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| Scenic Drive | 34.00 Miles |
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| | Scenic Drive | 34.00 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | A long dirt road drive and car camp, along the Blue River which hugs the eastern border of Arizona, crossing into New Mexico for a short stretch, and back into Arizona again. Distance of dirt road I've given is one-way. Then you have to turn around and drive 34 miles or so, to get out again! As you can see from the photos, I drove my 19-year-old Honda Accord and made it across all the river crossings. One of the bridges has washed out--I'm not sure when that happened--so they built a cement river crossing instead. But many of the crossings have never had bridges. Sometimes the water comes up and makes the road impassable, of course.
This road accesses many of the trails of the Blue Primitive Area, since it bisects much of the designated Primitive Area. There are a number of private ranches along the road, there is also a school and a post office, plus roadside mail delivery. Fed Ex and UPS both drive down this road. The people living here can get internet but there seems to be no cell phone service. It's really quite a remote community. I am not sure how many people live down here, maybe 100 or so.
There are a couple of other roads leading into the area--Red Hill Road, off 191, and Pueblo Park Road, coming off 180 out of New Mexico.
The Blue Primitive Area is the only one with this designation in the US. It's Forest Service, Apache-Sitgreaves NF.
I met a rancher near the end of the road. Seemed like a very nice guy. We talked about the Mexican Wolf release program. He told me that some problem wolves had been moved to another area and that they haven't seen one in that area for a long time.
To find the Blue River, first get yourself to Alpine, Arizona. Then take Hwy 180 to Luna Lake, a couple of miles from Alpine. Watch for the small sign that says Blue River 22 miles. The road will be on your right (south). |
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There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life. |
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