Post 77: Indian Bread Rock Recreational Area, AZ

Indian Bread Rock Recreational Area, AZ

Nov 21st-23rd, 2017

Indian Bread Rock Recreational Area, Az was quite the BLM camping area. 🙂 We found this on Campendium. Once again Campendium came through for us with flying colours.  Arriving in Bowie is a bit of a surprise as there is not much  there EXCEPT, a great little shop called Dwayne’s  Fresh Jerky, Az. This little spot alone, makes it worth the trip into Bowie.  Now back to the awesome BLM camping area of Indian Bread Rock Recreational Area.

Heading to Indian Bread Rocks you have to watch your speed. Not because of the police, but because of DIPS in the road, CATTLE GRATES and actual steers, cows and burrows wandering on the road with no particular urge to move out of your way. You DO NOT want to be caught in one of those DIPS pulling a travel trailer at high speeds believe me.

On the road to Indian Bread Recreational Area

As you travel this road at about 45 mph, (it is paved) you will be on the look out for livestock. After about 15 or 20 mins you will come up on the turn off on your right for Happy Camps Cyn.

Now this road is dirt and goes for 3 miles of washboard in areas and slow driving due to just not a great road. BUT!! You get the fun of watching out

for Mules, Cows, Steers, Horses and Javelenas. They are all harmless (well mostly, do no tick off the Javelenas haha).

The other animals you will see  just stand and watch you go by.  Some times they stand right in the middle of the road so you have to wait for them to more or squeeze past them.

There are 4 ( if we recall correctly) Cattle Grates to go over. We are thinking that there are several ranches and these cows area supposed to stay on their own land. Not really sure that always happens.

A little tip, as you approach the 4th Cattle Grate, stay as far left as you can, There is a 90 degree turn and if your rig is big is can be a bit tight.

Now you have arrived!

ONCE you get up to the Indian Bread Rocks Recreational Area, You will pass through a narrow cattle grate.

There is a large picnic area on your left then you will a few hiking patch marked out as you slowly turn right and begin to follow the still dirt and rough road.

Along the road you will begin to see smaller roads leading off this main one. If you follow any of these smaller roads, you will find areas to camp. We chose the 2nd road to follow up. The way was a bit dicey with all the turns and pulling a 31′ trailer along with THORNY CACTUS sticking their arms out trying to scratch the sides of our trailer. Joy drove slowly and Bill directed her.

The spot we chose was huge midway up the hill side with a tremendous  view. Only hitch was, we needed to get ourselves turned around so we could back in. It took quit a bit of team work and maneuvering before we got this huge rig turned about and facing the right way. Ever try a 3 pt turn with a 31′ trailer attached lolol. Not easy!! Best of all, we were still friends at the end of it. Once we were parked, we realized we were at a terrible slant, YIKES!! We leaned to the right.

Bill put 2 boards under the wheels on one side and we still leaned pretty badly. Not so bad things slide off the table but wow, it was bad.  Had to walk up hill to sit at the table for dinner. BUT after all our hard work to get there, we did not want to move again.

BESIDES the view was to DIE FOR!!! We could see FOREVER!!!

Day two of King of the Mountain!

We woke up to find cows wandering in the field a few hundred feet from us, Lucky was in awe, she wanted to go play with them. We just sat and watched them wander along until they disappeared.

Before too long, Bill decided he and the dogs were going to explore for a bit. They came back when Poor old girls tongue (Sierra) was dragging on the ground.

Bill and Lucky then went for a much longer hike and came back several hours later, while Joy and Sierra cooled out in the trailer. On this hike they scrampled up a few rocks and also a few Javelena’s.

They look friendly, but after a bit of research, Bill is glad he stayed away from them.

Later that same day, Bill decided we all needed to go hike 3 miles to see Fort Bowie. So we all piled into the truck and off we went. Unfortunately, Joy didn’t make it too far. It was very warm,  Joy had allergies and had trouble breathing. Additionally, what was supposed to be an easy 1.5 mile hike was actually a Medium skill hike which was sadly above Joys skill level at this time.

So being a wuss, Joy and Sierra headed back to the truck at 1/4 mile. Sierra actually got Joy the rest of the way back by pulling her up the last hill. YAY Sierra.

Bill continued on the hike and found the trail so interesting. At points along the trail you came across interesting facts, like the Apache Camp,

Graveyard etc. These little distractions made the hike go a lot quicker. Once at Fort Bowie, Bill took a few pictures but really didn’t spend too much time as he wanted to get back to the truck to Joy and Sierra. The hike back is mostly on a different path than the trip in, which again made it interesting. Lucky was a trooper, she never complained and really enjoyed herself.

This ranks as one of our best boondocking experiences!