“My next to last road started out paved, became gravel, and then became a hill climbing dirt and mud road.”
I think I’VE BEEN ON THAT ROAD! The wife and I were doing a trip out there and followed a road on the map (paper), just below I-40. Started out paved, wide & nice...went to well-maintained gravel...narrowed after awhile...finally went to dirt...rooster tails of red dust behind us...drove over a mountain...down the other side looking into a huge valley...eventually became gravel and then paved again. Pulled into Sedona and had to find a car wash. We spent a good two hours out there and only saw three vehicles the entire ride...a small white car, a flatbed tractor-trailer loaded with flat stone slabs...and a covered wagon with a sign that said “Photos $10”.
That was a fun trip!
Mine took a more southerly route down from I-40, coming out at the little hillside town of Jerome, which is a little west of Cottonwood, southwest of Sedona.
I only saw one “living thing” near the road, and it was long after I started and where there was nothing in the form of any human settlement I could see in any direction, but here was this large domestic mutt of a dog - looked healthy even if a little shabby and had no interest in me or coming to me when I stopped and got out and tried to call him to me. He gradually just trotted off away from the dirt road. I saw no person before that or any time after that until I got into Jerome.
Drove from Seattle to Las Vegas years ago. Three little kids in the mini-van, before the days of GPS. I’m not sure if we even had a cell phone. (20 years ago.) Plenty of food and water and stuff.
There was a road that went by some old volcano cone but still continued in the approximate direction as the main two-lane road. It quickly went from gravel to dirt. I bet we were on that dirt road for 4 hours or so. Never saw another car or house until it turned back to gravel.
Saw the old volcano, and I don’t recall my wife complaining too much. A memorable trip. Really stupid in hindsight, so glad it worked out.