Box Canyon Road - Sonoita

Twenty miles south of Tucson, Box Canyon Road is a nice little drive that will add another perspective to your appreciation of the Santa Rita Mountains. Box Canyon Road takes you into an area of the mountain range where open grasslands predominate and where broad views stretch across the immense basins and isolated mountain ranges that make up the Coronado National Forest. The mountains here are lower than those that form the core of the mountain range and are covered with waving expanses of grass rather than stately forests. Turning into a narrow, winding mountain road, Box Canyon is a deep gorge highlighted with bright green cottonwoods and silver barked sycamores. At one point along the road, a rocky, sheer cliff is covered with algae and colorful wildflowers, making a fine stop for photos and a scenic view of the canyon below. Mount Wrightson, with its rocky promontory "Old Baldy," will be your constant companion to the south.