Story: Ode to Buck and Doe Road

What can I say about Buck and Doe Road in Arizona? Well I was terrified the entire time to start out. I had taken a road trip in 2007 with two friends. I planned all the stops and also made itineraries so we could stay somewhat on track. I decided to take a nap sometime after driving over the Arizona border after leaving Bryce Canyon. I'm pretty sure I gave instructions on getting to the Grand Canyon. Needless to say my two friends who think they know everything also cannot navigate worth a damn and decided how excited I would be if they had driven all the way to Kingman, Arizona! If you aren't aware, Kingman is 170 miles past the Grand Canyon. Which jumps us to our decision to visit Grand Canyon West and pay $80 per person just to be able to walk up to the edge, instead of using my lovely national parks pass at the original grand canyon. Instead of going the normal from Vegas route, we decided to hit Route 66 for a bit and take a short cut from Peach Springs. My friend Rick stopped at a health clinic went inside and apparently got directions from a barefooted native woman. She said "Oh the roads fine, it's gravel, but its fine, we take it everyday." And so we were off. We found the now famous Buck and Doe Road and proceeded to drive 5mph over a mixture of big rocks, gravel, boulders, and some kind of powder like substance that wants to swallow your tires. Hill after hill after mountain after hill. We never saw one sign to tell us if we were still headed in the right direction, the road wasn't actually on any map. I was in the passenger seat and it seemed like every time I looked to the right i was looking down at my death. We had to stop many times just to take a 'break from the road' and we passed one car. The car we did pass the driver was looking at us shaking his head back and forth as if to say "Well good luck, I gave up and turned around." After the total of 115 miles and 6-7 hours of driving we eventually made it to Grand Canyon West and felt like we had accomplished a huge goal we had never set in the first place. We had conquered Buck and Doe Road. If you try this yourself the scenery wasn't bad just scary, take plenty of water and gasoline in your vehicle. The minute I find out this road has been paved I'm going straight to Peach Springs. I have to drive it for myself just faster than my roommates 5mph and I could do without all the rocks and dust.