Aircraft wrecks

[tails]

I know its not an "underground" exploration but considering the people on this site and our knack for exploring I figured it would be well accepted. The first Is a crashed A-6 intruder located near Kingman AZ. This wreck required one hell of a ride out on my dirtbike and an even worse climb up on top of a mesa. No trails and no people. I had to comb the top of the mesa for several miles before finding the site. The crash report indicated the aircraft was flying Nap of the earth in bad weather using all instuments. They came up over the mesa and descending into a ravine that cuts down the middle. Well they bellyflopped slid into the ravine and broke apart. Both pilot and Rio were killed.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=889&id=100001317572241&l=0beb15ab26

Second set of wrecks are located deep in the Barry M. Goldwater military range on the AZ mexico border. A permit is required to enter. The area is littered with aircraft wrecks, drone pieces and ordinance. I have the bottom 2/3rds of a sidewinder missile in my garage as a souvenier. Anyway the F-14 crash report stated that the aircraft got into a flat spin from 10k ft. both pilot and Rio ejected safetly. The plan bellyflopped and is actually in one piece. The F-4 phantom was caught in a midair collision and crashed, the front exploding and burning on impact. The pilot was killed. Navigating to these sites takes a good 4x4 and alot of patients. The easiest way to find the debris is to criss cross miles of desert on a dirtbike or quad. mark the sites on GPS then find the nearest driveable road and try to get as close as possible. most are unreachable be any standard vehicle due to the remotness of the sites.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=891&id=100001317572241&l=749771f76f

[tails]

Sorry looks like I should have posted this in another area.

[lobster68w]

That's amazing! I can't believe they just left the wreckage there.

[Dawn_CL]

Hi tails. Whereabouts is that site? Did you get anything from there as a souvenier? I seen something in the pictures i wouldnt mind having. That panel that looks like a bunch of rubber covered switches on it. Also, on a humorous kind of note, im wondering if that part that says its under warranty in the picture.. is still under warranty? LOL

Ive been into Oatman a few times but have never been off the main road that far( (except to prospect with a metal detector i had a couple years ago before i knew that area didnt produce hardly, if any, placer. ).

That little store in the one picture is the place just before you head up into the switchbacks and before you come to Ed,s Kamp which ive heard used to be an old mining camp and mine but is all on private property now. I dont think they even do very much business there at that little store though. Everytime ive been up that way the lot has been empty and the store closed.

If you got down there by taking the old rt 66 out of Kingman right beside I40 then made the turn onto Shinarump and under the i40 underpass then you went right past the area where my mines are.

On another sidenote, i have heard stories around here about a UFO that supposedly crashed back in the 50s out just south of where my mines are located but i have yet to find the site, IF it even exists but people here in the city have said theyve been to it and is still old parts of the UFO still out there. I have been a few miles out past my mines and have seen no indication of such a site anywhere, or maybe im not in the right area. Dunno. I can never get a proper and direct location.

Id like to add you as a freind on my fb if its ok tails?

[tails]

Yeah Dawn go ahead with the FB request, and thanks for asking. As far as the A-6 site, personally I don't take souveniers from major sites, I leave everything for the next person to find. I just take photo's. I did admit to taking the bottom half of that sidewinder missle from the goldwater range, but only because I found 3 more when I was out there. As far as the location, I don't want to put it up the main site, only because then everyone will visit and it will loose some of its charm. I would rather tell you outside the public forum if your interested. Its eary out there. I carried a pistol cause it seems like cougar counrty out there. The top of the mesa is windswept and barron, the only animals I saw were wild burros, but i had a wierd feeling something was stalking/following me while I was out there. Thats the kind of place it is. As far as the approach just before that gas station in the pics, you head south on a dirt road that is not show on any topo maps. it takes you into the warm springs wilderness. you head south several miles then west up some narrow washes. If your in a truck from where you have to park its an 8 mile RT hike up and back and prob 1500ft of elevation gain to summit the Mesa. If you have a dirtbike or ATV you can shave that in half. You navigate up trailess washes and ditch the quad. Then is about 2 miles up to the site. The wreck sits on the top of Black Mesa, but for some reason you cant see it on google earth, I tried. Even after finding the wreck i went back to google earth and couldn't believe the place I was at looked like that from the air. The terrain out there is super rugged as was the trailess hike up. I stopped into that little store and talked to the guy working and he lived in Oatman and had no idea it was up there. Are there any good mines to explore in and around Oatman? or are they all Private?

[tails]

This is about where i left my dirtbike and started hiking.
34°57'55.80"N
114°17'43.48"W

Oh and If you looking for souveniers unless it will fit in your pocket, good luck. The terrain out there was so nasty and trailess that its all you can do to gain the summit, then get off safely. Its a nasty loose downclimb and i wouldn't be carrying out a missile rail and landing gear strut. Without a helicopter you would never get it down. Thats prob why the site hasn't been picked. On the flipside the F-14 site I visited twice. The first time there was a rear stabilizer wing the said USS Kittyhawk, the carrier the plane was based off. On my second visit it was gone, someone had driven out to the middle of know where and used a sawsall and took it home. It was 9ft by 5 ft??? what can anyone do with that. I'm not here to pass judgement on them but it definately seemed extreme.

[Dawn_CL]

Oooooooh i know exactly where thats at tails. That road is the very last dirt road just after you go thru that small area of homes and trailers right next to Oatman Hwy. That road there, i think, leads you out to where an old mining town called "Gold Flats" was. From what ive heard theres no longer a town out in there and the mine was blasted shut so no indication of anything relating to a mine or the old town is out in there. I think the road you are talking about is the very next road past Tombstone Rd heading towards that gas station. Its about a mile or so (if that) before you get to that little rest stop on the right side of the road there before you get to the gas station and the gas station you can see from that little rest stop thing. That whole area out in there is full of wild burros and the BLM gathers them up once a year and auctions them off in different areas of the state. Ive got one at a freind of mines place out there on Tombstone Rd.
However, theres also another old road that runs off to the left just before you get to that store but that road is almost impassable for a vehicle, or at least it used to be. I was out in there a short ways but my old Dodge decided shed had enough so i u-turned it. LOL
Also, if i remember correctly, theres another road that heads off to the right just past that rest stop thing but i THINK tht just goes out to somebodys property. Ive been out that road too that twisted inbetween the mountains. That one was in pretty good shape though which indicated to me it was being maintained. That road just went on and on and i got bored and made a u-turn on that one also. LOL

As for mines up around the Oatman area, ive heard theres quite a few up in there but im not sure how many is under claim though. Not even sure if they are even explorable. Havent really looked around up there too much yet other than hitting a few of the mountainsides with my metal detector on the outskirts of the commercially worked mines. I figured if i worked my detector up there that id come out with a nugget or two but after a little research and talking to old-timers, that particular area was never known for producing placer, only lodes.
I guess researching for the mines up there would be worth the effort since its closer to me.

I sent you a fb add request.

[silverstate55]

AWESOME photos, thank you for sharing!! How fascinating!!

[tails]

AWESOME photos, thank you for sharing!! How fascinating!!

No worries. I see your in Vegas. I have coordinates to a wrecked A-10 in the canyons south of the virgin river. Its in the Virgin river gorge pass just north of Vegas if your interested. I haven't had time to explore that one yet. And It looks intense. You need to forde the river then its in some gnarly canyons up on some peaks. That whole area is trailess so it will be a lot like my A-6 adventure near kingman

[Joanne]

AWESOME photos, thank you for sharing!! How fascinating!!

No worries. I see your in Vegas. I have coordinates to a wrecked A-10 in the canyons south of the virgin river. Its in the Virgin river george pass just north of Vegas if your interested. I haven't had time to explore that one yet. And It looks intense. You need to forde the river then its in some gnarly canyons up on some peaks. That whole area is trailess so it will be a lot like my A-6 adventure near kingman

That would be an amazing trip! Maybe we can get a few of us together to do the A-10. I went through the gorge last weekend and the Virgin is running pretty high so we may want to wait till later in the spring when the level is down a bit. Can't wait too long or the heat will be a killer.

Joanne

[silverstate55]

Sounds like fun! Of all the areas around Vegas I haven't explored much, it's there... too many other intriguing spots to distract me, I guess.

I'm with Joanne, if we wait too long, the heat is really a trip-killer...that's why I like exploring so many mines in the summer, it's much cooler underground.

[tails]

A-10 location.
N 36° 54.223 113° 50.259 W

[acidman1968]

A-10 location.
N 36° 54.223 113° 50.259 W

Wow... If I'm looking at the coordinates correctly on Google Earth, the area where the wreckage sits is gnarly. It looks to be about 6/10ths of a mile worth of a hike from the Virgin River, and about 1,200 feet worth of vertical elevation over that distance.

[silverstate55]

HOLY COW, that's remote alright!

Thank you!

Looks like a dirt parking area to the southwest, just outside the settlement off I-15...I wonder if that canyon wash could be accessed by vehicles to reduce the amount of hiking necessary...that's a good bit of mountaineering involved!

[acidman1968]

HOLY COW, that's remote alright!

Thank you!

Looks like a dirt parking area to the southwest, just outside the settlement off I-15...I wonder if that canyon wash could be accessed by vehicles to reduce the amount of hiking necessary...that's a good bit of mountaineering involved!

By the look of it, the shorter route is if you can pull off northbound I-15 at that turn and park in the dirt off the highway, then hike down to the river and cross, then hike/climb up the canyon. It looks to be about 1.5 miles from the area you'd park, down across the river, and then up the bottom of the canyon to the wreck site... It also looks like there are a couple hairy spots you'd have to work through/up.

If you come from the other direction you'd have to go out through the desert, go up the canyon on the other side of the mountains, over the pass, and drop down to the wreck site...