Arizona Canyon Four Wheeling - 4X4 Off Road - Off Roading Adventure

Imagine a time, long ago, when prospectors and traders roamed a scenic red canyon in the Arizona desert. Precious metals were the sought-after treasure. Whiskey and women were the distractions from a hard day of toiling in the mines that riddle the walls of historic Martinez Canyon.

In the late 1800s, miners worked this area, creating the Martinez, Columbia, and Silver Belle mines. Silver and lead were the ores they extracted from the hard canyon walls. Belle Aire, a small town born from the ore operations, once thrived with commerce.

Now, travel forward in time when horses and mules rarely traverse Martinez Canyon. Instead, hard-core four-wheelers crawl over the boulders and ledges that speckle the canyon floor. Gone are the merchants and miners, replaced by a new kind of explorer. These explorers seek rocks and the challenges that they offer.

Winding your way Eastward from the highway that connects Florence Junction to the small town of Florence, you head across the typical southern Arizona desert. The dry climate and warm temperature allows little more than cactus and scrub trees to survive.

However, as you progress, the terrain becomes less flat, and the relief of the desert becomes more rugged. Washes and ravines gain depth, and the tint of the dirt turns the slightly redder. Soon, you find yourself entering a canyon bottom, lined with large cottonwood and ash trees, forming a shady canopy over the trail. Water trickles from the canyon sides, showing the signs of the ever-flowing clear water springs that drip from the rocks

Nearby, timely signs of the past inhabitants of the canyon lie. An old ladder and aged rebar still jut from one of the rocky faces where miners once roped their way up into the mine shafts. There are some mine entrances at the trail level, and, interestingly enough, one of the entrances that still remains used to be a bar and a brothel when the canyon was heavily occupied.

Emerging from the trees, four-wheelers are rewarded with a scenic view of a reddish rock canyon towering ahead. Large overhangs of rock form shallow caves at the edges of the canyon. Where there was once a heavily traveled mining road, now sections of it are hardly discernible. Following portions of the wash will lead you through plenty of boulders and rockcrawling. Portions of the old roadway connect some of these wash sections where there are optional obstacles for those looking for greater challenges. High clearance and lockers are a plus, if not mandatory, on this trail.

A large mill structure still remains standing in the middle of the canyon. This timber and tin building once held several large generators and an old steam engine. Old pulleys and belts still remain along with some electrical components. A fairly long section of the ore-cart track that once carried raw ore from the mine shafts follows a canyon ridge and spans the wash. Rock tailings on the sides of hills lie silent as reminders of mining excavations.