Mount Ord

Coming in from north on fr27 was nasty. THIS IS NOT A 3, MORE LIKE 5. It is dangerous in spots and turning back is not easy. Narrow hairpin curves with edge broken away, roll in spots of 15-18. Used 4 low, crawl and lockers many times. Moved tree off road. Great for more experienced off roaders but don't be misled by onx rating. It is not easy. The other entrance from the west is fine. Two lane graded all the way. This is your 3, maybe even 2. There are great views from the top.

Trail is heavily deteriorated with a plant growth coming into the trail. It is rutted out for most of the trail going up FR 27. Only major concerns were the couple washed out hairpin turns. Came across one vehicle, luckily it was at one of the few pull out sections. A sedan could make its way up the FR 626, but would not or at least struggle to cleaning make it to the camping options off the side of the road. Completed in a stock Jeep 2 dr Wrangler Rubicon.

This portion is difficult. Turned around with my stock Jeep.

Much of this is washed out now...no longer a 3/10...more like 6 - 8 out of 10. Just based on the rutting alone.

Started from the north side. Many washed out spots, especially on tight turns. Overgrown with vegetation and a few small dead trees. Had to bend a couple down to try and push them from obstructing the road in a couple spots. Likely remnants of the past fire. Lots of pinstripes. Most buffing out. Challenging for my ZR2 due to risky tight turns. Very rutted now with many uneven and off camber situations often right at the edge of steep shelfs. Likely easier for smaller vehicles with tighter wheelbases, and would advise against full size trucks. There was one tight turn with a washed out portion of road on the curve, with a steep drop off that would be game over if you drop into it, so I opted to abort and head back. Was too risky doing it solo and needed a spotter. Had to drive a large portion of a sketchy section in reverse with my rear camera since there are few places you can turn a truck around back in there. Some white knuckle driving in a small pick up truck, even a capable one like a ZR2.

Fun trail up the North side of Mt ORD. Had to remove two big trees from the trail to get through. Some tricky washed out switchbacks..

Trail is rated a 4. I've been on numerous 6s. This was way worse than anything I ever encountered on a 6. Trail was severely deteriorated in many places. Multiple switchbacks were eroded so bad I was not sure we were going to get around them. We had to stack rocks in washout areas to avoid falling in as we negotiated turn. It was very sketchy. We were in a 4 door Bronco which didn't help. I think a 2 door jeep would have had a easier time negotiating the switchbacks. Many, many deep washouts. Very rocky, really glad I had bash plates. Figure on some AZ pinstripes. Normally I like a bit of a challenge but this was more than I bargained for.

I labeled this trail as rough/deteriorated, but its actually night and day, depending on which side of the mountain you're on. If you go in on the West side off of highway 87, its easy going with a 4x4 vehicle up to the Lookout. On Google maps its called "Mount Ord West Trailhead" (FR626). Its a pretty short ride, but beautiful view at the top. However just before you get to the Lookout trail, it branches off to the left (North) on FR27, and its immediately a whole different ballgame. On Google maps, it intersects with the 87 at the "Mount Ord Trailhead North". Some very rough terrain and large ruts which will have you up on 3 wheels. I wouldn't attempt it without some experience, and a high clearance vehicle with 35" tires and rear lockers. I don't think it was always like this, but the rains have deteriorated that part of the trail. We would have been fine with our Broncos, but way too tippy for the top heavy hunting side by side that was with us, so we just went back out the way we came in.

Washed out. Deep gouges in terrain, harsh corners, deeply deeply washed out. Would not recommend

Jesus Christ. We were not prepared for how scary this trail was going to be. We went to see the northern lights and almost saw the pearly gates

Rode my T7 from the north side up back to the south side. The front side is very VERY deteriorated due to the latest rain. I crossed 2 downed trees. One was small enough to drag off the edge, but the other I just broke as many branches off so that I could squeeze under it. Trail was still very technical but I loved it! Would do it again.

The section of the trail that starts on the north end and goes until the first fork is heavily deteriorated and extremely sketchy. It’s a narrow trail along the side of the mountain with lots of erosion which leads to off camber sections with little margin for error. Expect to have your paint severely pinstriped. Definitely don’t take a full size truck on this section of the trail. I wouldn’t recommend anything larger than a 4Runner or Tacoma. 33’s minimum are needed and a rear locker helps immensely in the eroded sections with large ruts that cause lifting tires. Solid axle vehicles could probably get away with no lockers. We took a right at the fork and it was all gravel road from there. The one offshoot on the south side has some rocks and is around a 4-5.

Coming down the route to the northern entrance was pretty sketchy and narrow in a few spots. Expect some Arizona pinstripes

Edit to my following post: Clearance figure should read “10”, not 20”. Fat fingered it. ;)

Agree completely with previous reviews stating trail degradation, sometimes quite off camber ruts ( I showed 32 deg. of tilt on one occasion, etc… All the difficulty is on the upper section, but that section is reasonably lengthy and potentially lethal in some spots. I made this run in a stock Ranger Raptor. There were plenty of hairpins to negotiate with 3 I counted being quite eroded away on the downhill. With the width of the Raptor, this meant putting its nose right up to the mountainside, getting close, then giving it some juice to pop over the depression with your downhill side. Not for the faint of heart. Luckily, we didn’t run into oncoming traffic, as space wide enough to pass was almost non existent. The rocks were all navigable, so 20” of clearance was usually enough. But ONLY if you pick a good line. Same for the ruts. Pick the wrong line, and your stuck. The first photo is on the graded wide road after clearing the ruff stuff. The other pics from an AZ upper rim road run N of Strawberry.