- Thread starter
- #1
So we’ve been wanting to run Schnelby Hill Rd, Soldiers Pass & Broken Arrow for some time. We sent out a few invites but no takers so we decided we were going anyway 
. We headed out early Thursday morning & arrived at Schnelby Hill Rd about 2 PM.
Schnelby Hill Rd starts off as a mild forest road and continues pretty much until where you want to camp. There are plenty of camping sites along the way, but you want to camp off of 153A. It takes a high clearance vehicle & 4x4 doesn’t hurt as there are a few steps and some rocky points, but nothing crazy.
We almost had the place to ourselves. There was only one other campsite in use. The views are great! It was a beautiful evening with perfect weather to enjoy some Carne Asada Street Tacos & take in the sunset by the campfire. Unfortunately, later at night the wind was howling something fierce all through the night causing a lot of sleep interruptions . The temps dropped to about 43 deg. at night, so not too bad if you are prepared for it.
Fortunately, the wind died down in the morning but was still a good bit breezy. At this point the altitude (6,000+), wind and the lack of sleep had the headaches starting to set in .
While I was fiddling with some gear in the back of the truck near disaster struck. My Expedition One bumper/ tire carrier separated at the dog bone that ties the carrier to the swing gate and the tire carrier swung away almost into the rear corner of the truck
. Fortunately, I was able to catch it in time before any real damaged as I was still trying to figure out what the heck just happened 
. It did rip out my 3rd brake light wires. Thankfully that is an easy fix vice a broken tail light & or crushed corner panel. Of course, I left my wire connectors at home. Not a good moment and focus shifted to getting down to mountain. Altitude & wind headache, lack of sleep & now no breakfast did not help 
.
On the dog bone, there is a welded stud that threads into the tracking arm so as the door opens and shuts it shifts to allow the 2 different arcs of the swing gate and tire carrier to work without binding. Unfortunately, the weld on the stud at the swing gate side of the dog done let loose. After looking at it, it was clear that it was a cold weld
.
The mission focus shifted and now I was trying to salvage the situation at hand. Priority one was to find a welder in town. This would be a bit of a chore, but more on that later. The great thing about camping of 153A is that it overlooks the valley straight into Sedona. Line of sight = cell service
. I started scanning the Yellow Pages & called a number & spoke to an individual that said he would have the welder call me back when he had time. Not good so far .
I figured I better get off the mountain & into to town so I can get this thing sorted. I aired down for the long rocky ride & lashed the tire carrier to the swing gate. First attempt, I did it with the swing gate at 90 deg. Unfortunately, while this was easier to access, this is also where the tire is furthest away from the swing gate which resulted in more slop in the rope. After a short jaunt to get off of 153A back on Schnelby Hill Rd, I re-tied it a good bit snugger when the swing gate was closed, though it still had a little bit of play as access is tight, but the bumpers did their job as well as a slow & steady pace did it dd it’s job to avoid any damage.
The decent down to the Sedona valley is a rocky one with plenty of Pink Tour Jeeps & the occasional other tour companies (2 others noted) on the way down. Swaybar disco & trail control were nice to have. The views continue getting better, but my focus was elsewhere leaving my wife to grab what pictures she could on the way down.
I stopped to ask one of the Pink Jeeps’ operators about a welder in town. He proceeded to say how his guy was great, blah, blah, blah, but when I asked where his shop was he tells me but he probably won’t help you because he just does our stuff. Then he tells me about his favorite welder but he died last year or something. Thanks for the help buddy. I continued to slow walk it down the hill while losing count after passing 14 Pink Jeeps coming up the hill. That company is making money hand over fist at roughly $100 a head for each trail or if you want exclusivity, $1500+ for a private tour. Reminds me of City Slickers.
As I arrived in town it was clearly obvious that Sedona traffic blows
. It’s nothing but a traffic jam lost in countless round-abouts. I found a place to park in front of some artsy fartsy yuppie coffee shops’ driveway. While not exactly legit, my hazard lights were flashing as I frantically searched through the yellow pages and made call after call.
Yellow Pages referred me & listed numerous welders as being in Sedona, but when I called I found out that one was in Prescott too far in the wrong direction, one was in Las Vegas Nv
WTH??? And another never answered. Finally, I got a hold of Bob’s Welding & Steel Supply . Apparently, they are the only welding shop in town so I would keep their info handy if you are planning to be in the area . Talked to a guy named Jeff and explained my situation & asked if he could fit me in. He said they would take a look. He asked if I needed a mobile welder, good to know it’s an option. I said I will come to him. After a traffic jammed drive across town (1 of 4), I found his shop. I showed them what I needed & told them I would take it off the truck so they could do it on the bench. It didn’t take too long to remove and this is when I discovered that the original weld had no penetration. I remove the bushings & handed it to them. They had it welded up in about 15 minutes, but it took me a good 45 min to an hour to get it back together due to the now 100+ deg. heat, the previous mentioned altitude headache that persisted, lack of sleep, & no breakfast still lingering on . I was exhausted & getting scorched by the sun as I trying to get it tied back together while constantly searching for tools that were just in my hands moments ago. The cerebral cortex was functioning less than optimal under the current conditions 
.
We then rolled just down the street to Whole Foods where we proceeded to test their plumbing & catch a late lite lunch while escaping the blistering heat. Soldiers Pass was just up the street and we had enough time to salvage this trip . They lock the gate at 6 PM. So after lunch we took the short drive & entered our code into the first gate & then unlocked the lock to the second gate & we were on our way. Soldiers Pass, is a short trail and is restricted to about 7 vehicle per day, one which was used by a tour jeep on our day. If you are going to go, get your permit early. https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4251901
It's a nice short & simple easy trail that has a couple of off chutes with plenty of scenery to take in. The 7 sacred pools should be quite a site when water is flowing, but were little more than algae mosquito breeding pits on our visit, but the imagination filled in the gaps . This would be nice to do at least once.
Then we were once again off to fight the absurd traffic and countless roundabouts to get to the Broken Arrow Trail head. It was finally starting to cool off to a cool 96 deg. at around 4:30 PM which was welcome over the earlier afternoon heat. There was again no shortage of Pink Jeeps on the trail so there is no way you are going to get lost. I pretty much just followed the Pink Jeeps as they were all over the place. The trail was a lot less challenging than what I was expecting, but it is a very enjoyable trail with great scenery. This was a trail worth doing and glad we finally made it.
We made it off the trail & aired back up a little after 6 PM. Now it was time to fight traffic across town once again to get back up to Flagstaff & I-40E as we were off to New Mexico next.
Once we got across town & finally on to 89A, which we could see from the campsite going up the canyon to Flagstaff the night before, the real tedious driving took place. This is one slow road & even slower when people don’t drive the 20 MPH speed limit sections at times. I believe the max speed was 35 MPH but we weren’t getting anywhere near the speed limit the whole way up. I almost think it would have been faster going back up Schnebly Hill Rd. It took well over an hour to travel 25 miles. The passing lanes are a joke, what seemed like maybe 25 feet so there as no use trying. No one bothered to use what few turnouts available were. Once we made it back into Flagstaff we gassed up before we began the next 3.5 hour drive out to New Mexico.
This was quite the adventure from paying $7.69 a gallon for gas at one point. Enjoying the beautiful evening up at the campsite overlooking the Sedona Valley. The blistering winds throughout the night. The equipment failure & stress of trying to find a place to get it sorted. The beautiful views surrounding Sedona outside of the traffic through the town. To seeing the opening coverage of the 51st Ballon Fiesta in Albuquerque New Mexico, even though we were in Gallup & was almost temped to drive 2 hours to see it live as it was going to go on all week. To the long drive home through an Awesome lightning storm through Az that would last well over an hour. During that time a spider lager than a Quarter or a Loonie for our Canadian friends, crawled across the top of the windshield and disappeared between the molding at the top of the windshield at which time I realized, that dude is inside the truck . Later while stopping for gas Mr. Spider reappeared at the front top corner of the driver window. I opened the door and it fell down & disappeared. I searched a good bit around but no trace was found .
Afterwards I was chatted up by two guys that have a Ford dealership who asked me where I got the truck saying “You didn’t get it from us” They liked Felix on the fender & the other mods. They took a few pictures and were on their way while I continued with no avail to find that beast of a spider
.
It was coming up on 11 PM after a full day of driving & being baked by the sun when we pulled into the last rest stop before the California border when who should make his 3rd and final appearance was Mr. Spider at the edge of the tray just in front of the shifter. He must have been tired himself as my wife handed me a napkin and it was lights out
. I took 2 hr. nap 
before finishing the last 3 hours of the drive landing at home at 4 AM. It was a trip full of adventure & well worth taking. Glad we went .
Campsite off 153A overlooking the valley to Sedona:
Soldiers Pass:
Broken Arrow:
. We headed out early Thursday morning & arrived at Schnelby Hill Rd about 2 PM.Schnelby Hill Rd starts off as a mild forest road and continues pretty much until where you want to camp. There are plenty of camping sites along the way, but you want to camp off of 153A. It takes a high clearance vehicle & 4x4 doesn’t hurt as there are a few steps and some rocky points, but nothing crazy.
We almost had the place to ourselves. There was only one other campsite in use. The views are great! It was a beautiful evening with perfect weather to enjoy some Carne Asada Street Tacos & take in the sunset by the campfire
. Unfortunately, later at night the wind was howling something fierce all through the night causing a lot of sleep interruptions . The temps dropped to about 43 deg. at night, so not too bad if you are prepared for it.Fortunately, the wind died down in the morning but was still a good bit breezy. At this point the altitude (6,000+), wind and the lack of sleep had the headaches starting to set in .
While I was fiddling with some gear in the back of the truck near disaster struck. My Expedition One bumper/ tire carrier separated at the dog bone that ties the carrier to the swing gate and the tire carrier swung away almost into the rear corner of the truck
. Fortunately, I was able to catch it in time before any real damaged as I was still trying to figure out what the heck just happened . It did rip out my 3rd brake light wires. Thankfully that is an easy fix vice a broken tail light & or crushed corner panel. Of course, I left my wire connectors at home. Not a good moment and focus shifted to getting down to mountain. Altitude & wind headache, lack of sleep & now no breakfast did not help .On the dog bone, there is a welded stud that threads into the tracking arm so as the door opens and shuts it shifts to allow the 2 different arcs of the swing gate and tire carrier to work without binding. Unfortunately, the weld on the stud at the swing gate side of the dog done let loose. After looking at it, it was clear that it was a cold weld
.The mission focus shifted and now I was trying to salvage the situation at hand. Priority one was to find a welder in town. This would be a bit of a chore, but more on that later. The great thing about camping of 153A is that it overlooks the valley straight into Sedona. Line of sight = cell service
. I started scanning the Yellow Pages & called a number & spoke to an individual that said he would have the welder call me back when he had time. Not good so far .I figured I better get off the mountain & into to town so I can get this thing sorted. I aired down for the long rocky ride & lashed the tire carrier to the swing gate. First attempt, I did it with the swing gate at 90 deg. Unfortunately, while this was easier to access, this is also where the tire is furthest away from the swing gate which resulted in more slop in the rope. After a short jaunt to get off of 153A back on Schnelby Hill Rd, I re-tied it a good bit snugger when the swing gate was closed, though it still had a little bit of play as access is tight, but the bumpers did their job as well as a slow & steady pace did it dd it’s job to avoid any damage.
The decent down to the Sedona valley is a rocky one with plenty of Pink Tour Jeeps & the occasional other tour companies (2 others noted) on the way down. Swaybar disco & trail control were nice to have. The views continue getting better, but my focus was elsewhere leaving my wife to grab what pictures she could on the way down.
I stopped to ask one of the Pink Jeeps’ operators about a welder in town. He proceeded to say how his guy was great, blah, blah, blah, but when I asked where his shop was he tells me but he probably won’t help you because he just does our stuff. Then he tells me about his favorite welder but he died last year or something. Thanks for the help buddy
. I continued to slow walk it down the hill while losing count after passing 14 Pink Jeeps coming up the hill. That company is making money hand over fist at roughly $100 a head for each trail or if you want exclusivity, $1500+ for a private tour. Reminds me of City Slickers.As I arrived in town it was clearly obvious that Sedona traffic blows
. It’s nothing but a traffic jam lost in countless round-abouts. I found a place to park in front of some artsy fartsy yuppie coffee shops’ driveway. While not exactly legit, my hazard lights were flashing as I frantically searched through the yellow pages and made call after call.Yellow Pages referred me & listed numerous welders as being in Sedona, but when I called I found out that one was in Prescott too far in the wrong direction, one was in Las Vegas Nv
WTH??? And another never answered. Finally, I got a hold of Bob’s Welding & Steel Supply . Apparently, they are the only welding shop in town so I would keep their info handy if you are planning to be in the area . Talked to a guy named Jeff and explained my situation & asked if he could fit me in. He said they would take a look. He asked if I needed a mobile welder, good to know it’s an option. I said I will come to him. After a traffic jammed drive across town (1 of 4), I found his shop. I showed them what I needed & told them I would take it off the truck so they could do it on the bench. It didn’t take too long to remove and this is when I discovered that the original weld had no penetration. I remove the bushings & handed it to them. They had it welded up in about 15 minutes, but it took me a good 45 min to an hour to get it back together due to the now 100+ deg. heat, the previous mentioned altitude headache that persisted, lack of sleep, & no breakfast still lingering on . I was exhausted & getting scorched by the sun as I trying to get it tied back together while constantly searching for tools that were just in my hands moments ago. The cerebral cortex was functioning less than optimal under the current conditions .We then rolled just down the street to Whole Foods where we proceeded to test their plumbing & catch a late lite lunch while escaping the blistering heat. Soldiers Pass was just up the street and we had enough time to salvage this trip . They lock the gate at 6 PM. So after lunch we took the short drive & entered our code into the first gate & then unlocked the lock to the second gate & we were on our way. Soldiers Pass, is a short trail and is restricted to about 7 vehicle per day, one which was used by a tour jeep on our day. If you are going to go, get your permit early. https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4251901
It's a nice short & simple easy trail that has a couple of off chutes with plenty of scenery to take in. The 7 sacred pools should be quite a site when water is flowing, but were little more than algae mosquito breeding pits on our visit, but the imagination filled in the gaps
. This would be nice to do at least once.Then we were once again off to fight the absurd traffic and countless roundabouts to get to the Broken Arrow Trail head. It was finally starting to cool off to a cool 96 deg.
at around 4:30 PM which was welcome over the earlier afternoon heat. There was again no shortage of Pink Jeeps on the trail so there is no way you are going to get lost. I pretty much just followed the Pink Jeeps as they were all over the place. The trail was a lot less challenging than what I was expecting, but it is a very enjoyable trail with great scenery. This was a trail worth doing and glad we finally made it.We made it off the trail & aired back up a little after 6 PM. Now it was time to fight traffic across town once again to get back up to Flagstaff & I-40E as we were off to New Mexico next.
Once we got across town & finally on to 89A, which we could see from the campsite going up the canyon to Flagstaff the night before, the real tedious driving took place. This is one slow road & even slower when people don’t drive the 20 MPH speed limit sections at times. I believe the max speed was 35 MPH but we weren’t getting anywhere near the speed limit the whole way up. I almost think it would have been faster going back up Schnebly Hill Rd. It took well over an hour to travel 25 miles. The passing lanes are a joke, what seemed like maybe 25 feet so there as no use trying. No one bothered to use what few turnouts available were
. Once we made it back into Flagstaff we gassed up before we began the next 3.5 hour drive out to New Mexico.This was quite the adventure from paying $7.69 a gallon
for gas at one point. Enjoying the beautiful evening up at the campsite overlooking the Sedona Valley. The blistering winds throughout the night. The equipment failure & stress of trying to find a place to get it sorted. The beautiful views surrounding Sedona outside of the traffic through the town. To seeing the opening coverage of the 51st Ballon Fiesta in Albuquerque New Mexico, even though we were in Gallup & was almost temped to drive 2 hours to see it live as it was going to go on all week. To the long drive home through an Awesome lightning storm through Az that would last well over an hour. During that time a spider lager than a Quarter or a Loonie for our Canadian friends, crawled across the top of the windshield and disappeared between the molding at the top of the windshield at which time I realized, that dude is inside the truck . Later while stopping for gas Mr. Spider reappeared at the front top corner of the driver window. I opened the door and it fell down & disappeared. I searched a good bit around but no trace was found .Afterwards I was chatted up by two guys that have a Ford dealership who asked me where I got the truck saying “You didn’t get it from us” They liked Felix on the fender & the other mods. They took a few pictures and were on their way while I continued with no avail to find that beast of a spider
.It was coming up on 11 PM after a full day of driving & being baked by the sun when we pulled into the last rest stop before the California border when who should make his 3rd and final appearance was Mr. Spider at the edge of the tray just in front of the shifter. He must have been tired himself as my wife handed me a napkin and it was lights out
. I took 2 hr. nap before finishing the last 3 hours of the drive landing at home at 4 AM. It was a trip full of adventure & well worth taking. Glad we went .Campsite off 153A overlooking the valley to Sedona:
Soldiers Pass:
Broken Arrow:
Sponsored
Last edited:
Thank you for sharing your adventure with us and for being a part of the Ford family!
