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Southern Arizona
Few places on earth offer more diversity. One moment I'm sweating bullets and then, less than an hour later at times, I've pulled over, teeth chattering, to hurriedly button the jacket liner into my shell so I can stuff my fingertips back in my gloves before they turn blue. Northeast out of Phoenix, the elevation is 1,000 feet and the temperature is pushing 90 degrees. But in the next four days, I'll top out at over 9,000 feet and sit through several snowstorms. In between these extremes are some of the America's most beautiful landscapes – connected to one another by some of the world's most-coveted riding roads.
Along the Apache Trail to Tucson
(Phoenix to Tucson – approx. 300 miles)
From Scottsdale, it doesn't take long to climb into the Tonto National Forest. Very few trees exist in the desert where Phoenix is planted, so the abrupt line where development ends is also the edge of the wilderness. The Fort McDowell Mohave Apache Indian Reservation and Fountain Hills are the last indications of the south-west's largest urban center. A huge white column rises high into the distance and I'm trying to guess what it is for several miles. It seems to be melting into different shapes, but I can't be sure. Once I'm close enough, I see clearly that it's a huge jet of water being launched hundreds of feet into the air – hence the name Fountain Hills. This out-of-place monument exhibits the same defiance that Phoenix and its surroundings display toward Mother Nature. There isn't supposed to be water here, but, inside the urban grid, parks, lakes, and golf courses glisten. Beyond this, nothing – the road out is the only sign of man as it begins its winding climb towards the Mogollon (Moo-GEE-yan) Rim, the southern uplift of the great Colorado Plateau....
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