Back Road Adventure

Ride the Grassy Hills of a Cattle Baron's Ranch near Tucson

For while riding across the grassy oak-flecked hills of the Empire-Cienega Resource Conservation Area you begin to feel that you're in the middle of a cattle baron's immense fief, there's good reason. The Empire-Cienega's 45,000 acres is as big as a feudal realm, and, although no longer owned by a cattle baron, cows still graze here. It all started with a meager 160 acres, a small adobe house and corral, and about 600 head of cattle.The year was 1876, a time when land grabbers, mining speculators, and stockmen were amassing huge personal fortunes. Wealthy men were called railroad czars, industrial tycoons, and cattle barons. So, inspired by naive ambition or perhaps downright prescience, when 24year-old Walter L. Vail and a partner paid $1,174 for the 160acre spread, he promptly dubbed it Empire Ranch. Thirty years later, Vail's empire had become a king's domain in more than name. Forty thousand head of cattle grazed on 1,000 square miles of rangeland sprawling across parts of eastern Pima and northern Santa Cruz counties. Located 46 miles southeast of Tucson along state Route 83, Empire-Cienega lies in a high desert basin at 4,500 feet, situated between the Whetstone and the Santa Rita mountains. The preserve supports one of the few true grasslands remaining in the state. In some parts of the range grasses grow to six feet. Cottonwoods, willows, and velvet ash grow along Cienega Creek, which bubbles to the surface near the original ranch headquarters. Hillsides are covered with oak, juniper, and scattered mesquite. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the conservation area consists of portions of the former Empire, Cienega, and Rose Tree ranches.

For me, Empire-Cienega always seems to be on the way to somewhere else. On the way to Sonoita or Patagonia, the Huachuca or Santa Rita mountains, the San Pedro River, Bisbee, Douglas. It's not much of a detour, 16 to 20 miles, depending on the number of byways I follow and the amount of time I don't mind whiling away. Although it lengthens my journey, a drive through the conservation area doubles the pleasure.

The turnoff onto Empire Ranch Road is on the east side of State Route 83, just south of Milepost 40, approximately 20 miles south of Interstate 10. A sign clearly marks the entrance. Another entrance is on State Route 82 four miles east of Sonoita. What I usually prefer, depending on my destination, is to enter one gate and exit the other.

After about .8 of a mile, the road approaches a kiosk which shelters a guest register. Interpretive bulletins are sometimes posted here, and maps of the preserve, when available, also can be picked up at this point. During the week, I usually see only a few names before mine in the register. Sometimes I meet other visitors on the roads that lace the area. Often I see no one at all.

Walter L. Vail's original adobe homestead stands amid a group of other ranch buildings 3.3 miles east of the entrance. After acquiring the property in July, 1876, Vail and one of his partners, an Englishman named Herbert Hislop, spent the night sleeping on the mud floor in the windowless house. When Vail brought his bride to Empire Ranch in 1884, he built onto the house. One of the additions was a large living room with a bay window.

You come to a road fork near several corrals just east (right side of the fork) of ranch headquarters. At this point, Empire Ranch Road continues north; South Road meanders south-southeast.

Picnicking and camping are allowed just about anywhere on Empire-Cienega, unless otherwise posted. On a typical weekend, bird-watchers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and hikers are encamped. One cool spring afternoon, I happened upon the camp of about 12 kennel club members, and I spent an enjoyable hour watching them run their bird dogs through field trials.

Beyond the picnic area a short distance, Cienega Creek surfaces and flows about 10 miles before going underground again. Eventually the creek joins Pantano Wash near the Rincon Mountains 20 miles north of ranch headquarters. For five years, Vail and others operated Total Wreck, a very profitable silver mine, near Pantano Wash. In its heyday, the mine supported a

community of 300 people, and its profits helped Vail develop Empire Ranch.

Four and a half miles from ranch headquarters, on Empire Ranch Road, the roadway rises to follow the crest of a dike erected when the cienega, "marsh," was drained for agriculture. Green fields parallel the left side of the road and a floodcontrol ditch runs along the right side. No crops are grown here now, but cows graze, a reminder that this is still a working cattle ranch.

For most passenger cars, the tour of the north portion of Empire-Cienega ends here. But if your vehicle has four-wheel drive, the fun has just begun. A number of "real" back roads take off from this point to meander slowly, very slowly, up into Apache, Mattie, and Spring Water canyons.

I've spent many a happy weekend exploring these roads on my mountain bike, which, unfortunately, is not equipped with an odometer, so I can't give distances between points. When I'm enjoying an outing, time and distance become irrelevant anyway.

At this point, you can turn around and drive back to the road fork near the corrals. From here you can go back the (OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP) Rancher Walter Vail's house, which he enlarged when he brought his new wife there in 1884, still stands on the property.

(BELOW) Storm clouds build over the rolling grasslands.

(LEFT) Giant cottonwoods line a small creek near the picnic area at Empire-Cienega. Visitors can picnic and camp almost anywhere in the conservation area.

The way you came to State 83 or take South Road about 8.2 miles across the southern portion of the area to State 82. About three miles from the road fork, another road intersects from the right. If you turn here, you will come out at State 83 but will miss much of the preserve. Don't turn. Instead continue on South Road in a wide loop of about 5.2 miles to State 82.

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

Back-road travel can be hazardous if you are not prepared for the unexpected. Whether traveling in the desert or in the high country, be aware of weather and road conditions, and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape, and you have plenty of water.

Don't travel alone, and let someone at home know where you're going and when you plan to return.