Dixon's Winter Escapades: ATV Ride to Cochrane Coke Ovens

We just returned from an all day ATV ride to the Cochrane Coke Ovens. The day was beautiful and warm, about 27 degrees and sunny. We went to the Coke Ovens last year via a different much more extreme and difficult route and I am sorry to say I would never go that way again. If my hair wasn't already white, it would have been by the end of that ride! Friends told us of another way to go that was much more enjoyable with only a couple of difficult spots. Our friends Ann and Trent had never been to the Coke Ovens so we decided to try to find the easier route. It meant trailering our rigs to just east of the small town of Superior, about a 30 minute scenic drive and taking a dirt road in to the starting point. We left about 0830 hours this morning.

We are just leaving our staging grounds heading into the mountains to the south of the town of Superior

We are heading into a small wash. It is interesting to see the Cottonwood trees are just starting to have their leaves turn yellow when at home, the leaves have been totally gone from the trees for months now!

If you look up at the ridge you will see a hanging rock. It is amazing to see how it just sits there

Unfortunately Doug took one dip into a wash a bit too fast and bottomed out ripping his skid plate half off! Of course duck tape is the only solution. He'll be busy now this week fixing it!! Boy talk about father taking after his daughter!! Between the two of them, our ATV will end up being held together with duck tape!

We are sitting up on this hill looking over the San Carlos river valley, looking to the north west and way in the distance we can see the Coke Ovens and now we just have to figure how we are going to get there. We can't cross the San Carlos river right now as it is up to two and a half feet deep in places and fairly fast moving. Of course we all figure we can find a way!

Looking the other direction, you can see the San Carlos river in the distance

Doug and Craig having a reconnoitering discussion!

A whoop of excitement went up as we finally came around the corner and saw the Coke Ovens in the distance! We were so proud of our trail blazing skills. It took us about 3 hours of hard driving to get here though

Doug and I infront of one of the Ovens

Doug and the $#@^& camera! He pops up everywhere when you least expect him

Our riding group: from left: Trent, Ann, Doug, Sharon, Sharon and Craig

The scenery was spectacular the whole way

Down near the San Carlos river we traveled through a riparian area that felt like a tunnel. The temperatures were about 10 degrees cooler and it felt wonderful after being out in the hot sun! We are still waiting for the new cover for our ATV to be ready so we were riding with just the bare roll bars and no protection from the sun!