BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

From San Simon to the Peloncillos, Where Fire Agates Glitter Off Kennedy Road

Before starting out on my back road excursion in the Peloncillo Mountains of southeastern Arizona, I studied a topographical map of the area that the U.S. Geological Survey published in 1987. Two facts were immediately apparent: First, these mountains are not very high by Western standards the tallest peaks top out at around 5,000 feet. Second, most of the peaks are identified by elevation markers and not by names. I knew I was going to like this range. No names on the peaks meant that unlike most of the other mountain ranges in southern Arizona, this one had not been heavily visited or explored. At least that could be said for the portion my aging dog and I were about to visit. The Peloncillos may not be high but they are long, extending in a chain for roughly 135 miles along the Arizona-New Mexico line. The range zigzags from a point a little south of Clifton all the way to New Mexico's border with Sonora, Mexico, where its brushy and rocky hills slither into the Guadalupe Mountains. Across the border, the Peloncillos and Guadalupes become the Sierra de las Espuelas ("mountain of the spurs"), the northernmost peaks of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental. I planned to visit a small part of this wild terrain, traveling north off Interstate 10 on an unpaved route from San Simon, which some maps but not the USGS map identify as Indian Springs Road. The trouble with that name is that no one in San Simon has ever heard of it. I drove through the town something you can do in the time it takes to eat a candy bar and looked at every sign. Then I went to the post office and visited with Postmaster Rosie Gonzalez, who Was equally perplexed until I showed her my map. “Oh, that road,” she said. “That's the one that goes out by McKenzie Peak. I don't think it has a name, but there's a cowboy who ranches out that way, and I can call him.” Rosie was good enough to call Shawn Choate. Shawn wasn't home but his wife, Karin, was. Rosie and Karin chatted for a bit, and then Rosie said, “Oh that's the one that goes 'round the dike, right? Okay. This man is here, and he's going to head out that way.” Rosie pushed my map aside and said, “It's easier for me to show you on a piece of paper than figure out that map. You would never find what you'relooking for if you went looking for something called Indian Springs Road. That road you're pointing to is called Kennedy Road.” looking for if you went looking for something called Indian Springs Road. That road you're pointing to is called Kennedy Road.” Close enough, I thought. San Simon is 122 miles east of Tucson on 1-10. The road that Rosie pointed to headed north from the frontage road at the east end of the town. What this means is that I could have taken the second San Simon exit off of I-10 (I had

of Tucson on 1-10. The road that Rosie pointed to headed north from the frontage road at the east end of the town. What this means is that I could have taken the second San Simon exit off of I-10 (I hadtaken the first one, which leads through town). The second exit is Portal Road. From there I could have looped north over the highway for about a quarter-mile to the point where there is a sign for the frontage road. I could have taken a right onto the frontage road for a short distance to the first dirt road on my left (north), which has a sign identifying it as Kennedy Road. That is the easiest way to find the road into the Peloncillos from San Simon. The frontage road is paved; Kennedy Road is not. However, for the first 12 miles north into the Peloncillos, it's a relatively smooth route through buff-colored hills covered with greasewood bushes. Soon