Anybody here been through Crown King Trail lately? I'll be down in Phoenix this weekend and thought it would be a nice detour on the way back to Flagstaff Sunday.
Just wondering about recent conditions and whether or not a stock 5th gen would handle it ok. I've heard many contradicting statements saying it's an easy trail that a 2wd can handle, and others where 4x4 and a lift is required.
Because 1/it is known to change all the time and 2/ people talk thinking they are the measuring stick everyone uses. I use the Charlie Wells and Peter Massey 4wd guides especially the former when I refer to ratings.
A 2wd will NOT get through.
As of Fall 2018:
Section to river bed is a dirt road. The 6-7 optional obstacles have enough room, mostly, so that trail rigs can work there while others pass. This part also offers the best scenery.
River bed is upper-end moderate, low-end difficult if you use the Charlie Wells' 4wheel drive guide standards. We heard one ping so nothing. Stock height. I would take a lifted Subaru through that also but it is about the limit for a Subaru with an experienced driver.
Then after the riverbed the section Wells marked as difficult years ago ends. But now it is different. You negotiate a short easy shelf road and then you get to a creek crossing, which is easy.
The two mandatory difficult spots are now between said river crossing and the sharp left turn where you had up the shelf road to make it to the Senator Hwy.
The first is a tall step. Does not look like much on pics but when I saw it I knew we had to drag the skids. So, if you have no armor and no lift, you should stack rocks, which would be hard because traffic is crazy, the spot is narrow, and the rocks are few. Going a bit at an angle may help but it is mildly narrow so not much room to experiment.
The next spot is worse, or not. A rock wall is on pax side going up and a boulder is on the driver side. In the middle are a few awkward rocks with holes in between. We dragged the pax slider there. I am actually not sure we would have dragged anything had we NOT had sliders (it is a 3" clearance loss at rocker). I will venture a guess we would not have hit without the sliders.
Also got very minor rock rash on the A arms, cannot tell on which of the two spots but I believe the second.
Soon after the left turn, the trail becomes a straightforward moderate to easy Charlie Wells trail all the way to the forest.
So, it is all about two spots. But traffic is UNBELIEVABLE and the scenery is no different than on other trails so I would not call it a nice detour.
In terms of difficulty, because of those two spots, I would rate it considerably harder than Broken Arrow, Red Rock Powerline, or Oak Creek Homestead (aka Cliffhanger, which should probably be de-rated to moderate nowadays). Lesser hits are possible and even likely at stock height on Broken Arrow but no dragging or serious hits are required to get through the entire trail. I do not think we touched any part of the vehicle on the staircase.
I hope to re-drive Broken Arrow and Red Rock Powerline multiple times because they are very scenic and fun to drive (and the latter is desolate) but I have no intention of re-driving Backaway to CK. I wanted to have seen it with my own eyes but mostly I saw legions of UTVs and ATVs and spent some miles dodging brush while passing all those groups. Not fun.
