Back Road Adventure

BACK ROAD ADVENTURE Grasslands, Ghost Towns, and Wineries Create Indelible Distractions on the Patagonia Circle Drive

I've stopped at the townsite of Harshaw, a little over six miles up Harshaw Canyon in the Patagonia Mountains on Forest Service Road 49. I'm looking for peach trees. Planted long ago by some itinerant Jesuit padre perhaps, the trees gave this ghost town its original name, Durazno, “peach tree” in Spanish. Years ago while riding my mountain bike on these back roads in springtime, I saw peach trees in full bloom. Now in fall I look for peach boughs. I find none. Cottonwood, sycamore, oak, and mesquite, yes. But no peach trees. Had I imagined peach blossoms? Had the trees died, neglected and fallen to ruin along with everything else here?

When one David Tecumseh Harshaw acquired the Mina del Padre silver mine in the late 1870s, he renamed both the mine and the town after himself. In its heyday, Harshaw extended for a mile along this road. More than 20 saloons prospered here, and there was a livery stable, a laundry, and a boardinghouse. The town had a resident doctor, a lawyer, a shoemaker, a butcher, and even an apothecary.

Now, save for a small hillside cemetery, its headstones bearing Spanish surnames, carefully tended and fenced to keep cattle out, it's all gone. Bright scarlet creeper trumpet flowers twine among the burial markers where urns of plastic flowers have been placed. A swift hummingbird tries to siphon nectar from each blossom in turn. Outside the fence, a steer and a few cows chew placidly. Beyond them the dirt road is empty.

The four-mile sidetrip to Harshaw is just one possible detour on the 55.5-mile loop drive that begins in Patagonia. The loop goes up into the Patagonia Mountains south of town, east into the San Rafael Valley, across the northern portion of the valley to the Canelo Hills, up through Canelo Pass and north to Arizona's wine country at Elgin, on to Sonoita, and then through the Sonoita Valley back to Patagonia via State Route 82.

From in front of the Stage Stop Inn in Patagonia, travel east on McKeown two blocks past Third Avenue to where McKeown bends south onto Columbia Avenue. Follow Columbia Avenue 3.2 miles to the fork of Harshaw Creek Road and Harshaw Road. Take Harshaw Road (paved road on right side of fork) 2.8 miles to the fork of FR 58 and FR 49. Forest roads are dirt.

I give up on peach trees and drive two miles back to the junction of FR 49 and 58 where I turn right (east) onto 58 to descend into the San Rafael Valley. After a half mile the road forks. I stay to the right, following FR 58 four miles into the valley.

The vast sweep of the San Rafael Valley opens before me as I come over the crest of a low hill. Spontaneously, I burst into song: Oh, what a beautiful morning/Oh, what a beautiful day, remembering Gordon McRae's opening scene in Oklahoma! The movie was made somewhere near here.

San Rafael Valley is quintessential grassland. And on this day its essence seems distilled,

Frozen in place like a scene in a diorama. Distant peaks seem chiseled from stone. Oaks dotting the landscape appear as miniature pen-and-ink drawings. Blankets of sunflowers brighten entire fields. And black horses, windmills, water tanks, cattle, and log corrals are rendered in still-life.

About halfway across the valley, 15.2 miles from Sonoita, FR 58 takes off to the right toward Lochiel nine miles south, and FR 799 continues straight ahead. The springs that form the head-waters of the Santa Cruz River rise near here. The river, defined by a line of green trees growing along its margin, flows south into Mexico, bends around the southern terminus of the Patagonia Mountains, and comes back into the U.S. at Nogales. Only a thin trickle flows across the roadway where I ford the stream.

Beyond the river crossing, FR 799 rises gradually into the Canelo Hills before climbing steeply to Canelo Pass. At the saddle, I pull over and step out with my binoculars. On cue, Mexican jays scold. Wading through thickets of trumpetshaped lavender flowers, I find a spot where I can look back down through piñon and juniper to the valley spreading east to the Patagonia Mountains and south beyond the Mexican border. Not quite four miles from the pass, FR 799 ends, merging with State Route 83 at a stop sign. I continue about one mile straight ahead on State 83 to the Canelo Hills Cienega, owned by The Nature Conservancy. Protected here is a unique wildlife habitat where rare plants, including wild orchids, survive.

Leaving the cienega, I drive 5.3 miles to where State 83 makes a sharp bend to the left, then straight north on the Elgin-Canelo Road (FR 634). Next stop: lunch at Karen's Cafe, পাঁচ miles away in Elgin. On the way, I detour into the Sonoita Vineyards and Winery to taste a few samples and purchase a bottle of favorite red wine.

At the stop sign in Elgin, I make a left turn onto Lower Elgin Road and park in front of the Chapel of Santa Maria, next door to Karen's Cafe. Each year in April the Blessing of the Vine Festival is celebrated at the chapel, followed by the harvest festival on the first weekend of August.

West on Lower Elgin Road are the Callaghan and Terra Rossa vineyards. There are several vineyards around Elgin, and growers here believe that the abundant sunshine, good (LEFT) Grasses and wildflowers embrace a pond in the San Rafael Valley, a bucolic landscape dotted with windmills and log corrals. (ABOVE) The Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Sanctuary is home to more than 200 species of birds, including the liquid-voiced pyrrhuloxia. JOHN CANCALOSI (RIGHT) Tiny Elgin, on the banks of the Babocomari River, announces to visitors its status in the state's wine industry. soils, cool nights, and dependable seasonal rains provide ideal conditions for wine grapes. At State 83, I turn right four miles to Sonoita and the inter-

ELGIN Wine Capital of Arizona

section of State 82. Turning left onto 82, I drive approximately 11 miles to Patagonia, arriving in plenty of time for a late afternoon visit to The Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Sanctuary, a 320-acre riparian strip running through town and home to more than 200 species of birds.

On a given day, you're likely to run into bird enthusiasts from almost anywhere in the world. I wave to a group of binocularNecklaced birders as I walk the streamside path. Later, having coffee and sweets at the Ovens of Patagonia, I meet the same bunch. They're from Oregon, it turns out, and have been making annual bird treks to south-ern Arizona for years.

This spot is like the rest of the loop drive-its attractions just keep luring you back.

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 In 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.