well welcome back everybody I am on my way up into the hills of central Arizona I'm going to find a place to park the van get the motorcycle off the back we're going to do a little exploring as you might recall from past videos I'm in the midst of exploring the best dirt roads in the state of Arizona right now I'm heading into the hills to the historic town of Jerome We Are Climbing up on a winding twisting Mountain Road just built on the shoulder of this big mountain lots of unique buildings here in Jerome
old historic buildings minor Shacks dilapidated buildings remodeled buildings but very cool architecturally you can see over here up on the hillside to the right that this is exactly what Jerome is known for all the buildings built on the side of the mountain here kind of has a European flavor to it it's got kind of that Bohemian atmosphere here bikers artists eclectic art good food I'm heading up into higher elevations right now it's probably around 8,000 ft or so and I'm continuing to climb I head heading up to a place called Mingus Mountain seems like there
are a lot of good roads around here this paved road that I've been taking from Jerome just climbs and climbs and climbs and see if I can find a place to Camp Up In the Pines tonight where it's cool and refreshing use this as a a base of operations for motorcycle exploring in this area the way it works on a mission like this is that I have one particular road that I want to to ride or travel down and I want to get the van set up so that I can leave in the morning go
do that road and come back to the van and camp out at night and so I need to find a place where I can park the van for two nights and where I can leave it safely and securely for an entire day while I'm out riding [Music] [Music] today I'm going to go ride some amazing dirt roads in this part of Arizona I don't really know exactly how long it's going to take but I have all day to do it so I'm going to just kind of take my time relax shoot some video show you
guys the sites along this historic and what should be pretty beautiful ride on this awesome fall [Music] day all right here we go leaving the campground beautiful place to spend the night I would definitely recommend Mingus Mountain Campground if you're in the area and you're looking for a place that's up an elevation out of the heat well it's not even 8:00 in the morning yet so I'm getting a pretty good early start hopefully we'll have the whole day ahead of us of just riding around in the back country exploring some really cool roads but first
I'm going to go back into Jerome and get some breakfast and then we'll start the journey from there what a beautiful entrance to this little mountain town houses built up on the sides of the road staircases everywhere I like this house on the left here with its porch right over the road going to start to see some shops and businesses now got a famous hamburger place on the right haunted hamburgers Wicked City Pub on the left a little general store in there okay this is downtown Jerome population 5246 founded in 1876 it's not very big
Maybe four or five blocks at the most but a a good collection of restaurants and Galleries and pubs and [Music] stores this is the gold king ghost town all kinds of old buildings and vehicles and from time gone by well this is where The Adventure Starts The Jerome Perkinsville Road and I'm going to head down this dirt road towards Perkinsville that's about 16 miles ahead of me there's an old bridge there we'll stop for a little rest and then carry on and do a loop of it and I'll come back down this road at the
end of the day but from what I understand this next stretch of the road coming up here is one of the more Scenic parts of this entire Journey so looking forward to it and looking forward to that I'll get to do it [Music] twice and we are on the dirt off and rolling nice dramatic climb here looking down on the old ghost town down below very cool you can see the hillside is all terraced from mining activity in the [Music] past this is a beautiful beautiful stretch of road at I mean look at that scenery
down there combined with the road itself which is easy there's no stress involved on this road but it's very dramatic no guard rails some pretty steep Cliffs really happy that I've got some fresh new Nai tires it seem to be doing a good job giving me some traction when I go around the corners feels like we're flying that's one of the joys of a tiny motorcycle is it feels like you're just flying through space cuz there's so little beneath [Music] you wow nice little spot to pull out I would consider camping right here on the
side of the road sometime who wouldn't like riding on a road like this this is the perfect adventure bike Road about the only thing you have to worry about is watching your speed and because there's a lot of Curves and you know it's a gravel road there's some loose gravel you could break traction and it goes without saying you wouldn't want to go over the edge here if you're new to adventure bike riding this is a wonderful Road you could just come out here take your time go slow enjoy the scenery really build up some
confidence and have a great experience oh there she is look at that this is the Perkinsville Bridge what a beauty way out here in the middle of nowhere beautiful old steel truss bridge look down here we can see there's water below us and of course what would an Old Bridge be without its rope swing can you see it there hanging in the breeze couple of them can't you just feel the stress of everyday life disappear on a motorcycle ride out into the back country where you can kick back and relax in the shade listen to
the sounds of the water feel the breeze on your face that is more or less why I go on the these rides these days but the thing that keeps it real and keeps it spicy and keeps it alive is that anytime you head off on a motorcycle Adventure there will be some elements of Adventure you just kind of have to bear that in mind it's it's it's okay to aim for an easy ride that's full of rest and relaxation knowing full well that things might not go according to plan and there might be some mishaps
along the way but after doing this for a number of years years you you get you get pretty good at knowing what to expect I expected this would be a nice ride I was hoping it would be relaxing and rejuvenating and it certainly turns out that that's the case sign says there's another on lane bridge up ahead here not as spectacular as the last one but a nice little canyon here look at the Slot Canyon wow that's pretty cool just look at how smooth this rock is because of all of the water that has just
come through here over the years and there's still water down in the bottom here look at this wow and there's some cat prints [Music] [Music] here looks like someone left their Harley-Davidson parked out here just a gorgeous early fall day a little Breezy Sunny perfect temperatures just a hint of fall in the air I'm heading into a headwind going uphill at the same time I've got the throttle pinned and I'm doing about 35 miles an hour it's these kind of situations here where maybe I might wish I had a bigger more powerful motorcycle we're heading
back towards the Perkinsville bridge and then I'll connect with the route I took this morning we'll take that beautiful Scenic Road back to Jerome well this is a nice peaceful Road through a a beautiful Arizona Valley Way off in the distance over there to my right are some red Peaks on the horizon that's Sedona I'm going to pull over here and stop we'll check out the view here you see what I see that's kind of ominous looking over there it's like Jason from Friday the 13th well this whole day has turned out to be a
pretty darn good day but my take on this particular set of Roads is that it really is phenomenal just an outstanding day to be a motorcyclist up here in north central Arizona we're coming up to the pass that we went through this morning the Notch and The Rock should be just up here around the corner wow check this out oh well how amazing was that I can't believe the things that I've seen in one day riding on these dirt roads these are the best dirt roads in the state of Arizona and I'm checking them off
my list one by one I have a bunch more to come so come back for more if you like this kind of programming and in the meantime if you are interested in more details about these particular roads I would direct you to Butler motorcycle Maps in their new adventure series of maps a lot of dirt roads to explore I've got my work cut out for me I'm going to try to get to as many of them as I can before the end of the year so please do come back for more videos and I'll do
my best to show you all the discoveries that can be had in a day of Adventure motorcycling even on a little small bike like the Honda Trail that's what I'm doing these roads on it's been a perfect delightful ride today I've gone well over a 100 miles and I've got just enough time to make it back down this road that I was on this morning go into the town of Jerome for some late lunch and ride the twisty pavement back up to my Campsite in the woods thanks so much for watching you guys we'll see
you next time
