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We started with a breakfast of omelettes and pancakes at Claire's Cafe in Catalina. Then we drove to Globe and topped up on gas and other supplies. We went north on 188 to 288 and then to Cherry Creek Road. The recent work on 188 makes this route smooth and fast.
We headed on up Cherry Creek Road. The first part is graded and easy driving through desert landscape and lots of saguaros. After you cross Cherry Creek near Ellison Ranch, the road gets rougher and you need 4WD. This is mainly because the Coon Creek fire has created a lot of flash flooding and rock falls that keep the trail "fun". The trail rating is a "3" -- a stock truck could make it with good tires. A couple fallen boulders make it a squeeze for the fullsize trucks -- the pucker factor was good, but we made it through without touching. The scenery in Cherry Creek and the cliffs on the east side of the Sierra Ancha is spectacular. Most of the road is a shelf road that follows north along the cliffs. The main danger is that you drive off the edge of the shelf while gawking at the scenery. We kept up a good pace and made it to the far end of FR 203 rejoining 288 in about 4 hours. That means we didn't stop to explore side trails, and we didn't search for cliff dwellings with binoculars. (The Arizona Classic Bronco newsletter has several suggestions for these side activities.) By the time you get to the top, the vegation has converted to mixed conifer forest with lots of tall fir and pine trees. In between the vegetation is mainly mountain oak and manzanita. We saw lots of deer and squirrels.
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We camped at the "Falls" Forest Service campground on the west side of the Sierra Ancha. This is on FR 487 in the Workman Creek Recreation Area as you are coming back down 288. It was around freezing up there in the mountains, so we made a moderate but cautious fire. While huddling around the fire, we heard a loud scraping noise on Bob's cooler across camp in the dark. The word "bear!" immediately came to mind, but it turned out to be a ringtail cat who was impressively camp saavy. He entertained us for the rest of the evening.
In the morning we hiked up to see the Workman Creek falls. It was only 0.6 miles above the locked gate, but it was a 10% grade all the way up. There wasn't too much water, but the falls had nice ice formations. Later we stopped to see the "Tubs" on Workman Creek about 250 yards below the bridge on 288.
Of course, every good wheelin trip ends with Mexican food. We found and excellent new place in Globe called "Guayo's on the trail". It is a mile North of route 60 on route 188 as you are leaving (or returning to) Globe.
The Tonto National Forest map is sufficient for following this route. Topographic quads are useful if you want to explore the side trails.
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