ATV 5

Tonto Basin is just another name for Punkin Center. I don’t know if Punkin Center is the real name of the town but the sign says Tonto Basin and my map says Tonto Basin. This ride has some of the parts of a “Punkin to Young” ride but we are taking both trails ½ way. There is no real reason to go to Young. We just want to ride! Connie has never seen the Cabin and I haven’t been there in years. We start down at the parking area and ride the ATVs up the Mountain. This would be relatively steep and narrow in places for a truck but perfect for an ATV. When riding up the road it’s hard not to stop and take pictures of the rock formations

Many of the rock formations have that look like they were pushed up from deep in the earth. Funny you expect them to go straight up but most of these are on angles. The camera just can’t capture the real size of some of these formations. Just nice rolling hills with these geometric shapes protruding randomly. The road passes very close to many of the formations. Bring your Camera !

Here is the cabin at ZT Ranch . The cabin looks better than it did last time I saw it. It looks like someone cleaned it up a bit and I see clean linen (not too clean) on the beds. I guess it would be a good place to squat or maybe some of those ranch hands actually use it? Anyway it’s too far and too isolated for the normal vandals to wreck it.

(Below) The biggest flock of wild turkey I have ever stumbled on 30+. I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough. Here are a few of them. Make my mouth water!

No trip to this area would be complete without a visit to the cave. I’m sure glad I have a GPS otherwise I would just drive past this spot. I am told (don’t really know) this area is full of caves. It has something to do with the type of rock and water flow?? This is the only one I know of. I do see trails going off into the woods,,,, possibly to other caves?

The tree marks the entrance. I hope the tree is just dormant for the winter but it looks dead. I don’t know if this cave has an official name. It’s not on the Tonto map ?

One side of the canyon regular old dirt. The other side spectacular rock formations. They sure look different as the sun gets lower in the sky.

We headed back to the truck about 2 hours before sunset. The roads were actually getting just a little dark with long shadows at best. As we popped out of the forest at the top of the mountain (on the west side), we felt silly it was so bright out. Thirty minutes later (at the bottom) the sun is just over the mountain as we are loading up. We pulled out with our lights on.

For information on this or any ride email me.

This is a great place to bring your less experienced friends, wife, family, kids. This ride as you will see covers everything from the lower desert to the higher elevation forest. And we seen 2 other ATVs and 1 jeep all day !