Trail Overview

This GREAT TRIP is easy enough to run in either direction but will be described here beginning at the Ripsey Wash entrance. The west entrance is shorter if you are coming from that way. Ripsey Wash is a mostly sandy wash, beginning wide and then narrowing down to interesting canyons as you travel up its length. The Desert Willow Tree was in bloom when we did this trip in May. We also saw two Gila monsters the same day. Ripsey Mine has an unusual amount of equipment still in place. Please do not disturb any of it. The first photo at the top of this page shows an overview of the mill remains. We believe the first photo below is the base of an arrastra. The second may be a crusher.Drive to the end of the road and find a horizontal mine shaft. Rail lines are still in place, and there is a spot where they cross over a vertical shaft to a lower level. A small ore bucket on rails took ore from the lower level and dumped it into large ore cars to be taken out of the mine for processing.You'll go down a beautiful, narrow canyon to the top of Hackberry Dam. Be careful you do not drive off the top of it - there is no warning sign here. Now you can choose how to end the day. You can go back the way you came, or you can go down Hackberry wash and ford the Gila at Kearny. We did the ford when the river flow was 280 fps and had no problems. Would probably try it at 350 fps.

Photos of Ripsey PLUS

Want to see more?
View All Photos

Difficulty

large ruts

Technical Rating

Roy Fisher

Feb 17, 2026

Open

Great ride moderate trails enjoyed the scenery worth the ride

Gavin Lura

Jan 01, 2026

Open

The gate for the bridge across the Gila River in Kearny is LOCKED. Private property signs up… perhaps it used to be open. We drove up from Tucson to Kearny to check this zone out, and were met with disappointment.

Sean Regan

Feb 22, 2025

Open

Came in from Florence Kelvin Hwy and Ripsey wash. The first mine entrance has been chained off with a padlock and posted private property. Doubled back to find another trail that ends up on the other side of the closed gate. Continued to the second mine site location where we camped for the night. Next day, followed the Ripsey trial to Kearny. There is a privately owned bridge to cross the river, which is normally padlocked. We lucked out and the land owner was crossing the bridge when we arrived. They let us pass.

David Perlman

Nov 25, 2024

Open

Start and end of this OHV trail is pretty easy but some tough spots that require us to set our Jeeps at 4L. I aired down tires at 16 psi. It ended at private property that we couldn’t exit the trail. The owner of private property was kind to guide us through short cuts to Kearney residence location that this app doesn’t show the exit option. Overall we had a great time even though some tough spots got my blood pressure up briefly.

Graham Taylor

Jan 05, 2024

Open

Ran from Florence to Kearney. Trail is in great shape and was lots of fun. Gila River at Kearney was about 10” so easy crossing.

Michael Lankford

Dec 09, 2023

Open

Ended up exiting on Camino Rio Rd into Dudleyville. There's an old rickety and locked bridge over the river into Kearny which is not an option. The river is surrounded by private property, and some of the 'pathways' leading down were dug out with a front end loader, clearly keeping people out. If I were to do it again, I would double back and exit out of the wash going North back to Kelvin Highway.