Hundreds of miles of off-road riding across the western Arizona desert? Count me in!
Thus began our adventure on the Arizona Peace Trail (AZPT) in January 2023. The AZPT is a network of off-road trails in the western desert of Arizona that create a loop over 675 miles long. Billed as “the largest OHV Loop Trail in the United States,” it has always piqued my interest. It sounded perfect for an East of Nowhere Adventure in our Polaris Rzr.
I initially planned to do the ride solo as I wasn’t sure anyone would want to spend a week riding around the desert with me. However, Petrol Papa didn’t need much convincing to come along and be my co-driver. We soon enlisted Navigator Nana to drive the chase truck and trailer around and meet us each night with our gear. We’re not campers, so our route took us through cities that had hotels we could stay in. We also knew from previous expedition experience, that we could cover over 200 miles in a day without problems. So we planned a loop that would take 3 days to cover the entire loop. The whole trail system has dozens of sites to see, and we knew that only leaving ourselves 3 days wouldn’t leave much time for extra explorations. But that was okay – our intent was more about “man vs machine vs terrain” than taking it easy. And with 12+ hour riding days, we knew 200-250 miles was super doable without feeling like we were racing.
Day 1
Petrol Papa and I left Bullhead City, Arizona, bright and early January morning. The weather was a little colder than anticipated, and the wind was blowing pretty well. But the sky was blue, and the sun was out, so no complaints here! We headed east towards the first mountain range that we would cross on our way to Kingman. The city road soon gave way to gravel, and then a rough 4×4 road. It didn’t take us long to realize that we were in volcano country – the trails were rocky and rugged! Up and over the pass we went, and soon were headed back down the valley with Kingman in the distance. This section of trail smoothed out and was super fun – it was as close to a roller coaster ride in a RZR as you can get. After a short stint on Route 66, we continue to Wikieup. We bypassed the Hualapai mountains as there was still too much snow in the higher elevations for our comfort level. Close to Wikieiup, we ran across a fast-flowing river that gave us pause. We initially tried to find a ride-around, but soon realized crossing the river was the most sensible way to continue. There was another pickup in front of us that was stuck and getting pulled out. So we figured that in the worst-case scenario, we’d have help to get us out. But as luck would have it, we made it through just fine and motored up. At Wikieup, we met briefly with Navigator Nana as we gassed up, and then we were on our way. Our destination for the night was Salome and we still had a ways to go. Unfortunately, we hit another roadblock at the Alamo Lake crossing. The river was flowing, and as I walked around in the water to test it, I figured it was too soft to attempt. The bottom was super soft with sticky sand. And on the other side of the shore, there were no sturdy trees for a possible winch-out. I mapped a deviation around the lake – it would take us to the Bill Williams River crossing and then follow the power lines south for a while. The rest of the ride continued without incident. We rolled into Salome after dark, but our trusty Navigator Nana had our motel room ready to rest.
Day 2
Today was expected to be our longest day, and it lived up to it. We covered almost 275 miles today – the longest we had ever done in one day in the Rzr. But we knew that a lot of today would be fairly fast along the canals of southern Arizona. Like the previous day, it was near freezing when we started out. But a couple of hours later, it was in the 70s, and we were enjoying the sunshine. We made a brief stop at an arch along the way (of course!) and continued on to Fortuna Hills near Yuma. In Fortuna Hills, we made a pit stop at my cousin’s winter home. She fed us fresh fruit, and after a brief visit, we soldiered on. We were a little behind schedule at this point, so we detoured around a planned section of trail and opted for the faster route along the canal. Our destination was Ehrenberg, and we arrived after a lovely ride along the Colorado River as the sun set. It’s hard to describe how awesome this stretch of riding was for me. It had all the elements of a great summer ride – the wind in your face and the sun in your eyes. The water was a gem to see as the sunset. Ahhh.. this is one of the memories that will stick with me forever. Navigator Nana met us in Ehrenberg, where we trailed the Rzr so that we could drive into California for a stay at a hotel.
Day 3
I’ll be honest – it was tough to get going today. We were starting to get beat up with the terrain and knew today would be the hardest of all because we had to tackle a section called “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” But we dug in and marched on. At Lake Havasu City, we drove across London Bridge, which was fun. But after that came my least favorite section of the trail – miles and miles down in a wash that was washboarded to death. For over an hour, we did our best to not get shaken to death on the washboards. It was crazy. But we made it. We also made it safely through the Good, the bad, and the ugly section without any hiccups. The ride ended with the trail up to Oatman, passing many burros, before dropping back down into Bullhead City. We rolled into the parking lot with the horn blowing and a lot of hooping and hollering. We had covered 718 miles in 3 days of some of the toughest and roughest riding we had ever done. And we did it without a single mechanical problem – no flats, no blown belts – nothing! Petrol Papa got out of the RZR, hugged Red Dog, and yelled “I love Red Dog!”
Conclusion
This ride was by far the most physically challenging we had done to date. On all our riding in Utah, we know we can average 25mph over the day (we don’t stop much…). On this trip, we had to work hard to maintain an average of over 18mph. That even includes long stretches along graded dirt roads and canals that we cruised for dozens of miles at 50mph. The volcanic nature of the area was really something else. It did chew up our Tusk Terrabytes pretty well – but as mentioned, they held up, and we didn’t have any flats. Weather-wise, we were probably a couple of weeks too soon for my tastes. The days were fine, but the mornings and evenings were freezing. But in Arizona, you risk riding too late and then suffering in the deathly heat (editor’s note: see our ride on The Devil’s Highway). The wet winter in the west also contributed to a little longer-than-expected ride, along with the diversion around Alamo Lake. I would’ve also liked to go up into the Hualapai mountains. But that’s what’s great about getting outdoors and adventuring – each adventure leads to wanting to do more adventures. So, we’ll definitely be back to experience more of the AZPT.
#eachofnowhereadventures #azpt #utv #sxs #rzr #polaris #arizona