stream in Josephine Canyon
Written: March 17, 2023
First we drove to Patagonia by way of highway 83 and Sonoita. We hit the road in Tucson at 9:22 AM and arrived in Patagonia at 10:40, so this drive was 1 hour and 18 minutes.
We found 4th street, drove north on it about 2 blocks to Pennsylvania and set the odometer to 0. We then began driving west on Pennsylvania. For the next mile or so, the dirt road goes through the Nature Conservancy bird sanctuary, and there are plenty of pedestrians to watch out for who are distracted looking at birds.
3.0 miles - sign for Salero Road and the first sign labeling the road you are on as FS143. This could be the national forest boundary. Here the road bears to the right and heads northwest.
7.8 miles - an almost unreadable sign indicates the Squaw gulch road to the right, just ignore it and keep going to the left.
12.8 miles - a Y junction. The left branch goes immediately to a locked gate and the Salero ranch, so you go right here.
13.5 miles - a pullout on the left with an explanatory sign describes the site of "Alto".
14.1 miles - adobe ruins of Alto on the left
16.0 miles - a wrecked car riddled with bulletholes is an unmistakeable marker of this intersection until it gets hauled away. A sign indicates 17 miles to Amado and 2 miles to Josephine. Here the Bull Springs road goes to the left and the road you want (FR 4082 up Josephine Canyon) goes to the right. Up to this point 4x4 is not really needed. To continue past here and up Josephine Canyon would certainly require 4x4. The climb immediately after the first stream crossing does, and the road has more and more rough spots the farther you go. I had no trouble at all with my 4x4 Toyota Tacoma. The time to get here from my house is 2 hours 27 minutes.
18.7 miles - junction. The left branch climbs up a steep and bad section 0.7 miles to a campsite with a great view. The right branch goes to the trailhead.
19.2 miles - trailhead!. Note that the sign back at the wrecked car junction claimed 2 miles, but you have driven 3.2 miles. I don't quite know what to say, but that is the reality of the situation. We arrived here (elevation 5905) at 12:58. This is 3 hours and 36 minutes from Tucson, and 2 hours and 18 minutes from Patagonia. We could have cut 30 minutes from this time had we not mistakenly taken the left turn up to the campsite with a view.
We got a good dose of rain just before reaching the saddle, but dried out nicely on the return to the truck.
We did see an incredible amount of trash and litter from illegal immigrants. We also met two border patrol officers (and their dog). The officers were entirely nice (as was their dog), but clearly were on alert, probably detecting our approoach and expecting us to be some of the people they were making it their business to intercept.
6.0 miles - Glove mine on the right. (5:59 PM)
10.5 miles - back on pavement near Amado. (6:23 PM)
Home in Tucson by 7:25 PM
This 10.5 miles definitely required 4x4, and low range in places, but it was by no means a terrible 4x4 road and I would have no hesitation about doing it again.
For me, with a well functioning 4x4 truck, driving in from Amado on Bull Springs road makes perfect sense. A person without 4x4 (a "reasonable" person at any rate) can only consider the drive from Patagonia as an option. They could drive to the bullet riddled car, park, and hike from there. This would add 3.2 miles (all on a road and only rarely near the stream), making the one way distance 5.7 miles.
For a person with a 4x4 vehicle, it really depends on your taste for 4x4 driving. The time is all but equal either way:
My driveway to bullet riddled car via Patagonia: 2 hours 27 minutes
My driveway to bullet riddled car via Bull Springs Road: 2 hours 13 minutes
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