Needles Eye Wilderness area.

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splitshot said:
Gila River area below San Carlos dam. Anyone checked this area out?

Interactive map, pan north east of the Dripping Springs area.

Wilderness.net - National Wilderness Preservation System Map
Click to expand...

Maybe its me but I dont see very many roads.

Have you or can you pick up Tucson wash off hwy 77 by Oracle and drive it to Mammoth. I jump in Tucson wash around Tiger when I last came down to see you all and want to go back. Remote, great scenery, and lot of little mines.
 
I have not been there. I found this link:

Needle's Eye

It had the following text.

Access

Currently there is no legal access to the Needle's Eye Wilderness. From Phoenix, take State Highway 60 to Globe. Along Highway 70 east of Globe, the area can be accessed either from the Coolidge Dam or the Ranch Creek Road. You must obtain a recreation permit from the San Carlos Apache Indian Tribe in advance. Twenty-six miles south of Globe along Highway 77, the area can be accessed near the Dripping Springs Wash. You must obtain permission to cross State Trust lands and private lands in advance.
Click to expand...
 
LandCruiserPhil said:
Maybe its me but I dont see very many roads.

Have you or can you pick up Tucson wash off hwy 77 by Oracle and drive it to Mammoth. I jump in Tucson wash around Tiger when I last came down to see you all and want to go back. Remote, great scenery, and lot of little mines.
Click to expand...

Photos taken 1903 when Tucson Wash was THE road from Oracle to Mammoth.
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I haven't been there, but been on the West side of the 77 due west of there. My experience (sad) is that much of the San Carlos reservation boundary is not only posted as no trespassing, but fenced as well. :frown: I'll dig up some pictures at home later.
 
How to drive as close as it is possible

The only legal access(State Trust Land--not reservation) into the area is from the south off of Highway 77. The road at N33* 05' 22.57" and W110* 43' 01.31 will take you north to the crest of the Mescal Mountains. Several years ago, it was very rough as the crest was approached. It no longer is possible to drive down into Ranch Creek from the crest. Back in the 80's, my students and I would drive that road, turn off on a spur that serviced the power line from Coolidge Dam. We would get as close to the river as we could, drop down off the edge and then hoof it up the river bed to the Needles Eye Gorge. (We did that at the time of year that flow was cut off). We also used that technique to hike into Warm Spring.

For a while, there was a road blazed to the river north of the roads seen on Google Earth. We could pick up tubers who would float from the dam. I do not see that road on GE. It may no longer exist. If it did, that would provide access to the easiest hiking on up to the gorge.
 
I was just looking for a remote river access. Between the res, and the wilderness boundry it doesn't look like much room to explore.
Toys, cool pics, where did you find those?
Phil, there are several Tucson wash access points from Oracle, just need to know the guy with the key.;)
The drive north down the now defunked Copper Basin rail tracks is awsome, IIRC, takes you all the way to Kearny. Didn't you take that route?
Then there is the west side of the Black Hills which drops into Putman wash (all year surface spring there). The end of Putman will dump you at the Aravaipa/San Pedro confluence just after crossing the above rail line.
 
"I was just looking for a remote river access. Between the res, and the wilderness boundry it doesn't look like much room to explore.
Toys, cool pics, where did you find those?"

I was talking to a friend last night, and he thought that the road to the river where we picked up some "tubing" friends might still exist. If we get a chance we might go check it out. You are correct that there is not a lot of opportunity to explore by vehicle--by foot a different story.

The photos were taken by a geologist/photographer, M.R. Campbell, on his way to check out the Deer Creek Coal Fields. Which interestingly enough, are located JUST southeast of the Needles Eye Wilderness on the Indian side of the Gila River. You should recognize his general location in the next photo.(It is now called the Piper Springs Road). At the mining camp in the last photo, he loaded up on mules for the trip to the Coal Fields. There is nothing at the camp site today. Unfortunately, all of that country is strictly verboten to non-tribal members. No permits are issued for that area.
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