There is a destination west of Phoenix before Globe called Oak Flat that is a rock lovers paradise. If you want to see some large rock formations, small lakes, and drive on old highways, pack up your UTV and drive out to Oak Flat. You will love it!

Oak Flat is just off of Highway 60 between Phoenix and Globe. There is a sign on the highway at mile marker 231. Once you are off of the highway you can park your trailer in the open dirt lot that is right across from the oak flat sign.

Follow the road around and explore as you go. Along the way, we were happy to see a crane hiding in the shadows of the pond.

We drove until the end of the road which ended at Magma Mine. You will not be able to get in unless you work here. So time to turn around.

Turn around and look for marker 315 on the right. This is where you want to turn.

Magma was doing some drilling along the road that was very interesting.

The roads ranged from easy to fairly difficult. But all of them were perfect for the Polaris.

After driving on the road for a while, there was a wonderful set of switch backs that head down to an old cattle ranch and watering hole.

The water was like an oasis in the desert. We stopped and took a picture of course!

Just a little further past the water hole was an old windmill and old cattle weigh station that doesn’t look like they have been used in years. We stopped and had a snack here. (No, that bone is not from our lunch!) lol 🙂

We loaded back into Seymore, the Polaris and headed back the way we came, exploring little side roads as we went. We only had one close call as we tried to turn around, but it was no problem for the Polaris and Rob, the fantastic driver:). On the way back to the Oak flat entrance, the flowers were blooming.

Who says the desert is barren? It was beautiful. I also couldn’t resist taking a picture of the sky as it was reflected in this pretty little pond.

We drove back to the actual campground area and followed the road to the rocks.

We were surprised to see that someone had built a wigwam here at one time! Pretty cool!

Now, when I say that we drove to the rocks, I mean rocks! It almost felt like we were on another planet!

The rocks here are so majestic in all of their different formations.

And of course, when you see rocks of this proportion, they just seem to beg for you to climb them. We listened, and stopped for a bit of rock climbing.

My son is a real rock climber. He blogs at Cragrats Climbing. If you want to see some real climbing, head on over and check it out. He laughed when we showed him the pictures of our rock climbing adventure. But hey, we are four old people and we made it to the top!

There were also some lovely views of the desert here. Arizona is a photographers paradise because the cacti are so unique and photogenic!

We turned around again and followed the road heading more to the right this time. We ended up on an old paved road that we thought might be the old highway before they made highway 60.

If that was the way the people used to have to drive to Phoenix, it sure was narrow! This road took us right back to where we parked the truck. How convenient! We drove back into Globe and grabbed a bite to eat at an eclectic Hamburger joint called NurdBurger.

The hamburger was very good, but the onion rings were wonderful! If you ever are in Globe, it is just off of the main road and is definitely worth the stop:)

Thank you for stopping by today and reading about our Polaris Palooza. It’s always a great day when we are out exploring the back roads of Arizona in our Polaris Ranger. If you have any places that you think we should explore and blog about, please leave a comment and let us know:)