Copper Canyon and a walk to the border (southern Huachucas)

Distance: 6.3 miles (1.4 miles to mine and back)

Elevation: 5938'-6632

Elevation gain: 1265'

Significance: abandoned mine; scenic walk to the international border.

Trailhead is two miles east of Montezuma Pass on FR 61.  Look for Copper Canyon sign.

School got out at noon for our Easter break.  I dropped off the recyclables (I always bring them with me to work on Thursdays as it's the only day I can make it to the nearby transfer station after school) and drove home to pick up the dogs for a hike in the Santa Rita foothills.  It was 1:15pm. Then I checked my text messages (which I don't do regularly enough) and realized that Nina was in town and was looking for some company over lunch at 1:30pm.  So back into town I went to have a quick lunch with her at Native Wings until she had to leave at 2:40pm for her dental appointment.  Claire was also there.  I hadn't seen her in almost two years. It was nice to catch up on old friends.

Having lunch with Nina and Claire was an unplanned, but welcomed distraction, but it also meant I had lost two hours of hiking.  I thus changed my plans from the Santa Ritas to the southern Huachucas and Copper Canyon. I had never been in this canyon.  I packed the dogs in the truck and off we went.  The 30 miles took 50 minutes, through the Coronado Memorial, up to Montezuma Pass and down the pass on FR61 to Copper Canyon.  Copper Canyon is the first road intersection west of the pass.  I parked the truck and we took the mining road uphill at 3:36pm.

The road is steep and rocky, but shaded by oaks and sycamores.  The old mine is 3/4 mile up the road.  Water flows out of this mine tunnel, and this water was a nice relief for the dogs as I packed only a pint of water. We explored the mine area, went above the tunnel to find more artifacts, with pretty views south into Mexico.  There has been recent erosion here, but I'm sure in the monsoon season this place would be teeming with birds and a small waterfall.   The road stops at the mine.  The terrain from here on north is too steep and overgrown so I walked back down.

Former USBP neighbors of ours had told me that Copper Canyon was a popular place for smugglers to pass through and to be careful hiking here.  This was the reason I never ventured here before.  When we first moved here in 2004, we'd find mounds of abandoned backpacks, rusty tuna cans, sun-bleached clothes. I saw none of that today. The water is what perhaps draws the smugglers into this narrow, steep canyon, but north of the mine is nearly impassable.

The canyon walk was barely 1.5 miles round trip.  While this took me 1:20 hours, I wasn't ready to go home just yet.  It was 4:30pm with enough daylight to walk down FR4781 to explore the border.  I had never seen Coronado Peak from the western side.

A truck camper from Oregon was parked across the road from me.  A dog inside barked at us but my dogs were calm.  They seemed to understand that their mission was to hike south on the road.  We passed a surveillance station, an old cattle corral, and continued on the road to the border.

Coronado Peak expands south here and one can see the massive rock slabs on its southwestern slope.  Mineral debris mark where water flows in the rainy season.  Half a mile from the border and I could see the old hedgehog fence.  The near full moon then popped over the ridgeline.  It was as if I had planned this.

Yaqui springs is just north of the border, high up a steep and narrow draw facing the southwest.  It's tempting to go up these rocks to explore, but is it safe, or even legal?  If that is part of the Coronado National Monument, then dogs are not allowed.

This is rugged terrain.  My first time exploring Coronado peak along its park boundary with Sara, Sammy and Sadie, I came across an armed USBP agent lying on the ground with his AR-15 aimed at the border.  He was watching drug smugglers move across the border.  That was a scary sight.  Sadie was around two years old then and we were on an "illegal" trail that started behind the park's restrooms by the parking area.

Fifty feet from the border I came across another white cross dedicated to a fallen border crosser.  The cross listed SONIA ALVARADO SORIANO, age 25, who died at that spot under an oak tree on August 29, 2007.  It seems so tragic to die just inside north of the border.  A nonprofit organization in Cochise County is erecting these white crosses wherever migrants die on their journey within the county.  This is the fourth cross I have come across in the last two, three years.

I rested on the border to let the dogs relax.  Minnie was panting by now.  The two miles to the border on the exposed road, despite the low sun, had exhausted her.  The dogs drank their water, rested, and we returned the way we came.   The walk north is just as beautiful as the walk south.  I seldom see the Huachucas from this perspective. Now the sun was even lower and the shadows cooler.  Suddenly Minnie wanted me to play fetch with her.

I made it back to the truck at 6:49pm.  The dogs drank more water before I made the drive back over the pass for a nice sun set.  What a beautiful drive this is any time of day.  To the south I could see the lights of Cananea, Sonora.

The dogs and I got a good work-out.  This turned out to be another great unplanned hike close by.  I could do a loop hike from Copper Canyon, using forest roads 5714 and 4781 for a comfortable six-mile hike.  The new surveillance stations along the border have cut down on the smuggling through this area.  There is no need for a wall here.  A wall would destroy the natural beauty of this place.
http://www.mapmyhike.com/workout/2791391951