Forest Road 61

I loved the scenery off this road the first time I drove on this dirt road years ago. The steep southern slopes of the Huachucas welcome northbound immigrants as they climb up the terrain. From high points one can see Mexican ranches in the distance. The towering Sierra Madres loom far in the south. Between the Huachuca mountains and the Sierra Madres of Mexico is this wide, expansive valley that FR61 travels across. It's a scenic valley as one drives across the grass prairie, but there's also a danger to this area; I wouldn't want to travel through it at night. Signs warning hikers of "illegal activities" mark the road.

The Coronado party marched through this valley in 1539 as the first Europeans in this area. There is a small monument for Fray Marcos de Niza in the border hamlet of Lochiel further to the west. Few people come here to check this area out, as it's in the middle of a popular drug smuggling route. Cattle graze off the road and in the alluvial plains. Raptors fly overhead. USBP vans hide behind tall grasses. Isolated ranches and a few mansions hide in hillsides. In some ways this area is like a Nomansland, and there's a certain attraction for me because of it.

Forest Road 61 ends just north of Nogales at the western terminus, 60 miles and two hours from the eastern terminus. It starts at Montezuma's Pass. There's a lot to see along this route for anyone who cares about local history: abandoned mining towns dot the landscape of the southern Huachucas.

There is something about this area that fascinates me, like an energy vortex that takes my breath away regardless of how many times I drive this scenic route. I could park my truck on a hilltop off the road and gaze southward for hours, if it weren't so dangerous with drug smugglers always getting picked up along the border. The sky here always looks so blue and big, bigger than the sky I remember from Montana, and the sun shines much longer in this expansive valley.

Many small shacks or cabins nestle in shallow canyons north of this road, belonging to ranchers in the area. A few times Kevin and I have driven on these unmarked side roads only to come into a hidden ranch or farm and surprised a few cows chewing on their cud. I really ought to entice him to come back here again.

I left the Scotia Canyon area shortly before 4pm and drove east on FR61. There was little traffic in either direction. There was also little trash in the gutters of this road. I didn't have to stop too often to police the plastic gallon jugs that illegals toss along the trail. If there was any activity coming across the border, I missed it all.

When I got to the Montezuma Pass (6575') I parked the truck and walked what turned out to be an illegal trail going around Coronado Peak. This was my last mini-hike of the day. This trail starts just behind the restroom and stops at an overhang. I turned around there at the overlook. (I thought at first this was a loop trail to the peak) The US-MEX border was clearly visible below. A Border Patrol agent hid low behind a boulder looking at the border through binoculars. He looked rather ominous crouching low behind a rock, but at least he was a Good Guy. He waved at me and asked me "Not to put that (the photograph of him) on YouTube" He had no fear, as I made sure his face was not visible. He was in radio contact with his partner down below in the valley; I could see the other USBP van reflect in the sunlight.

The southern route to Scotia Canyon was exactly as long as the northern route back home: 50 miles in a loop around the Huachuca Mountains. I made it to Highway 92 at sunset, and now I was in the shadows of the setting sun. I made it back home by 5:30pm and Kevin was already in bed. Was he still interested in hiking up Miller Peak tomorrow, I asked him.

"Ask me tomorrow morning" he answered. "I want to hike but I don't think I could handle the altitude."

"OK, so how about Sandy Bob Canyon in the Mule Mountains?" Kevin wouldn't commit, so I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow.


http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/forest/recreation/scenic_drives/border_rd_61.shtml