A good way to scout out the terrain ahead of time . . . .

[Skywola]

If you get Google Earth and then add this - http://www.arizonagoldprospectors.co...-google-earth/ - you can find where mining claims are and aren't. Avoid being shot. :P

That part of this post may have been redundant for some readers, but hopefully this won't:

If you want to scout out terrain, before you actually arrive on the scene, here is a neat tool:

http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl39615.htm 3D!

[BenThereDoneThat]

Nice....thank you for posting that, 3D works good

[Skywola]

This thing saved me a bit of frustration. I was planning on a trip up to Wickenburg, based on the the Google earth information that gives quite a bit of info, but no 3D. After checking out the 3D map, I became convinced that it would not be possible to drive into the area, it is just to rough for my vehicle. I wouldn't mind hiking into it, but I don't like leaving my vehicle to far away. So I decided instead to check out the Lake Pleasant area, at the entrance I asked, "is there a beach here?". "Yes, there's a beach" - yea right, if you call a friggin moonscape a beach, I guess you could have qualified that as a beach, where was the beach SAND? Actually my plans were to go north of Lake Pleasant, into BLM land, so I was not to disappointed with that, what can you expect from a tourist trap?
I went north into BLM land and found a bunch of shell casings, a strip of metal about 3 inches long, and a small piece of metal that seemed kind of light for setting off a metal detector, it did not seem to be aluminum. Not much else to add, I didn't find anything to hoot about, but I did have fun.
After that, I decided to confirm, one way or another my suspicions regarding the original site I picked out . . . . I drove up to Wickenburg, and I was definitely right about that site . . . . . in fact, I think that the 3D map (the link to it is listed above) does not show things quite to scale, as far as height goes . . . double the effect and you probably have it about right.