BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

trail tips

Length: 3.5 miles.

Elevation Gain: 2,057 feet.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Payoff: Views of the Santa Catalina, Baboquivari and Superstition mountain ranges.

Location: 93 miles northwest of Tucson; 80 miles south of Phoenix.

Getting There: From Tucson: Drive north on Interstate 10 to Interstate 8 and go west about 28 miles to Exit 144. The 15-mile drive south from Exit 144 is marked by small arrows on slender 4-foot signs at several junctures. Keep right at the first fork, at about 2.1 miles. At 7.8 miles, wind past an old barn and continue south. The surface turns rough beginning at the 11.8-mile turnoff to the left, marked by a corral and yellow cattle crossing. Stay right from there to the campground and trailhead. From Phoenix: South on 1-10, to 1-8 and go about 28 miles west to Exit 144. Proceed the same as from Tucson.

Travel Advisory: To reach the trailhead, a high-clearance vehicle is necessary. Always carry plenty of water, at least 1 gallon per day per person. Hike this trail in early spring, fall and winter. The trail is virtually impassable in wet weather.

Additional Information: Arizona Bureau of Land Management, (623) 580-5500; www.blm.gov/az/rec/tabletop.htm.

A saguaro forest greets hikers as they climb the Table Top Mountain trail. The hardy saguaro cactus has an average lifespan of 150 to 175 years and can grow to 40 feet tall. The Vekol Valley, the landscape sheds the centuries to reveal a richer, more pristine version of the cattletrodden lower flats. Lush, upland plants mingle with desert-varnished basalt and intricate mosaics of desert pavement. Mockingbirds stand alert on saguaros; ravens sweep the cliff and canyon; and flitting phainopeplas pluck insects from the air. Beneath the dark heights of Table Top Mountain, the road circles through a campground containing three sites with picnic tables and fire rings and a roofed brick structure enclosing a toilet.

From the campground, the 3.5-mile trail to the summit of Table Top Mountain begins inside a gate and follows a flat, winding track through green stands of chainfruit cholla, saguaro cacti and foothills paloverde trees. The yellow blooms of creosote bushes and brittlebushes and the clustered red-orange flowers of ocotillos fire their color against the eroded hills of black basalt.

At the half-mile mark, the trail crosses a small wash and meanders up a ridge. A mile farther, beyond ancient ironwood trees in a trenched wash, the gradient increases. At 2.2 miles, a challenging section begins, a staircase of rocks embedded in caliche creates a miniature arroyo carved by boots and running water. From here to the top, vistas open up on all sides.

At 2.6 miles, on the far side of a rugged washed-out area of red shale, the final climb unfolds with a series of switchbacks. A chimney of basalt rises there on the north Aside of the trail, an aerie to the peregrine falcon that soars high above. With rain, these upper slopes support globemallows, penstemons and the blue efflorescence of larkspurs, as well as yuccas and century plants. The last section passes ancient 3-foothigh stone walls of unknown origin before wandering onto the 4,356-foot peak. From this 40-acre saddle it is possible to view the Santa Catalinas, Baboquivari, the Superstitions and a score of other ranges. Relax on the return trip and let your eyes sweep across the stark beauty of this vast windblown vista; behold the slow motion of rock forever shedding itself, grain by grain, across the eons.

In Hot Water Agua Caliente Road Winds Past Agate Fields, Rock Art and a Ghost Town to a Closed Hotel Once Known for Thermal Mineral Springs

HEAT WAVES FROM THE afternoon sun bounced back from the bone-white adobe walls of the former Agua Caliente Hotel. The heat reached under the carport roof where Coit Hughes, 82, of Phoenix, a retired real estate lawyer, farm owner and scion of an Arizona pioneer political family, explained why he still lavished money on the old place. "I keep it up because I don't want it to go away," he said of the once-popular geothermal spa where foreigners and the famous soaked in mineral springs. Arizona's first governor, George W.P. Hunt, was a guest. So were Buffalo Bill Cody and lots of Army officers after the hotel was commandeered during World War II. "This is a place where all the politicians going to Yuma stopped," including his father, Coit Inges Hughes, he recalled. Opened in 1897, the 22-room hotel closed after farm wells pumped its thermal springs dry. "I retaliated by drilling wells and drying up their wells," Hughes said with a smile. Now hot water flows again at 110 degrees, but he has no plan to reopen.

Today the town of Agua Caliente is considered a desert curiosity destination for those seeking back-road adventure and uncommon sights. It represents one understated high point of a 200-mile loop that begins at Phoenix on Interstate 10 and snakes through sparse Sonoran Desert, past abandoned mines, spectacular geology and strange rock art near the mining ghost town of Sundad. Leave Interstate 10 at the Buckeye Exit 112, drive 5.8 miles south on State Route 85 and turn west onto Hazen Road, also signed Old Highway 80. Drive 4 miles to Hassayampa, then 6 miles to Arlington, and 5.4 miles to the signed turnoff for the Agua

Caliente Road. At .6 of a mile, bear right onto the graded nearly all-dirt road that mostly travels through U.S. Bureau of Land Management public lands, and poses no problem for low-clearance vehicles.

About 9.5 miles after leaving pavement, Agua Caliente Road crosses the Southern Pacific tracks and turns westward through sparse paloverde and creosote bush desert. Have water and a good spare tire onboard.

A large rusty storage tank 6 miles beyond the rail crossing marks the location of the abandoned Dixie Mine. The surrounding area is popular with rock hounds looking for agates, but avoid the open shafts.

Mark and Melanie Hoffmeyer of Mesa, both former Air Force noncoms, started before the heat and by midmorning, had collected a bottleful of the oddly marked stones. "Our goal," said Mark, "is to create a lamp with sliced agate."

Beyond the agate fields, 1,358-foot Fourth of July Butte, reportedly named by picnickers in the 1890s, and 2,215-foot Yellow Medicine Butte-both part of the Gila Bend Mountain chain-present prominent landmarks. Agua Caliente Road travels through low mountain curves, gaining 300 feet of elevation through Yellow Medicine Butte Pass, then loses 500 feet as it settles back into the low desert.

Watch on the south side of the road 18.1 miles past Fourth of July Butte for modern rock art comprised of a large anchor, star, cross and circles where a 1.5-mile fourwheel-drive side road leads to the ghost town of Sundad. Some crumbled foundations and a shaft remain. Tailings are visible from the road.

Montezuma Head, the most striking landmark around, lies southeast of Sundad. The "head" appears as a monolithic sculpture chiseled into 1,863foot Face Mountain.From Sundad, the road descends into the Hyder Valley farming district. At just a little over 5 miles, turn left (south) at 555th Avenue. Continue 4.6 miles past the jojoba farms to Hyder Road, across the railroad tracks. Turn right (west) and drive approximately 4.3 miles to 76th Avenue East, a paved road that runs south over the saddle of Agua

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK

Built of local lava rock, the longstanding schoolhouse sits empty in the old settlement of Agua Caliente.Caliente Mountain, and into the town of Agua Caliente.

Once in Agua Caliente, remain on the pavement for 1.2 miles, past a sprinkling of houses. An old one-room schoolhouse built of local lava rock sits on one side of the road and the Agua Caliente Hotel, the largest building around, on the other. Both are on Hughes' private property, where trespassers are discouraged.

Some guidebooks list Agua Caliente as a ghost town, but that's only partly true. The town straddles the line between Yuma and Maricopa counties. That was an important difference when one county's drinking laws were more liberal than the other's. The Yuma side is lived in. Most of the hotel and the ghost town repose in Maricopa County. The road passes by the hotel and in .2 of a mile reaches the scattering of old foundations and dilapidated walls that mark the remains of old Agua

PEACEFUL PIONEERS

Caliente. The Agua Caliente Pioneer Cemetery, in use since the 1890s, still accepts new arrivals, but the deserted town offers no services beyond those offered by good Samaritans.

About .6 of a mile past the hotel, turn right (south) and drive for 8 miles on Agua Caliente Road, a paved road that crosses the usually dry Gila River to Sentinel, where services and fuel are available at Exit 87 on Interstate 8. On the way, you'll cross the Sentinel Plain Lava Flow, a broad tumble of lava boulders the largest lava

travel tips

Vehicle Requirements: Two-wheel drive, low clearance okay. Warning: Beware of poisonous reptiles. Carry plenty of water; October through April offers the coolest weather for this drive. Avoid abandoned mine shafts, and carry a spare tire and a shovel. Map the route, and check road and weather conditions before making the drive. Don't travel alone, and let someone know your plans. Odometer readings in the story may vary.

flow in Arizona. Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza, the first European to discover a backcountry route between Mexico and California, followed the Gila River near the Agua Caliente area in 1775.

At Sentinel, the loop drive returns to Interstate speed. But consider adding 21 more miles round-trip and an extra hour by leaving I-8 at Exit 102, and traveling north on Painted Rocks Road to see the prehistoric petroglyph field atPainted Rocks, a pay campground maintained by the Bureau of Land Management. One of the best archaeological sites in the state, it offers shaded picnic tables, water and toilets.

Back on 1-8, continue east to Gila Bend, where services and lodging are available, and then drive 37 miles north on State 85 back to I-10 and east into Phoenix. Plan a 10-hour day for this trip.

On the way to Agua Caliente, you'll ride the gold road to old mines, and it won't be hard to imagine the likes of Buffalo Bill Cody rocking on the porch of the old Agua Caliente Hotel, a stone's throw from where conquistadores trekked into history. AllThe Sentinel Plain Lava Flow, the largest in Arizona, lies along Agua Caliente Road. The massive flow brimmed from a volcano less than 2 million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch.

HOT ROCK route finder