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TRIPS

San Domingo Wash
Monarch Wash

Columbia
Humbug

Gillette to Tiptop
Beyond Tiptop

Tule Creek
Humbug Creek

North of Cleator
Norhtwest of Cleator
South of Cleator

Constellation Road
First Stop
Monte Cristo
Third Stop
Gold Bar

Binghampton

Links

ghost towns.com
4x4 Basics

Other resources

Ghost Towns of Arizona by James and Barbara Sherman U. of Oklahoma Press

Arizona's best Ghost Towns by Philip Varney Northland Press

Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps by Philip Varney Arizona Highways

Printable Directions    click on images to enlarge 

This trip is no longer accessible by a vehicle. Humbug creek in now full of boulders. A very high clearance 4wheel drive vhicle or atv might be able to get through. If you would like to visit the homestead you can walk about a mile.

Topo. Map  Columbia 7.5
Township 8N   Range 1E   Section 19   SE

This section of humbug creek where you are going is about a mile south of Columbia. It is located in T8N R1E section19 SE quadrant on the Columbia topo map. Use map datum WGS84 on your GPS receiver.

This trip should be combined with the Tule creek trip. You have to use the same roads to get to each place for most of the trip.

Take I-17 north to Carefree Highway. Go west on State Route 74. Take a right after mile marker 19 onto Castle Hot Springs Road into Lake Pleasant regional Park. The road will intersect about 3 miles. Turn left. Set your trip meter to 0.00 when the dirt road starts.

2.2 miles	Bridge over Castle creek
2.8 miles	Turn right, the road straight will take you to Castle Hot Springs resort, well worth seeing.
5.4 miles	Right turn.
5.8 miles	Left turn. N 33* 58' 11.0" W 112* 16' 32.6" Stay to the right at any forks or left turns.
6.6 miles	Stay to the right. Left will take you to Humbug creek but you can no longer get across. Check out the dam downstream a bit if you go this way.
7.8 miles	Humbug creek. Use road to the right and turn left and drive up creek.
8.0 miles	Cross Humbug creek
8.2 miles	Stay right and keep staying right until you come to a good size road coming in from the right.
10.3 miles	Road coming in from the right. I will call this Humbug creek rd. Turn left. N 33* 59" 39.5" W 112* 16' 53.7"
10.5 miles	Stay straight. Right turn takes you to Tule creek. Reset your trip meter to 0.00
0.1 miles	Stay right
0.6 miles	Stay right
0.7 miles	If you take a right it will take you to the west side of tule creek.
1.2 miles	Turn left toward Humbug creek. N 34* 00' 33.1 W 112* 17' 21.4
1.4 miles	Turn right and follow the road down to the creek. Cross the creek and turn right and follow it up creek.
1.9 miles	Hidden road on the right and just up creek a road on the left. Take the left.
2.1 miles	Back in the creek. Drive up creek and turn right when you see an abandonded truck. N 34* 00' 53.0" W 112* 17' 47.0"

The buildings here as with the ones at tule creek are not on the topo map. There are 5 buildings here including a main house and a 3 hole outhouse. There is no mine that I could find. But there is a lot of digging into the side of the hill and the creek banks.

If you take the right, which is a rough road going up the hill, it will eventually take you over to Columbia. But you have to go through 2 closed gates that say keep out to get there. Along the way there is a road that leads down to Tule creek up stream from the riparian area. You will also come across an area that has a foundation and part of a stone wall house in the creek bed.

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