Walk around Prescott’s Courthouse Plaza and you’ll immediately discover that there’s always something happening: fairs, festivals, food ... you name it. Arizona’s first Territorial capital is brimming with activity. But for those seeking a respite from the flurry, a quiet drive through the Sierra Prieta mountain range — with its picturesque views — means you can have your homemade coffeecake from Cuppers and eat it, too.
Arizona does not lack for geological drama. Grand Canyon, the red rocks of Sedona and the monoliths of Monument Valley draw tourists by the millions. Residents, on the other hand, often just head for the Rim.
There are mountains. There are hills. And then there are the Dragoons.
Everything you need to know about Camp Verde can be learned by driving Salt Mine Road. It highlights the town’s rural character and provides multiple history lessons and delicious scenery. Most significantly, it accentuates the life-altering dynamics that exist where desert and riparian habitats collide.
The road to Point of Pines Lake (Indian Road 8) plucks travelers from brushy desert and leads into a countryside that’s cracked open and wide. The road winds through shimmering grasslands, where horizons spread out and rough hills prop up a sky of epic proportions. Elk and pronghorns graze the high meadows, and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep clamber up impossible cliffs. Black bears prowl the woodlands, and eagles, herons and ospreys fish the waters of faraway lakes ringed by ponderosa pines.
A former mining camp on the eastern flanks of the Santa Rita Mountains, Kentucky Camp makes a pleasant destination for an afternoon drive from Tucson. Most of the drive to the heritage site in the Coronado National Forest winds along the high-desert grasslands of scenic State Route 83, passing a winery and a historic ranch before turning off for the last 6 miles onto a gravel road.
Relationships are funny things. To make them work, you have to compromise. The same rule can be applied to scenic drives. Some scenic drives, anyway. Queen Valley Road in the Superstition Mountains is a good example. If you’re like my driving companion, Jon, who loves the adrenaline rush that comes from plowing across boulder-strewn terrain, then you’ll love the second half of this drive. It requires four-wheel-drive, which makes me nervous, because all I can think about in those scenarios is driving off a cliff.
The drive from Green Valley to Vail, with a side trip into Madera Canyon, winds into and around the Santa Rita Mountains of Southern Arizona. Inhabited for thousands of years and rich in lumber and mineral deposits, the area is as alive with history as it is famed for its biodiversity. Pack a lunch and plan a full day to enjoy all this drive has to offer.
If you’ve never driven down Interstate 19, which runs from Tucson to Nogales, you might not know that the distances on signs along that highway are in kilometers, rather than miles. You also might not know the highway passes some rugged and visually striking terrain. Ruby Road, which runs for 35 miles (that’s 56 kilometers) from I-19 to Arivaca, is a prime example.
For tourists and locals alike, the word “forest” usually conjures trees, not a stand of saguaro cactuses covered in spines. But candelabra-shaped saguaros, found exclusively in our Sonoran Desert, are classified as arborescent (tree-like), so the “forest” label is hardly a stretch. Nomenclature aside, Tucson’s cactus forest — tucked within Saguaro National Park East and nestled up against the Rincon Mountains — is as starkly beautiful as any primeval forest you’ve ever seen or imagined.
