ALONG THE WAY

adventure backroad A 29-mile Drive to and From Six Mile Crossing on BURRO CREEK Reveals Diverse WILDLIFE

LIKE MOST FOLKS WHO LOVE ARIZONA, I have a soft spot for hard places. I offer no apologies for this affection. I've learned that even the most forbidding landscape holds beauty at its core. Appearances, particularly in the Arizona desert, are meant to deceive. Seen from the highway through the shimmering heat, the terrain does not beckon many. Those who are drawn off the pavement and into the distance, however, always discover some thing, some place of beauty that changes forever their perceptions. Six Mile Crossing on Burro Creek is such a place.

On a good Arizona map, trace down the line in northwest Arizona that separates Yavapai and Mohave counties. Where that boundary line intersects Burro Creek, you'll find Six Mile Crossing. Burro Creek is a perennial stream that begins in the rocky southern reaches below Mount Hope on the 100,000acre Spanish land grant, Luis Maria Baca Grant Float No. 5, south of Seligman, in Yavapai County. The creek flows southerly unchecked for 40 miles, then joins the Big Sandy River above the townsite of Signal in southern Mohave County. For 9 miles, the creek flows through the heart of the 27,440-acre Upper Burro Creek Wilderness. To reach Six Mile Crossing, drive approximately 118 miles northwest from Phoenix on U.S. Route 93. At Milepost 132, a dirt road turns to the right with a sign that reads "Burro Creek Crossing Road," which