Read on Twitter
Today I want to explore a couple of great Arizona back roads as a way to encourage you to do so as well. Arizona's back roads are spectacular, and we'll explore where they go, some history, and why they're important in this thread. But before we do, I have some news!
It has been a while since I last posted a long thread on here - but for good reason. I've been building a blog to house & expand on these ideas & I'm happy to launch it today! It's called Desert City Dispatch & I hope you'll check it out: https://desertcitydispatch.com/
On Desert City Dispatch you can find all of the stories I've put together so far, including today's. The versions I'll be posting on there, starting with this one, will be longer and more thoughtful than what you'll see on here. It's still rough, but I hope you'll enjoy it.
Now back to the back roads. I took a day trip up to Prescott last weekend and as I was driving back, I started thinking about how we experience rural Arizona. Too often it's via big highway, which I think means that we miss out on so much of what makes Arizona special.
We'll start with the back way up to Prescott. Most, I imagine, take the 17 to the 69 to get there - and I don't blame them; it's the fastest way. But I now almost exclusively take the 60 to the 89 because its orders of magnitude more beautiful.
Let's explore the route, shall we? Passing Circle City, the first town you'll hit is Wickenburg. I'd wager that because the highway bypasses Downtown Wickenburg, most don't take the time to stop there. I think that's a mistake, because Downtown Wickenburg is simply lovely.
From Wickenburg, you'll take the 89 to Congress, an old mining town in the desert. There isn't much in Congress these days, but between 1884 and 1930 the Congress Mine produced $400 million worth of gold in today's dollars. Here's an old photo of the mining camp from back then.
From Congress, we head to Yarnell, another old mining town. Between them, you climb 1,300 feet up a mountain in less than 4 miles. Yarnell is beautiful, but not without tragedy. The 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire killed 19 firefighters and there's a memorial to them up there.
Next, we'll pass through Peeple's Valley, which reminds me of the high valleys of Colorado in the best way. Ranches abound up here, and there's a small commercial area as you enter town. Named after a prospector, it too has a connection to Arizona's mining history.
After Peeple's Valley, you're faced with a choice: left or straight at Kirkland Junction? Let's start by going left to Kirkland. In Kirkland, we'll turn right at the BNSF tracks, which we've followed almost the entire way.
Travel a few miles with the tracks and you're suddenly in Skull Valley, which, despite its scary name, is stunningly beautiful. A small, agrarian place, this town of about 800 has its own school district, post office, and general store. Photos won't do it justice.
After Skull Valley, it's a gorgeous, easy drive to Prescott. If you had stayed on the 89 at Kirkland Junction, however, after you pass Wilhoit, the drive becomes much more technical and rewarding, filled with hairpins and elevation changes. A joy to drive for drivers.
The other road we'll explore here is Old US Highway 80, which I'd wager is less well-known than the 89. This takes you from Gila Bend to Buckeye and then onto Phoenix, but has been bypassed by AZ 89 from the 10 to the 8. Like the US 60, old US 80 was an early coast-to-coast road.
After Old US 80 leaves Gila Bend, it, like so many backroads in AZ, veers into the state's agrarian roots. Passing though lush fields set against mountain backdrops and the Gila River, it's easy to imagine what the valley was like 100 years ago.
Some of that history still exists in a very physical way. To cross the Gila River on US 80, you'll need to use the Gillespie Dam bridge, which opened in 1927. It's narrow and made of steel and starkly reminds how different travel was nearly 100 years ago.
As you may have guessed, the Gillespie Dam Bridge is very near to the Gillespie Dam. The dam was completed in 1921 by a rancher named Frank Gillespie, and spanned 1,700 feet at 80 feet tall. Most still stands, but a large portion was destroyed in 1993 by a major storm.
Notice the vehicle in that photo - in the years prior to the bridge's opening, cars had to drive along the base of the dam to cross the Gila River. Because the dam was built to allow overflow, this meant that often vehicles could not make the passage.
From there, the road winds its way back towards Buckeye via Arlington, which is a simply gorgeous drive. As you enter Downtown Buckeye, take a second to get out and explore. It has a unique semi-rural feel that many valley downtowns have lost over the years.
From there, US Highway 80 followed what is now MC 85 and the aptly named Buckeye Rd into Phoenix, where it turned north at 17th Ave. As we saw on the old US 60 alignment, the curve that was built for this turn remains today. The aerials below show the curve.
From there, the highway passed the State Capitol before meeting Van Buren St. - which, again thinking back to the US 60 - means that for a large portion of its alignment in Phoenix, it shared the same route as the 60.
Ultimately, these are just two examples of some of the great back roads in Arizona. That they've been bypassed over the years by bigger, faster roads means that its easy to miss the wonders of Arizona's history up close and personal.
As you can guess, I'm a big believer in taking these routes over the fast way. They can give you time to think, serve as a way to escape the city, bring history to life, and perhaps more than anything else, remind you why you love AZ in the first place. They do for me.
Sources for this include Wikipedia, MrZip66, Google Maps, Tucson. com, Maricopa County Historical Aerials, and Gila Bend, AZ.
As I mentioned at the top, this thread is adapted from a larger post I wrote on my new blog, http://DesertCityDispatch.com . You can find all of the previous threads on there as well. Thanks, as always, for reading!
