The gravel road into Salt River Canyon in the White Mountain Apache Tribal Reservation is a breathtakingly beautiful valley in an otherwise starkly dry and hostile rugged mountain desert. Summer can be extremely hot, fall is comfortable.
On AZ-77 / US-60 about 38.2 miles north-east of Globe, after a bridge over the Salt river, immediately make a left turn, there usually are tribal reservation information signs. You can follow the usually well-maintained gravel road about 4.25 miles to where Cibecue Creek flows across the road. If there has not been rain recently upstream, you can push or carry the bike across Cibecue Creek to continue mountain biking further along Salt River on the gravel road/trail, or go canyoneering up into the Cibecue Creek canyon, see komoot.com/highlight/151959 (Danger: Flash Floods, do not enter if it might have rained in the mountains).
A White Mountain Apache Tribal permit is needed to bike or do other recreation here (rafting seems popular). There is a self-registration booth at the turnoff from Hwy 60, but no self-registration envelopes nor staff were available, so better buy permits online before reaching this out-of-phone-signal area:
wmatoutdoor.org/purchase_permit.html - It asks to create a username/password. Click on Special Use Permit, Black River/Salt River: $30 per person for the Cibecue Falls; $9 for vehicle recreation as of 2025.

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Elevation 940 m

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Sunday 19 October

27°C

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Max wind speed: 8.0 km/h

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Location: Gila County, Arizona, United States

Salt River Canyon - Cibecue Creek Crossing

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