across.