Of all those attending, none had ever lead a trail run to DeSoto, so we were relying on our directions from several sources. We left Jack in the Box in Prescott up senator highway at around 9:30am and began our day of wheeling. Since the previous 2 days had been very cold with scattered snow storms, we encountered roads both dry and dusty, and snow covered within only a few yards of each other (Editors note: I was truly amazed when we were down in the valleys and the road would literally be dusty on one side with dry dirt and the other was snow pack and mud, My rig literally has different sources of dirty on each side).
Each set of directions were basically the same, stating that we were to find the road marked FS89 and enter the stream bed from there, but the problem we faced was none of them told how to find FS89. After searching 2 different routes and basing our hot/cold factor of finding the trail on the familiarity of SilverBullet's memory, bad at best, we reached a know area and made a cell phone call to Tye (CJ5Driver) who could accurately jar Brian's memory and give instructions on how to get to FS89 and DeSoto Mine trail.
For the record, here is how to get to DeSoto Mine trail from Senator highway... One you have left the pavement up Senator Highway, bear to the left and continue toward Crown King, do not go over the first cattle guard, it is a right turn leading back to White Spar road in Prescott. If you find yourself in the vicinity of Wolf Creek, you have gone the wrong way. If you have gone the correct way so far, the road will wind up the mountain and through a few switchbacks with scattered homes along the route. Most driveways have gates to keep the unruly 4x4 off the private property. Once reaching the top of the hill, you come to a 4 way intersection. A hard (nearly U-turn) left will lead you back to Walker Road and eventually out next to Costco in Prescott, not the correct way. A slight left (nearly straight) will lead you to Big Bug Mesa and Poland Junction (also not the correct way, but discover as a nice drive and some interesting old trail tunnels down there, 1 hour lost), the right turn over the cattle guard and immediately back down hill is the correct course. This was marked FS56 (never told about that one) and leads eventually to Crown King. Immediately after the cattle guard, there is a left turn, do ont take it, stay on FS56. Ad you descend the hill, you will eventually come to a forest history observation cabin (marked very well, please be courteous and do not damage the property). At this cabin, also called Palace Station, you turn left and stay on FS56 (it is the wider of the two roads from Palace Station). After continuing through was used to be known as the Mars burn area (now growing and again green), you will come to a "Y" in the road. The left leg of the "Y" is clearly labeled FS89 (we partied when we found this, finally). Continue on FS89 until you enter the creek bed and turn left in the creek. There is a trail marker clearly labeled "Trail" on the left side after you enter the creek bad, you are now on the trail.
We arrived to the trail about 2:00pm, nearly 5 hours after leaving Jack in the Box, knowing where you are going in a huge help. |
Another one of the first obstacles we come across of note is a drop down which had water on our journey at the bottom, as you can see, each of us went through the water, we all entered a different way, but there were no problems. |
 After all the time lost finding the trail, it was decided to turn back toward home after determined that we were most likely not going to finish the trail in the dark. So all the rigs turned around and headed back up hill. In doing this, Pathyman had a little trouble with gravity against him, and had to be pulled from one small area. 
After a few simple tugs from SilverBullet, he was back under his own power again an everyone made it out with no further trouble. The roads were beginning to ice over where there was snow,and the turn back was a good choice in the long run. Another run for DeSoto will have to be scheduled. 2007 Anyone? |
After we continued the trail, we entered areas where the dirt was fairly dry or only moist (as seen above) and areas where the rocks were completely covered in snow.