Route 666. The Devil’s Highway.
Heading from the Sonoran Desert to the White Mountains the Coronado Trail has a well deserved alias. It was originally route 666 up until the 80’s when superstitious drivers and a slew of stolen street signs caused for the re-designation of 191. No matter what the name is this is a White knuckled ride with a very high pucker factor. there are said to be about 500 separate curves in a 165 mile stretch and an elevation climb of 6,000 ft.
The road starts out in Clifton in the South. A perfect place to rest up and get a head start in the morning. Clifton is on of the old boom towns for miners. Today what remains are old firing kilns and and lots of vacant historical buildings. Seemed like a perfect quite spot to set up a study and disappear in a creative process. It is also a great place to cam you at the clean and Quiet RV park, have a fire and toss a frozen pizza on the grate.
Heading onto the Coronado Trail the twists real begin in Morenci. Still a Working mining town you zig-zag your way through and under the working massive routes for all kinds of earth moving equipment. This twists are closely connected and very tight as you climb and climb.
Out of the mining area and over the mountain the you dip into a greener wooded area. Still lots and lots of twists and turns before you reach the biggest climb. While making this climb the sheer drop off the road side seems to grow bigger and and the trees shorter. There is still small patches of snow up there.
About half way through the trail you can give your arm rest and head up rose peak. At the altittude of 8,700ft sits a fire tower. There was not much going on up there but the veiws were spectacular and the watchman Zane gave shared a some of the history and geography of the surrounding mountain ranges for hundreds of miles. Not to mention the windows were lined with beautiful sketches he created to familiarize himself the the mountains ranges.
