Welcome to the Tonto Recreation Alliance Website

The Tonto Recreation Alliance is an Arizona Non-profit corporation comprised of volunteer off-highway vehicle enthusiasts.  Our mission is to provide educational and volunteer support to the Tonto National Forest. Our current focus is on the Mesa Ranger District.  For more, see About Us.

Next Meeting:  Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - 7-9PM

Next New Volunteer Orientation September 12, 2012 8-9PM

Click for Meeting Location 

Next Event:  Check back for update

For information about TRĀL programs see this page:  What we do

Sunflower End-of-Season Camp & Ride 5/18-5/20   Cancelled

Due to the Sunflower fire, we are cancelling the Sunflower event.  We'll try again in the fall with a season opening event.

Hewitt Station Kiosk 3-24-12

TRAL volunteers installed an educational kiosk on the Hewitt Station Road near Queen Valley and then did some trail signing work in the area.

Cottonwood Camp Work Day 1-14-12

The Cottonwood Camp site in The Rolls OHV area is in regular need of attention.  We did a cleanup, fixed some wire fencing, put up signs and closed off a dangerous area near the road.

Sugarloaf Kiosk Installation 12-27-11

Our December main event included the installation of the posts for a three panel informational kiosk at the Sugarloaf entrance to Sycamore Creek OHV area. Since we had a good turnout, a bunch of volunteers cleaned up the entrance area and one of the many shooting areas on the Sugarloaf road.

Archeology Class 12-4-11

Once again Scott Wood held an informal class on human habitation history of the Phoenix valley. Thanks for doing this again Scott!

Sycamore Creek Route Signing 12-3-11

A small group went out with Mesa District folks on Friday 12/2 to flag a couple of routes to be signed and then a larger group went out on the 3rd to install the route markers. More than 60 signs were installed, GPS located and photographed. All signs installed included route numbers for open routes.

Four Peaks Kiosk Installation 11-12-11

We got started on the installation of an informational kiosk at the new parking lot on the Four Peaks road.  The post were set in place ready for the next phase, installing the sign panels.

And here's the final product:

Pobrecito Pipe Fence 11-2-11

A group of volunteers helped the Mesa District with the ongoing project of installing pipe rail fencing at the Pobrecito parking area at The Rolls OHV area.

Fence Repair Training 10-29-11

The first group of volunteers received fence repair training to be able to go out and independently fix wire fencing.

TRĀL 2011-2012 Season Kickoff Event

About 25 volunteer and Forest Service attendees enjoyed the Season Kickoff Event held on October 21-23rd.  A big thanks to the Mesa Ranger District for letting us use the Sunflower Administrative site again.  We ran some routes in Bushnell Tanks, visited a lot and ate more than we probably should have.  Now it's time to get to work on a season loaded with projects and events.

For more pictures from the event click here.

Wolverine Pipe Fence, April 27, 2011

The weekday crew strikes again!  We installed 16 pipe fence posts at the Wolverine entrance to Bulldog Canyon OHV area for about 250 feet of fence.   Thanks guys!

 Rolls Work Day, April 16th, 2011

We added about 600 feet of wire fencing along the 1804 road at the Rolls south of the Pobrecito parking area and then fixed some fences at Butcher Jones.  Thanks to all those who came out to help!

Desert Storm Hummer Tours -

Corporate Sponsorship

A big thanks to Desert Storm for becoming a TRĀL corporate sponsor.

Trailer Rebuild, March 29th

To support the upcoming pipe fence project at Bulldog Canyon, TRĀL volunteers helped rebuild the floor of the trailer used to haul the Bobcat.  Thanks guys!

Rolls Inventory, March 6th

We continued with the Rolls OHV area trail inventory adding approximately 40 more miles to the map.  Thanks to all who came out to help.

1st TRĀL OHV Host Academy, January 30th

The OHV Host program is our volunteer educational patrol program and the OHV Host Academy is the all day training session required for volunteers to participate.  The Mesa District let us use their Sunflower Administrative site for the training, a very nice location.  We have 16 OHV Hosts who completed the academy.  Thanks to Mesa District staff who played a key role in completion of the training.

Rolls Signing Work Day, January 22nd

We had a good group show up for our Rolls Signing event with 9 TRĀL Volunteers present and more than 15 new Carsonite route signs installed.  We also pulled out about 15 shot up and broken signs and put in about a dozen route closure signs on unauthorized trails.  Thanks to all who came out!

Cottonwood Camp Work Day, January 8th

The work day on January 8th was very successful!  We had 8 TRĀL volunteers plus a big group from the Copper State Cruisers club show up.  There was a full contingent from the Mesa District as well.  We repaired a long stretch of fencing, picked up a big mound of trash, magnetically raked up a five gallon bucket of nails and installed some signs.   A big thanks to all who participated.  See the Accomplishments section for more photos.

THANKS TO THE MESA DISTRICT FOR TWO GREAT CLASSES

We asked for them and the Forest Service delivered.   We had two general interest classes for volunteers in Nov & Dec.  The first was a plants and wildlife class taught by Mark Taylor and the second was Cultural Sites and Archaeological Resources taught by Scott Wood.  Both were very informative and fun.  Below are pictures from the Archaeology class.

TRĀL/FRIENDS OF SYCAMORE RECEIVES PARTNERSHIP AWARD FROM THE TONTO

The award reads:  Presented to TRĀL-Friends of Sycamore

Instrumental partner in all aspects of Tonto National Forest travel planning and management.  Your involvement in OHV groups working with Federal agencies is establishing a standard of cooperation that could be used across the nation.  Tonto National Forest 2010