BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

back road adventure History's Highway Lapses Into Bumpy Back Road Coronado, Pancho Villa and John Wayne All Passed by This Sierra Vista to Nogales Route

EXTRA WATER, CHECK. Full gas tank, check. Spare tire, check. Ever since the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado marched through Arizona's borderlands in 1540, scarce water and road adventures have posed challenges, so modern travelers should go prepared. The countryside remains so undeveloped, it seems out of place in time, which explains why so many famous Western movies have been filmed there.Only a few old ranch buildings dot the grassland savannahs and oak forests along the 60 miles between Sierra Vista and Nogales, a town that straddles the Arizona-Mexico border. When you venture into the backcountry on Forest Service Road 61, you'll leave behind electric service and land-line telephones, and probably not see overhead wires anywhere except at the now-shuttered border crossing of Lochiel, 19 miles east of Nogales.

Except for U.S. Border Patrol vans scouting for smugglers and illegal border-crossers, the all-weather, graveled Forest Service Road 61 through the Coronado National Forest is often traffic-free. "There's no water or gas stations," warns Forest Service official William A. Wilcox. "That's a cold, hard fact." On a desert morning in early summer, the four-wheel-drivevan left the National Park Service visitors center at the Coronado Memorial, 20 miles south of Sierra Vista, and rumbled up corduroy switchbacks carved by Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the Depression. The road officially becomes FR 61 at 6,427-foot Montezuma Pass.

SPANISH HIGH

Seen from the Crest Trail (left), Forest Service Road 61 traverses through Montezuma Canyon and the Coronado National Memorial, the remote terrain bordering Mexico once tread by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his Spanish expedition in the 16th century.From the pass, the view stretches across 100 square miles of enigmatic border. Like a brushstroke across a large canvas, the San Pedro River flows out of Mexico through a greenbelt noted for birding, in an otherwise brown sea of grass that history has often marched across.flashed their white tails in alarm, before melting into the underbrush.

In his search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, Coronado cut a swath north through here, all the way to present-day Kansas. During the last two Mexican revolutions, major battles were waged along the border. The Mexican bandit-general Pancho Villa enjoyed these same sights. Forty-niners attempting a shortcut to California's gold fields often perished in the broiling desert. Nowadays, Mexican immigrants slipping over the border call the area El Camino del Diablo, the "Devil's Road."

Climb the groomed quarter-mile trail from the Montezuma Pass parking lot to the picnic ramada atop 7,401-foot Montezuma Peak for an eagle's-eye view of where FR 61 will take you. You can see 60 miles east, west and south into Mexico-all of it smugglers' country.

"There's no question illegal stuff goes on out there," says Wilcox. "If people see something strange," he advises, "they ought to drive by it." His fire crews sometimes encounter armed men. "We're real cautious now," Wilcox says, "and we expect the public to be the same way." Travel on 61 is considered safe, but Wilcox urges caution when camping overnight.

Our survival checklist included sandwiches and ice-cold sodas, full water jugs and full tank of gas. The morning began cool as the air-conditioned SUV descended from the pass into dense scrub oak forest for 1.5 miles to the side road up Copper Canyon to Forest Trail 771. At a razed ranch house where a water tank stands on Oak Spring, three small deerBesides deer, javelinas, cougars, bobcats and coyotes prowl 61. A few intermittent seeps offer places to spot them.

At 7 miles, desert-tough cattle stood their ground in the trickle of green, scummy water that remained from rain runoff several weeks before in Bear Creek. Sierra Vista photographer David Bly reported that a flowing Bear Creek pools into a natural "cowboy bathtub" just below the bridge on 61.

Five more miles and a right fork in the road turns to popular Parker Canyon Lake recreation area, where fishing and boating are possibilities. Instead, we stayed with 61 as it drifts closer to the border. The white bonnets of prickly poppies along 61 drooped as the daytime heat rose.

Aside road, Forest Service Road 4764, makes a 1.25-mile beeline to an unguarded fenced vehicle crossing at the international line. It was time for the tourist two-step: one stepover the line into Mexico and one step back. Not very daring as unauthorized border crossings go, but probably not unnoticed. An array of U.S.Customs Service and Border Patrol sensors listen for crossers.

Maybe it was coincidental, but just after regaining 61 a Border Patrol agent seemed busy at rigging a tire drag behind his patrol truck. The route is swept daily for spotting the footprints of illegal crossers.

The road lifted out of scrub oak past a ranch at School Canyon and onto grassland bench. A two-story, five-bedroom brick ranch house familiar to Western movie fans commands the high ground about 20 miles west of Montezuma Pass. The house appears in such movies as McLintock, Tom Horne, and Young Guns II. Now owned by the state of Arizona, the San Rafael Ranch and its 3,550 acres is officially a state park, but it is only open to the public for scenic driving and photographing the surrounding valley. Future plans for the park include guided nature walks and a historic house tour.

Just beyond the old ranch lies the former border crossing of Lochiel, its government buildings buttoned tight. A concreteSAFE HOUSE Built in 1900, the San Rafael Ranch (above) near Patagonia was carefully preserved by generations of the Greene family. Now owned in part by Arizona State Parks and The Nature Conservancy, the property will be federally protected and open to the public for generations to come.

A memorial to Fray Marcos de Niza, whose tales of golden cities prompted Coronado's Southwestern explorations, stands neglected just outside town.

From Lochiel, 61 climbs gradually into juniper for 5 miles, to a turnoff into Duquesne, where silver and lead went bust. The ghost town has since been revived as a private summer home community. Just past Duquesne, 61 brushes past the ore loader of the caved-in Pocahontas Mine, before slipping through a mountain pass into the lush Santa Cruz Valley and onto paved State Route 82 to Nogales.

FIELDS OF GOLD Before passing by the remnants of the collapsed Pocahontas gold mine (above) near Duquesne, Forest Road 61 hits a mother lode of Viguiera multiflora, or showy goldeneye, in Coronado National Memorial (right).

A circular turnabout of the Yerba Buena Ranch House once owned by movie stars Stewart Granger and his wife, Jean Simmons.

Actor John Wayne, Granger's pal, maintained a guest bungalow at the ranch property. Both ranch house and bungalow have undergone changes under the private ownership of King Springs Gold Club; however, Granger's wood-paneled study is preserved and open to the public for viewing. Coronado often marched on an empty belly. But, after exploring the borderlands, you can cut the road dust at Sierra Vista or Nogales waterholes where iced beverages and spicy-hot Mexican food are served, so near this land that time forgot. All

travel tips

Vehicle Requirements: Twowheel-drive vehicles are acceptable for this route. Warning: Back-road travel can be hazardous. Be aware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of water. Don't travel alone, and let someone know where you're going and when you plan to return. Additional Information: Coronado National Forest, (520) 388-8300; www.fs.fed.us/r3/ coronado. Two-tenths of a mile down 82, Kino Springs Road leads to the

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