Thinking Inside the Box

BOX CANYON, Florence Junction, Az Today was our first trip as a group to Box Canyon. Since its still December its still pretty close to freezing for us Phoenix folks, even though its in the 60s during the day. With us today we had Myself (Kathleen) and Nick, and the boys Cameron and Connor; Billy and Denise and their two boys Dillon and Justin; their friends Jim and his wife; My parents John and Charlotte and of course Paula and Randy (Randy who WOULD NOT be left behind even though he had just had surgery on his foot!) To the left is a group picture of everyone that went. But back to the beginning... Everyone bundled up, most everyone besides my dad had the tops off of their jeep. First stop was the Gas Station in Gold Canyon to fill up and for snacks. Then is was on down hwy 60, past Florence Junction 3.5 mi and off to a well traveled road to the right. We stopped to air down at this point. Above is my dad working hard. The kids ran and played of course and here they are to the right. Paula is above getting a refill. Off we went..............................

Here is everyone making their way into the canyon. We eventually stopped for lunch before heading into the tight part of the canyon. See below for pictures of people stuffing their faces.

Above is Jims blue Jeep and Randy... Dont you know you have to go behind a bush to do that? My mom and dadeating and Paula taking it easy. After eating and the kids have stopped yelling "we are starving!" we headed into the narrow part of the canyon. It didnt start getting narrow for a litte while and it was pretty easy going. Below is pictures of us heading in.

And some more pictures of us driving are below. Not many challenges so far and we were all starting to think the rumors about box canyon were all fake. The scenery was beautiful and of course I could not stop taking pictures... (514 to be exact) wow, looks like someone loast a tire!

Then came the "waterfall" which it might have technically been in the spring with water, but it was just dry. The rocks on it were intimidating enough. As all of us stood and tried to decide
the best and SAFEST way down, Jim decides he will do neither and have fun doing it also. Below are some pictures of his jeep taking the tough road. The start was good but he got his

front end hung up on a rock and couldn't go forward or backwards. With the help of Billy and Nick the "rockmovers" we successfully got his jeep out of the bind so he could go back up and down again. The above pictures are before he hit bottom.............................................................

The rock movers to the rescue... Nick and Billy sure are strong but moved the rocks just right so he could get enough grip to get through.

From left to right: The boys safely hiding on the hill away from crazy jeeps. The women taking pictures of men in crazy jeeps and the rock moving contest. And my dad and Paula watching the fun. Then came billy as seen below. Then my dad and then Nick. We all watched from below and took pictures.

After the fun was over, everything else was anticlimatic, well almost. This was the major challenge but their was still more to come.

Randy took this like it was nothing.... Childs play he said... we all cant be awesome at this....
We are all watching a stock jeep head up the waterfall, amazingly he made it.

We hit water after this, there must have been a spring nearbye as this continued for a little while.
Randys foot started to swell so we made an ice bag for him. Connor and Dillon were having fun here in the back of Nicks jeep.

Always the hard way...

To be cont... I am tired from a long day of jeeping. :)