If camping and exploring trails in the pines with your 4x4 sounds like a great time, then this would be the spot to start. Camping in this area makes for a great starting point for exploring the Arizona Mogollon Rim country near Payson, Arizona. The trail is easily accessible from FR64, Control Road, and located near the East Verde Creek at Verde Glen. All within an easy trail ride from camp, you can hunt geodes at Brody Hill, rock crawl Pyeatt Draw, or go for a hike on the Highline Trail #31.
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From Payson, Arizona, travel north on Highway 260 until Houston Mesa Road, across from Home Depot. Travel north on Houston Mesa Road for 10 miles. Once into Whispering Pines, turn right, east on Control Road, FR64. Travel on the dirt road for 1.6 miles until FR195 on the north side of the road. Travel on FR195 until Waypoint 3.
The trail can also be reached from either direction on FR64 Control Road.
From the west, Highway 260 travel East on FR64 11.5 miles.
From the east, Highway 260 travel West on FR64 11.8 miles.
Arizona National Forests and State Lands are back open for travel. There are still some very important fire restrictions in place. These restrictions can often change by specific areas.
Tonto National Forest officials will close the state’s largest national forest due to ongoing extreme fire danger beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday, June 25. The forest is implementing this forest closure as a precaution to protect the health and safety of the public, employees and firefighters by reducing the risk of human-caused fires.
No one is allowed in the closure area, including Forest Service personnel, unless they are responding to a wildfire or other emergency or patrolling to ensure enforcement of the closure. The order shall remain in effect until July 31, 2021 or until rescinded, whichever occurs first. Residents or businesses using roads in the restricted area to the extent necessary to access their private property are exempt.
Tonto National Forest has been temporarily closed because of extreme fire conditions. This is a link to the official closure notice https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tonto/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD759503
This is a pretty short & easy trail through the woods right off of FR195 that basically dead ends into the East Verde River. There was plenty of great campsites along this road next to Dry Dude Creek and at the junction with the East Verde, but the forest service has since closed this are along Dry Dude and all the other sites along the East Verde to camping. It's still open for day use but closed to camping, bummer because it's a great area to camp. It had definitely been overrun with knuckleheads in the past so it's easy to see why the forest service closed this. Anyway super short and easy road, I've seen large RVs back there. Nice area but no more camping, hopefully that changes.
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While living in the Midwest, I developed a passion for searching out new trails and hidden spots. That passion continues to this day in the beautiful southwestern United States. My wife and I are full-time RVers who travel from region to region, exploring every nook and cranny we can find. While getting to know the locals, we gain insight into these areas and then pass on that knowledge to our subscribers. We truly enjoy traversing long, beautiful back-country routes with epic campsites, but we equally enjoy pushing the limits on challenging rock crawling trails. Our rig was built to do everything, and that's what we hope to share with our subscribers.
Please visit our website https://www.xploremor.net to follow us and for opportunities to join us on our adventures. You can also view our vast video library on YouTube. Xploremor YouTube
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