Shortcut east of Scottsdale->Verde river->Rt 87?

No reason whatsoever to take the dirt road south from Rio Verde thru the Ft McDowell reservation. Stay on the paved McDowell Mountain road that skirts the reservation and ends up in Fountain Hills and AZ87.

The dirt road might be marginally shorter but will take 20 minutes longer.

Now there are routes east from Bartlett lake that ford the river and end up on AZ87. THESE ARE JEEP TRAILS.

Double Post

This might work for you:

From Cave Creek get on Rio Verde and head East to the end

Turn south on N. Fort McDowell Rd. which will take you on to the Reservation. It will become Mustang Way.

Follow Mustang Way south and at the burg of Fort McDowell it will again become N. Fort McDowell Road. You will still be on the Reservation.

Continue south and it ends at Hwy 87 at the coordinates of:

N33 34.804 W111 40.690

Some of Mustang Way and Fort McDowell Rd. will be a wide flat dirt road. No 4x4 needed. It's graded.

I'm getting two different feelings here. One is decent roads, one is jeep tracks and fording the river. :)

I "think" the guy was trying to tell me about the good road one. But I sure don't see it on the google screen. All I see is jeep tracks and ford the river.

OK, now I think I see it... must be going south all the way along the river; from Rio Verde, through Ft. McDowell, hit 87. Cross the river on 87. So better than nothing, but nowhere near what I was thinking, something east-west. From Cave Creek it isn't much of a shortcut, more like a scenic byway. :)

I am pretty familiar with the area between Hwy 87 (the Beeline) and the Verde River. There are Jeep trails that cross the river and connect to 87. I would recommend having a lifted Jeep, oversized tires and at least 1 or 2 lockers to make this trip. Oh and check the water flow on the Verde, the most that I have crossed it is a flow rate of 450cfs, and the water was coming in my doors at that rate. Please don't go alone. Have fun.

Rio Verde Dr goes from North East Scottsdale east just north of the park. Forest Road then goes south through the town of Rio Verde then across Indian land to 87 at the casino. It's been a couple of years since I was up that way, but I don't remember any of the roads being dirt.

You can google the roadway, and see what it looks like from the air. It might have changed conditions since the time that Google earth took the most recent pictures.

I looked at Google earth and see that the 303 loop still looks like a 2 lane highway going through farmers fields, with stop lights at each intersection. However others say that the bridges are complete, and no stoplights on a 4 lane freeway! So google earth does not update monthly or even yearly. Yet it is more up to date than Bing.com maps. Those still show the old buildings along the 52 freeway in Lakeside CA, and the freeway extension was completed in 2010!


Good luck,

Fred.

My only guess would be forest service road 393. It runs east from below Bartlett lake and ties into 87. I haven't been on it in ages and have no clue as to the condition.