Park Link Road

January 17, 2022

Today’s ride is another discovery, one last new paved road close in to Tucson that looks worth exploring: Park Link Drive. An empty road through the desert that connects I-10 and Route 79, to me it’s something of a mystery. There’s nothing of significance at either end and nothing along the way, so why specifically is this empty road in the desert paved when so many others aren’t? And it really does look empty, from the map at least - the only listed feature is No Name Mound Vista. Now doesn’t that sound like a road to be explored? Almost irresistable, really.

And it’s not quite accurate to say there’s nothing of significance at either end. At the western end, just across the freeway is the unincorporated community of Red Rock, about midway between Marana and Picacho Peak. An easy 25 mile drive up the freeway. We’ll start there, once the day warms up sufficiently.

Red Rock has a few attractions, like the Red Rock Bar. It advertises all my favorite brews and might be worth stopping in if it were open or still in business. I don’t quite trust leaving the car here unattended for five hours though, so we drive a few more blocks to the Dollar General and park there.

Red Rock itself feels curious too - what’s it doing out here in the middle of nowhere? It has the feel of a near ghost town, but I couldn’t find any references describing it that way. The water tower beside the tracks opposite the freeway might be a sign. Maybe there was a train stop here at one time and this was a water tower for old steam engines?

The first two miles of the ride don’t inspire us much, as we cross the freeway and bike the short distance along the frontage road on the other side to the intersection with Park Link Drive. It’s disconcertingly busier than we expected, with vehicles accessing and leaving the freeway. And there are large, double-length trucks turning onto Park Link when we get there too. What have we gotten ourselves into here?

The Red Rock water tower, another highlight of this booming community.

How have I not heard of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) before? Its 336 mile long canal diverts water from the Colorado River to supply southern Arizona’s communities and agriculture. It’s the primary water source for Phoenix and Tucson.

About two miles down this road though nearly all of the traffic subsides. Much of it, including in particular the huge trucks, turns off at a refuse sight so they must be trash haulers. After this, we have the desert pretty much to ourselves. There are a few vehicles still, but they’re infrequent, audible from far off, and we can watch them approach us on our nifty new radar rear lights.

It doesn’t take long until I find a reason to stop and Rachael continues on, not to be seen for another two hours. I can still see her red light flashing ahead until she gets out a half mile in front of me but then she rounds a bend and is out of sight until we meet up when she’s on the way back.

So for the next two hours it’s just me, this empty road, mountains all around, and the occasional raven or hawk. Somehow though this slows me down enough that I lag further and further behind Rachael, as I can see by tracking her position on the GPS. She’s nearly four miles ahead of me when she reaches Route 79 and starts heading back my way.

I wouldn’t say this is a dramatic ride exactly, but the desert grows steadily more interesting as the road slowly gains elevation and climbs into the saguaro zone - it rises at roughly 1-2% in the eastbound direction - but it does give some wonderful mountain views from a perspective we haven’t seen before. If I have a quarrel with the road at all it’s that there’s not more contour to it. You never rise enough above to get an unobstructed view of the mountains to the side - not that it’s at all unpleasant to have your view impeded by a forest of gnarly saguaro and cholla.

My favorite discovery of the ride is the two red tailed hawk nests lodged high in the crotch of their saguaros. I’ve never seen this before, but since seeing that prickly pear growing in a saguaro I’ve started paying more attention to saguaro crotches. Apparently this is very typical nesting behavior for red tailed hawks in the Sonoran Desert. Now that I’m aware of this them I’ll probably start spotting them all the time.

The view west to Picacho Peak. What a striking silhouette!

And to the south, the Silverbell Mountains.

The Picacho Mountains, just north of Picacho Peak.

This guy is keeping vigil not far from the nest, presumably his. They live 10-15 years on average. I wonder if they keep returning to the same nest year after year?

He’s been patient but finally has had enough of this snoop.

I never get tired of this plant and all its manifestations.

A great view of Mount Lemmon from a different angle.

The Tortolita Mountains are more interesting from this side.

Another one! There must be another nest somewhere nearby.

Time for lunch. Turkey and cheddar again today!

The ride back is easy - all downhill, nothing new to report. When we come to the end of the road though Rachael turns right and follows the frontage road west toward Picacho Peak, padding a few more miles onto the day and hoping for some interesting video. It’s noisy right by the freeway and the cars and freight train on either side keep activating our radar lights alerting us to pseudo-hazards that aren’t on our road. Other than that though it’s not a bad riding road - we could follow it all the way to Phoenix, if we wanted to go to Phoenix.

I give up. Why does/did Red Rock exist out here? And is Sally still around?

Video sound track: Son of Saguaro, by the Hacienda Brothers

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Ride stats today: Rachael: 49 miles, 1,400’; Scott: 41 miles, 1,300’

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 1,751 miles (2,818 km)

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