Butterfield Stage Route

February 15th, 2003

(Trip Report by Todd Zuercher)

(Photos by Todd)

The much-anticipated rains finally arrived in Arizona in mid-February. The occupants of the five trucks that attended the February run were thankful for the rain for several reasons, the most salient being the ensuing lack of dust on our delightful dance through the desert on Saturday, February 15th.

Tim and Paige Messang, Shad and Sandy Bruce along with Shad III, Shad Bruce Sr., Winston and Margaret Brown, and I were the attendees that greeted each other at the gates of Firebird International Raceway to start our journey. After greeting each other and checking out the updates to all our trucks, we soon headed out.

We headed south towards Maricopa and then turned west in the direction of the booming metropolis of Mobile. Mobile seems to have no great spot in Arizona history other than that brief moment in the early 1990s when the brain trust in the Arizona State Legislature decided to build a hazardous waste incinerator there. The idea was eventually quashed and Mobile receded into anonymity once more.

West of Mobile, one searches for a dirt trail that heads north off the highway. On this particular day it was easy to find as a group of snowbirds had their trucks and trailers parked there to unload the ever-growing nuisance of quads. We stopped here to take a break and lock our hubs. Brownie even aired down, although this trail certainly didn’t require it.

We headed north on the dirt path through the desert, winding our way past creosote bushes and Palo Verde trees, diving through small washes still wet from the recent rains. One can easily turn on the “ricky racer” mode on a trail like this and the trail leader felt his front bump stops more than once on the several miles of this trail.

After about two or three miles, we intersected the Butterfield Stage Trail, and parked at a large sign which gave a good overview of the historical attributes of this little trail through the desert. The Butterfield Stage Route was established in 1857-1858 and ran from Missouri to San Francisco. The route had about 200 stage depots and way stations for the travelers along the route. The Arizona portion was used until 1861 when it was abandoned and moved north due to the Civil War. While learning a bit about the history, about 15-20 Boy Scouts and their troop leader showed up on their mountain bikes. We had a good visit with them and learned a bit about their activities in the area. The Butterfield route has been adopted by area Boy Scout troops and on any given day you’ll likely find more Scouts than 4 wheelers on the trail.

After taking our leave of the future leaders of tomorrow, we started west on the stage route. We drove through a scenic area loaded with saguaro cacti. We stopped several times to take in the scenery and record it for posterity with our cameras. The road continues for several miles before reaching the site of “Happy Camp”. This was the site of a cistern where water was stored for horses and mules on their journey through the desert. Today it’s hard to imagine storing water in the crude hole in the ground, but I’m sure it worked well back in the day.

After leaving Happy Camp, we took a slight detour off the main trail to accomplish our only real four wheeling of the day. On a previous trip through the area, I discovered a delightful little trail that climbs a nearby butte that gives a great visual overview of the surrounding area.

We climbed the hill in our Broncos without any trouble and took in the great view before descending the slippery chute of loose rock on the backside of the hill. We paused at the bottom long enough to eat our lunch.

After lunch, it was a quick jaunt back out to the Mobile-Gila Bend highway and pavement to take us home. We all gassed up in Gila Bend before pointing our Broncos homeward for the hour’s drive back to Phoenix. We arrived back in the Valley at about 2:30 p.m. All in all, we had a very enjoyable day in our short time in the desert away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

One additional note: every Bronco on this trip had a working CB! From a trip leader’s perspective, this was great. Everyone knew what was going on all the time and we could all stay in contact with each other.

Do your trip leader a favor and get that CB installed and working and your truck tuned up for the Stampede!

See you all in March!

-Todd Z.