Horseshoe Dam walkway crossing AZ

Anyone know if the walkway under Horseshoe Dam NE of Phoenix, AZ is always open? Wondering if you can just ride up there and go across? Or are there some tips or tricks to it?

always open. no gate or fence.

Was just up there yesterday to survey that situation. No gates or fences for the walkway. There's 2-3 ride reports on the interwebs with pics of riders crossing. The approaches on either side may or may not be a challenge depending on your curb weight and skill. West side approach is rock/dirt and the east side is a good incline but concrete like a khoi pond.

If you are doing the loop including sheeps crossing bridge, I would go over sheep crossing first and then down horseshoe. The other way you have to go from the riverbed up a nasty rocky hill to sheeps bridge.

Can someone refer me to a route map for the Sheep Bridge-Horseshoe Dam
Loop ? And, what's a good time of year when there might/should be
overflow at the dam?

This one's on my bucket list and my window of two-wheeling is closing down.

750 has a very good description of the route. I don't think we have had enough rain in the past few years to have the water go over the spillway. If its not going over now with all the rain the past week it will probably be sometime before it happens.

Thanks guys. The thread grew further than I thought it would. Good tip on the direction of travel. Our plan was to just go check it out, but maybe we'll do the loop instead. It'll be two KLR's a gen 1 and a gen 2.

Go right after a huge rainstorm, they usually release water then. It can be pretty spectactular.
Here is the SRP site that lists runoff, just click on the day and scroll down about halfway on the report page.
http://www.srpwater.com/dwr/

http://azdualsport.multiply.com/photos/album/13/Sheeps-Bridge#

I ended up riding out there today to scope things out. Here's a bunch of pictures so the rest of you know exactly what to expect. I have to say doing a crossing here is not for the new riders. I also don't see how you guys can get past the sharp corners without bashing your bikes on the concrete.

hard to believe how fast rain can fill up behind that dam. last month horsehoe lake was still non existant verde river.

the walkway is tight but do-able with bikes, just pay attn. two ppl wont be a problem to scoots the rear end around the corners easy.

Do you have a picture of the lake?? And what bike did you take?

The lake was probably half full. I took my KLR, but didn't ride it across.

What is harder, the dam or the bridge?

The only hard spot is on the east side of the bridge where the rocky 100 foot down hill is.

When you come to the first concrete water crossing, GO SLOW! I repeat... GO SLOW! Since this crossing always has water running across, it is slick. I've heard of several guys losing it on this crossing and the momentum carries them off the edge of the concrete ford and onto the rocks below.

There it is. I knew I had a pic of that crossing around here somewhere. It comes right after a right hander so it kind of sneaks up on you.

I went to Sheep's Bridge today ...:dllama... and Horseshoe Lake looks like a giant chocolate milk shake................

Those water crossing are REAL slippery. Go slow with your feet down.

Thanks 750volts! and everyone else, I'll be on my TW200 or , hopefully
a CRF230R I'm looking at.

This is the right hander DurtKlod speaks of. Obviously it's marked.