Rain over the Whetsone Mountains (from Granite Mountain)
Written: September 14, 2023
FSR-92 is the Gardner Canyon road. It is 18 miles south of the intersection of Arizona 83 and Sahuarita road -- i.e. about 21.5 miles south of I-10. It is 3.5 miles south of the border patrol checkpoint. It has a big sign that is hard to miss, but the sign does appear somewhat unexpectedly from behind trees.
I drove a mere 0.7 miles on FSR-92 (FSR is "forest service road"). Here a sign indicates "Fish Canyon Road" (FSR-163) to the right. This is also the road to Kentucky Camp. After driving 4.4 miles down this road we arrive at an Arizona Trail Parking lot. On the left is a gated road to Kentucky Camp. The road to here is an excellent dirt road that should be driveable by almost any vehicle. Beyond here the road is still good, but I doubt if it would be enjoyable by anyone without a high clearance vehicle. After 6.6 miles all told, you are done with FSR-163. This is the intersection with FSR-165 in Ophir gulch. You could go right (as I did) and in 1.5 miles reach FSR-229 (which will take you to the Box Canyon road, FSR-62). If you had not yet had enough, you could go left and go to Melendrez Pass and the trailhead for the so called Greaterville trail.
What I did was to backtrack 0.5 miles on FSR-163 and park near a stock tank. At this location there is a metal stock tank, a somewhat inconspicuous old concrete stock tank, and a fence on the left. A trail (which used to be a road) leads to and through the fence. This is the way (one way, a nice way) to get to the top of Granite Mountain. Stroll along this trail which winds around Granite Mountain on the south and around to the west side where the trail ends. From here just head straight up a steep rocky hillside to the top. The total distance to the top is 0.6 miles according to Tomasi, which seems just right. There are great views. When time comes to go down you can either return the way you came or drop down the east side. If you head down east, aim for the Mustang or Huachuca Mountains. You will shortly be able to see your vehicle below and pick your route accordingly.
Back at the junction of FSR-163 and FSR-165 is a nice place to park and to investigate the Morning Star Mine, which is a stones throw away up the hill to the southeast. There used to be (10 years ago) a building here that was the hoist-house for the mine. This has been removed by the kind efforts of the forest service. They also installed fancy steel "bat gates" blocking the two entrances. One is a nasty vertical hole that probably served to aid ventilation. The other is a 45 degree inclined shaft. The workings cannot be terribly big as the dump is only modest in size and little air is blowing out of the shaft.
It was a nice day with 85 degree temperatures and plenty of clouds. Probably the very end of monsoon season in mid September, but you never know. I drove the 1.5 miles on FSR-165 to an ugly 4 way junction where FSR-165 ends and meets FST-229. You could go right and drive 0.4 miles to a locked gate at Greaterville, but there is little point in doing that. Continuing straight ahead puts you on FSR-4068. Remember that the more digits in a forest service road designation, the worse condition the road will be in. FSR-4068 will dead end at a gate (more private land) in 3.7 miles. Instead, at the 3.0 mile mark, you can switch to FSR-4060 which will eventually take you to FSR-163. I was not in the mood for this and turned left onto FSR-229 and drove the 1.3 miles to pavement and FSR-62.
This marked the end of my adventures for the day. I turned left and drove FSR-62 (Box Canyon road) the 12.0 miles to the Madera Canyon road and returned to Tucson.
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org