Jeepin' in Box Canyon

It's been a busy few months.  We've neglected our outdoor endeavors, and our dogs.  Between conflicting work schedules, and social obligations, its been a sad life for the Jeep.  To and from work is hardly exciting.  The other night, I turned to Mike and, without giving him a choice, said we were going to load up the dogs and go somewhere on our day off together.  Where? I left that up to him.

As Elly had her annual vet appointment this morning, we got a late start. So a local route it was: Box Canyon in Florence, AZ.

Rommel was annoying and whiny, so we stopped in a wash for a bit of frisbee.

Who me?

Down some sweet dirt towards the narrowing canyon...

The canyon kept narrowing.  I commented that I was really only seeing ATV/UTV sign in the wash...very little Jeep sign.

Box Canyon not only narrowed to a Jeep's width, but was full of boulders to climb over.

We popped out of the canyon and ran into three Jeep's heading the opposite direction.  A nice enthusiast crushed our plans by informing us today's route was no longer accessible.  He gave us a card and is eager to find more Jeeper's to play with.

The road out of the canyon proved to be more challenging that the wash.  Actually the afternoon route we took today was more challenging than the whole week's worth of routes we did in Colorado.

I have the cutest family.

The camera never does the difficult stuff justice.  This was a pretty good climb.  I cringed when the undercarriage left a mark.

We kept climbing and reached a perfect ridge to take a break and have a snack.

The sun was starting to creep further west, so we turned around and headed back down. Back into Box Canyon.

Just as we were hitting the smooth grated road back to Florence, the setting sun put on a great show.

It was a fantastic afternoon. Midweek is the perfect time to explore Box Canyon.  The weekend ATV crowd is still entrenched in their cubes and not out ruining the experience.  We saw few people and felt like we had the whole area to ourselves. I'm looking forward to getting back out there and exploring more.

Bonus: two exhausted dogs, passed out on their beds.