Our original plan this past weekend was to drive the Geronimo Trail east of Douglas and to camp out in the Peloncillo Mountains, a low mountain range that straddles the US-MEX border. This little-known area just inside New Mexico is a haven for birders, rockhounds...and drug smugglers.
But when the daily weather forecast predicted temperatures to reach the low 100s, we went elsewhere, and namely north to Arizona's own White Mountains, a primitive range with peaks reaching the 11000s. It's a high range that doesn't get the traffic like the Superstitions near Phoenix gets, and after spending a weekend there, we hope it stays that way.
We left Friday morning at 8:45, our pick-up packed with all our camping gear. The dogs were excited and wanted to sit in the back of the pick-up even before we were ready to drive off. Kevin had made a wooden roof for the dogs to keep them shaded on long drives, and the dogs appreciated the thought. They stayed under their new roof during the entire six-hour drive north on USHwy 191, a beautiful drive along eastern Arizona that starts in Douglas near the Mexican border and travels north through Yellowstone and the Canadian border.
We took our time, as part of the journey anywhere out West is the journey itself: ghost towns, roadside attractions, scenic vistas, and rest stops popular with rockhounds.
We started out driving north on US Hwy 80 north to Benson, where we spotted a three-legged coyote run across the road as we were ready to merge on I-10. The little guy didn't seem too handicapped with three legs as he scurried across the road and hid behind some thornbrush.
East of Benson the Dragoons become prominent to the south, as Mount Graham to the north grows bigger as well. It's a scenic drive of red granite crags just off the interstate, with signs warning passers-by that's it against the law to deface the rocks. The Chiricahua Mountains leer the tallest along the route, with the Dos Cabezas peaks--Two Heads-- leer from the Dragoons to the south. South of those two small heads is where Fort Bowie was, an old Army fort established to fight off the Apache and to protect pioneers along the Butterfield Overland Stage line after the Civil War. The fort is now a National Park Historic Site north of the Chiricahuas and a must-see for history buffs.
"Those two peaks are called 'Two Heads', or Dos Cabezas' I said to Kevin, "when instead they look more like Dos Cojones, or Two Gonads."
We took a break in Willcox, where we gassed up at a Doc's Foodstore off exit #340 for $3.56. That price seemed unbelievable, as the Texaco across the street sold their gas for $3.79 and the CircleK sold their gas for $3.65. That gas station is popular for its ever-low rates in the area, and that gas was the cheapest we saw all weeekend.
But when the daily weather forecast predicted temperatures to reach the low 100s, we went elsewhere, and namely north to Arizona's own White Mountains, a primitive range with peaks reaching the 11000s. It's a high range that doesn't get the traffic like the Superstitions near Phoenix gets, and after spending a weekend there, we hope it stays that way.
We left Friday morning at 8:45, our pick-up packed with all our camping gear. The dogs were excited and wanted to sit in the back of the pick-up even before we were ready to drive off. Kevin had made a wooden roof for the dogs to keep them shaded on long drives, and the dogs appreciated the thought. They stayed under their new roof during the entire six-hour drive north on USHwy 191, a beautiful drive along eastern Arizona that starts in Douglas near the Mexican border and travels north through Yellowstone and the Canadian border.
We took our time, as part of the journey anywhere out West is the journey itself: ghost towns, roadside attractions, scenic vistas, and rest stops popular with rockhounds.
We started out driving north on US Hwy 80 north to Benson, where we spotted a three-legged coyote run across the road as we were ready to merge on I-10. The little guy didn't seem too handicapped with three legs as he scurried across the road and hid behind some thornbrush.
East of Benson the Dragoons become prominent to the south, as Mount Graham to the north grows bigger as well. It's a scenic drive of red granite crags just off the interstate, with signs warning passers-by that's it against the law to deface the rocks. The Chiricahua Mountains leer the tallest along the route, with the Dos Cabezas peaks--Two Heads-- leer from the Dragoons to the south. South of those two small heads is where Fort Bowie was, an old Army fort established to fight off the Apache and to protect pioneers along the Butterfield Overland Stage line after the Civil War. The fort is now a National Park Historic Site north of the Chiricahuas and a must-see for history buffs.
"Those two peaks are called 'Two Heads', or Dos Cabezas' I said to Kevin, "when instead they look more like Dos Cojones, or Two Gonads."
We took a break in Willcox, where we gassed up at a Doc's Foodstore off exit #340 for $3.56. That price seemed unbelievable, as the Texaco across the street sold their gas for $3.79 and the CircleK sold their gas for $3.65. That gas station is popular for its ever-low rates in the area, and that gas was the cheapest we saw all weeekend.
We passed thevegetable fields of Willcox. And then Kevin asked me the inevitable: "What kind of vegetables are those growing there, Master Gardener?" I had no idea, as all I could see were small green seedlings.
http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Butterfield.html
http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Butterfield.html
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