The road access to the Homestead traverses across State Trust Land and at least 3 large privately held parcels of land. Several gates will be encountered and at the present time there are no "No Trespassing" signs posted.
The end of the road where most people park is private property. Also, several developed crags are on private property. Again, at this time there are no "No Trespassing" signs posted. However, this could change quickly so please show all of the gates, properties, and livestock facilities a great deal of respect and honor any of the requests of the property owners or those representing themselves as such.
Camping on private property is discouraged at all and should never be done near any livestock corrals, watering areas, etc. Best to camp away from the private property on BLM property along the ridge a mile or two from the parking area. Reference BLM docs, Az Gazeteer, and/or Gila County Assessor land ownership documents for specific land locations.
An Arizona State Trust Land permit is required to access the dirt road directly off of the highway and this permit can be acquired on the web or at the Az State Land Dept in downtown Phoenix. (easy to get and inexpensive relative to the fines for not having one)
Don't endanger our future access by disrespecting the private property or the Az State Trust Land protocols.
This area is very cool though a little hard to get to, requires a four-wheel drive truck. Your subaru will not make it!! Part of the adventure is the journey.
Beware - Finland and Tufa City are loaded with bees and wasps, at least during the fall. We found many routes with what appeared to be wasp nests, judging from the number of wasps hanging out in pockets. There were also large bee hives visible in certain areas. It would be good to post if it is known whether or not Africanized bees have made it to this area. The sheer number of the pests lurking and flying around made it annoying and it would be hard not to get stung if you stayed there for any length of time. There is also a beehive in a pocket at the handrail section of the trail along the base of Slate Nation. It would be helpful if a local posted any better information on the bee and wasp deal, particularly for Finland and Tufa City as the rock was killer (just hopefully not the bees!).
Tzilla, Every bee in the wild in Arizona is an Africanized bee. The only non-Africanized bees are domestic bees that honey producers have.
A few tips: if you are climbing around a hive don't slap or kill a bee. This releases a pheromone that tells the rest of the bees that it's time to kick some ass. If you do get attacked run as fast as you can away from the hive. They will chase you up to 1/4 of a mile, then give up. Don't jump into the water. They will just hover above the surface and wait for you to come up for air. They are attracted to CO2, that's were they will try to get to first. If your being attacked cover your nose and mouth as you run away.
Bees are like any wild critter. Sometimes they just attack unprovoked and sometimes they leave you alone.
I've climbed right into a large hive and been stung a few times and they rest of the bees left me alone as I lowered to the ground.
Also swarming bees are not going to attack. They are a group that has broken away from a hive that has gotten too big and are now out find a new place to hang with there own queen in tow. They have no hive to protect so they have no reason to be aggressive.
If you really need to take out a hive that's taken up residence on your most favorite climb. Get one of those 5 gallon pump sprayers, mix a very soapy water solution and spray away. The soap does two things. It blocks there breathing pores so they suffocate, and it prohibits the pheromone release.
Remember Africanized bees are better pollinators and better honey makers than our honey bees. (That's why they were cross bread in the first place, down in South America)
So if you can just live with them that is always best. They do good work, they're just a bit cantankerous.
Thanks for the info on the bees, etc. It should be helpful to other visitors. I visited a USDA website that showed the progression of the Africanized bees in the southern US and it indicated that mainly southern AZ was affected and that further migration seemed to have stopped.
To me, in early November the bug situation made the place unclimbable and my partner had encountered a previous reaction to a wasp sting making the aura of the area that much less attractive. It would seem hard to run 1/4 mile through the local terrain there or when tied to the end of a rope to get away from an attack. Unfortunately the less interesting walls weren't as affected by the bee and wasp situation as Finland and Tufa City. Are there other walls with the tufa with fewer bugs?
Unfortunately the big pockets in limestone make great bee hives. We have a similar problem with bees and wasps at the Mustang. One thing we've do is to put out a bowl of water well away from where we're climbing. The bee and wasps are more attracted to the water than us. It's not uncommon to have 20 or 30 bees on the water dish. The hotter and drier it is the more effective this ploy is.
Of course on cold days you can always climb in a bee suit.
Just to let folks know...had a great weekend at Finland. We saw very few bees or wasps-so, head on out. Does anyone know of an updated topo for Finland area?? The old one is not very helpful and we were guessing at routes. Road was tricky but manageable with the Xterra. If you love tufa climbing you gotta check this place out!
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