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HL Sadddle

1.START-END SOUTH:US191 in Clfton crosses San Francisco River 2.lower turnoff to Morenci 3.road leaves Copper mining pit and drops to Chase Creek 4.HL Saddle, highest point, 7360ft 5.jct with Juan Miller Rd 6.START-END NORTH:lowest point on US191, before starting the rolling climb to US191 Telephone Mesa s(u)

Approaches

From South. The profile starts in the illustrious old mining town of Clifton where US191 crosses Chase Creek. I feel a temptation here to just look around for an hour or so. There is an old railroad depot with functioning tracks, old shacks that look like they have been housing mining workers for centuries without much change, old churches and false front business buildings, repurposed into "dispensaries of something or other". But all that will have to wait  - no interest in being dispensed anyway. There is a big climb on the program today.

The first part is definitely different, I would say unique. A busy climb on a very crudely paved road climbs to the first industrial mining fixture on the first mesa. The town Morenci carries the name of the mining company whose operation we will be traveling through for the next hour or two. Here too, street photography will have to wait for a later date. Soon the road enters a large pit mine. It goes right through it. Copper ore crosses over the road on a conveyor belt and is dumped from a 100ft onto in a noisy rock fall. Monster trucks scurry over and under US191 on special constructed roadways. The scenery resembles one large stair case. From each shelf successive layers of the mountain are removed. This is the largest copper producing area in the US, and the only open pit mine that I have seen, that has a large public roadway right through it. The air is constantly filled with haze and has a peculiar smell. But even through the width of the road does not decrease, traffic certainly does. So even though it feels and looks like Armageddon, it is an Armageddon almost without cars ... until we have climbed 2000ft higher than where we started and are still surrounded by industrial staircase scenery. There was even a "scenic overlook" back a mile, complete with directions of how to apply for a mine job in two languages.

Where the mining rubble ends, a 300ft decent goes back down to Chase Creek, same creek we started on, but still without signs of the things that await it downstream. It is a miracle the creek survives till the bottom, in some form or other.

Suddenly - the road, the scenery, the feel could not be any more different. A curvy road slowly bids farewell to the creek and climbs in snake like ramps up the side of the canyon. Across a chasm more corkscrew turns on the other side project ever higher. The haze over the mine slowly fades into the distance. All those curvy road lines look even better from the higher you get. Eventually the mountain ranges, limiting the view east and west take on the new center of attention, as I gasp for breath, climbing this variably bouncing and bounding slope. The Gila Range over in New Mexico seems to retain the first snow fall of the year the longest, while Mount Graham to the west slowly fades into flatness with the sun appearing over it.

HL Saddle comes sort of as a surprise. You can't really see it clearly form this side. The attractive spot has a sign, a trailhead, a picnic table and a short path that allows for a variety of imaginative cactus figures in the foreground of mountain pass photos. The highest point is just slightly north of the sign.

Slideshow of section Chase Creek - low point north of HL Saddle

From North. (described downwards) What follows is a traverse with clear views onto the shapely distant hills for a mile or two. A flury of curves descends over what almost could be a perfectly located medieval village in another continent, but turns out to be an outpost of the Arizona Highway department. Soon the road straightens and has the high grazing territory of Turkey Creek in its sights. The apparent human emptiness surrounding this curvy thread of travel is spellbinding.

Slideshow of section: Clifton - Morenci - Chase Creek

Dayride with this point as highest summit

COMPLETELY PAVED

( < Az78 Three Way - Mule Creek | Stockton Pass > )

HL Saddle x2 : near jct Black Hills backway - US191 <> US191 north <> Clifton <> Morenci <> HL Saddle < turnaround point a jct with Juan Miller Rd : 70.4miles with 7600ft of climbing in 7:18hrs (garmin etrex 32x r4:24.11.05)
Notes: perfect day with sunny sky and suitably cool temperature, little to no wind