Florence Kelvin Highway

Florence Kelvin Highway is a scenic 12-mile graded dirt road that winds through creosote bushes, chollas, and ocotillos, and, depending on the time of year, colorful wildflowers that carpet the desert floor after heavy winter and spring rains. It's an easy drive, and the traffic is usually light. The road dips and goes from gravel to sand at times and begins to curve much sharper, where the landscape morphs from vast, open Sonoran desert to rugged mountain terrain on the approach to the Tortilla Mountains. In the distance, you'll see a huge hash in the mountainside, courtesy of an open-pit mine. You'll also glimpse a lush riparian area fed by the Gila River. After you pass the A-Diamond Ranch headquarters, the road begins to climb and near the end of the dirt road, you'll cross over the Gila River on the one-lane bridge called the "Jake" Jacobson Bridge of Unity.