If you know what to look for, aerial views of Northern Arizona still show the old wagon roads winding along the edges of the valleys. Many of the routes now have modern highways, even freeways and Interstates, but the marks of the thousands of wagon wheels are still markedly visible on the desert soils. If you look at a Google Maps view of Lee's Ferry, on the south side of the river, there is a faint mark running up from the river. This is the old wagon road.
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As I pointed out in a previous post, another road, the one crossing the Colorado at Pearce's Ferry is visible just north of the Interstate 40 Freeway and also just north of the Old Route 66. Almost any view of the old road with also show the wagon road sometimes to the north and then crossing to the south. Obviously, the pioneers did not have the ability to bridge washes or climb steep ridges.
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Because of the nature of the desert soils, these marks may be the longest lasting evidences of the pioneer migration into Arizona!
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