words by Yuri Hauswald
photos by Tim Mohn
Before Pancho Villa charged through this vast desert expanse searching for cattle he could steal from the local ranchers, it was home to the Sobaipuri, Papago, and Apache. The San Rafael Valley, just 60 miles south of Tucson, is part of Arizona’s unique Sky Island ranges and lies at the intersection of the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Madre, the Sonoran Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Great Plains, and the Neo Tropics.
At 90,000 acres and home to many different bird, bee, and butterfly species—as well as having the greatest mammal diversity in North America—the San Rafael Valley is one of the most unique regions in the world. And you know what else it has? Hundreds of miles of empty, high desert gravel roads, just waiting to be explored.