Back Road Adventure

Your Route to Arizona's Checkered Past Goes Traipsing through Old Klondyke

Start from the corner of 10th Avenue and Thatcher Boulevard in front of the Graham County Chamber of Commerce in Safford. Driving northwest on U.S. 70, you leave Safford's shopping strips and fast-food outlets to pass through Thatcher and Pima, small agricultural towns that serve the vast fields of cotton growing on both sides of the road. After 15 miles, you arrive at a sign pointing left: “Aravaipa and Klondyke” it says. Nameless on some maps, called Klondyke Road on others, this graveled roadbed traverses Eagle Pass, a gap between the Pinaleno Mountains and the Santa Teresa Mountains, for about 25 miles before entering Aravaipa Valley. Turn at the signpost. This is your route to back road adventure and into a slice of Arizona's past. You're leaving blacktop now and will not see another paved surface until you return to U.S. 70 some 120 miles and several hours later. Gravel for the most part, these unpaved road surfaces are unpredictable. Frequently nothing more than hub-sucking sand, sometimes red clay that becomes slick slime when wet, and often worn into deep ruts, the back roads in the region are for high clearance vehicles only.

If you own a four-wheeldrive vehicle, use it. If you're driving a low-slung luxury sedan, forget it. If bad weather hits, don't try it, not even in an Army Humvee.

With the road curving, dipping, and climbing over the Santa Teresa Mountain contours, you won't see much but open country at first. Wildlife and cattle share the range, and the last time I drove the road a buck deer with a large rack jumped the fence ahead of my truck, raced across the gravel, and sailed gracefully over the fence on the other side. I saw several deer after that but none with the crowning glory of that big buck.

Just when your odometer reads 36 miles, a radio tower appears on your right, and you pass through a sandy-bottomed canyon thick with oaks. Climbing out of this canyon, the road starts a three-mile descent into Aravaipa Valley, oriented roughly north to south and flanked on the west side by the Galiuro Mountains.

At 40 miles, the road comes to a dead end at another gravel road that parallels Aravaipa Creek. One sign points south to Bonita, another north to Klondyke. Turn right, or north, and proceed about eight miles to the Klondyke store. This is open range country, and cattle often graze close to the roadway. Drive cautiously.

A tiny trading center, Klondyke was probably named by miners returning at the end of the last century from goldfields along the Klondike River in the Yukon. Across the storefront, a sign proclaims that a post office was established there in 1907. And except for the gas pumps out back and the phone booth snugged up to a corner near the front porch, the Klondyke store has a last-century look about it.

Today the Klondyke store and the Horsehead Lodge behind it are owned and operated by John and Norma Luepke. Norma's roots are deep in Aravaipa Valley. Her great-great grandfather, Epimenio Salazar, was one of the first to settle here, establishing a homestead around 1865, where he and his wife, Crespina, reared eight children.Human presence in Aravaipa Valley is very old. Archaeological remains here show that before A.D. 1200 the region was inhabited by Hohokam, Mogollon, and Salado peoples, predating the Upper Pima Indians who later occupied the area.

Some historians believe that in the 1540s, the route of Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led him into Aravaipa Valley before swinging northeast to the Gila River through Eagle Pass between the Santa Teresa and Pinaleno mountains. In time Western and Chiricahua Apaches evicted the Pimas. The Apaches, in turn, were forced onto reservations by the Army in 1873.

After the Apaches were removed, Anglo-American and Mexican-American settlers arrived to take up farming, ranching, and mining. To support these activities, especially mining, Klondyke became a market center with two stores, a stamp mill, saloon, post office, andschool, which at one time enrolled more than 30 students.

To continue your journey, drive north from the Klondyke store 3.7 miles to Aravaipa Road. Turn right onto this track and travel approximately 2.4 miles to a road fork. Take the left fork another 4.2 miles to a narrow road entering from the left and a road sign that says "Aravaipa 1 mi." Turn here.

On the way to Aravaipa, a ghost town, you will see some heavy mining equipment near the now-abandoned shaft of one of a group of claims in the district where lead, silver, and copper ores were mined until the 1920s. Unfortunately nothing has been done to preserve the townsite itself. Buildings are crumbling, and parts of old engines and other trash litter the landscape.

Return to Aravaipa Road. A sign here tells you that Tule Spring is two miles distant; Landsman Camp, three miles. The road going in that direction becomes very rough after a short distance.

Return on Aravaipa Road to Klondyke Road. Turn right, or north, again and travel 3.3 miles to an adobe chapel erected by the Salazar family. A small sign posted above the portal announces "Salazar Family Church."

If you're not accustomed to driving through creek fords, you might want to forgo the trip to the church. The best 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. Odometer readings in the story may vary by vehicle.

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

(OPPOSITE PAGE) Dramatic rock formations dominate the vistas along Klondyke Road, looking west toward the rugged Galiuro Mountains.

(ABOVE) Built and named for one of Aravaipa Valley's earliest pioneer families, the Salazar Church sits on Aravaipa Canyon Road north of Klondyke.

One way to determine whether to attempt any of the roads in the area is to ask locals, people who live along Aravaipa Creek. John Luepke, proprietor of the Klondyke store, is one. He has a wealth of information about driving conditions and creek flows. The store is a step back into the past; be sure to stop in.