Smiley Rock

Lunch at the Haunted Hamburger in Jerome, before we began our jeep ride. Out of Jerome, through the Gold Mine and Ghost Town, up and around a mountain and finally down into Martin Canyon. A wild jeep ride through the canyon...so much that we originally missed 'Smiley Rock' on the way in. We were about 25 miles in when we decided we better turn around. The boulders on the 'trail' WERE the trail, and our jeep doesn't have the lift kit or taller tires yet.
At least in turning around and going back, we spotted Smiley Rock! Not wanting to return the way we came, we opted to follow the forest road shown on our map, which ended up taking us back to the mountain, which we didn't want to do as the time was getting late. The forest service map we just purchased is about 6 years old....so we put the map away and kept our eyes on the power lines to the left and the houses in the distance on our right. We opened an old cattle gate and continued .......finally reaching a paved road in a gated secured upper class neighborhood. The houses were huge with 5 car detached garages, horse stables on the back 5 acres....where in the world were we? After driving a couple miles through the community we reached the security gate and spotted the highway. So away we went, over the pass back through Jerome and home by 7:00 p.m. What fun!!