Roaming South America

July 4th and more dirt roads to discover

July 6, 2006

July 4th and more dirt roads to explore

For the 4th of July celebrations I drove up to Mesa to visitsome friends and spend the night after watching the fireworksfrom their rooftop. The route I choose would take me through themore scenic areas between Tucson and the Phoenix area.

I started by heading north through Oro Valley up Highway 77then Highway 79. These are to the east of the I-10, and are muchmore scenic. The Sajuara is very thick along parts of thehighway, with great views of the mountains. The drive is a littlelonger than the freeway but worth it.

That night, after spending quite a lot of time in the swimmingpool, we watched the Apache Junction fireworks from the roof ofmy friends house. It was the following day that I took the routethat was dirt roads, something like half of the distance fromMesa to Tucson. I could've driven even more, but a monsoon movedin and I didn't want to be out there on the soft dirt roads in amonsoon.

I left Mesa heading east on Highway 60, then south on Highway79. At Florence I turned off and found the dirt roads that headsouth through the foothills of the Tortilla Mountains. These arewide, graded, smooth dirt roads that can be cruised through at adecent speed. There are others I will have to explore, that go uphigher into the Tortillas. As it was, a monsoon moved in so Iheaded back to Highway 79.

A little ways down 79 I found a road that went west, I thinkit was Ranch Road. It was paved for a few miles, then I turnedoff it and headed south through the foothills of the TortiillitaMountains. That is a great road, lots of fun driving through thethick stands of Sajuaro cactus. This road, Owl Head Ranch Rd,winds through the cactus, often a single track or so wide, withlots of corners and some surprise corners. I almost missed one -coming up out of a wash, then up a little more, over the top andright there was a hard left. I hit the brakes and slid straightahead, off the trail a bit, but not hitting anything, as it wasapparent others have done the same thing. After that I was just alittle more careful of such blind corners, and there were more.There had been a monsoon some time before so there were puddles,including one huge puddle. I cruised through it, and got a bitwet, I'd forgotten to roll up my window. heheh, oh well, so itgoes. I eventually found my out through a construction area nearMarana.

The Tortollita and Tortilla Moutains have quite a few roadsover them I'll have to explore some more.