As Mother's Day approached, there was an article on AZCentral.com about Forest Service cabins for rent - the "Rooms With a View" Program, which allows visitors use historic cabins located on Forest Service lands.  Arizona has several of these cabins available for rent, including Kendrick Cabin, near Kendrick Mountain; Crescent Moon Cabin, near Sedona; and Kentucky Camp, located in the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson.  We had once read about these cabins while browsing the Forest Service's website and thought, "Someday, we should do that.  That would be a lot of fun."

And once he saw them mentioned in the paper, John had an idea of the perfect Mother's Day getaway, for both me and his mother.

The article on AZCentral specifically mentioned Kentucky Camp, which was an old mining camp established in 1902 near Kentucky Gulch in the Santa Rita Mountains.  The cost was $75 night, and we would have a full kitchen, beds, and a pit toilet.  There was one catch, though.  According to the Coronado National Forest's website, we could not park at Kentucky Camp; we would have to park at the gate and walk the road a quarter of a mile to the cabin.

"Well, that sucks!" I said.

"No, that's perfect!" John exclaimed.  He now had a brilliant idea...

After booking the cabin for Mother's Day weekend - which, believe it or not, was no problem at all - John told his mother that we were going to take her backpacking for Mother's Day.  He explained that it was going to be a luxury backpack - wine included - so she could bring as much as she wanted because we were only going in a quarter of a mile.  She was so excited to be invited on a backpacking trip that she accepted our invitation right away.  Little did she know...

We, too, packed our backpacks for the trip to Kentucky Camp.  It was the perfect ruse to cover up the big surprise that we had in store for Erika.  We also packed a small ice chest with all of the food that we would need for the cabin...though Erika had no idea...

On Saturday morning, May 13, we picked up Erika and her backpack and started on the road to Kentucky Camp.  Since it was a "luxury backpack", we didn't pick her up until 9:00 a.m., which gave us all a chance to sleep in that morning.  It also put us in Tucson at lunchtime; John treated us to a nice lunch at Applebee's, off of Wetmore Road, before we continued towards Kentucky Camp.

From Tucson, we kept going east on I-10 until we came to Exit 281 - the junction with SR 83.  We took SR 83 south for several miles, to Gardner Canyon Road, then turned right.  Gardner Canyon Road took us to FR 163, where we found the parking area for Kentucky Camp.

There was a very large sign for Kentucky Camp, located next to the gate where we parked the 4Runner.  At that point, we could no longer keep it a secret from Erika; so John took her aside and revealed the surprise to her. 

"YES!" she exclaimed.  "I get to sleep in a bed!"

With that, we loaded up the backpacks and walked down the road, a quarter of a mile, to Kentucky Camp.

As soon as we arrived, we were met by the caretaker - a Forest Service volunteer who was camped with his wife at Kentucky Camp.  They let us into the cabin and gave us the grand tour.  There were three rooms within the cabin: a living room, a kitchen, and a bedroom with two single beds and one bunk bed.  Outside, there was a deck that extended around two sides of the building; and behind the cabin, there was a porch with an outdoor sink.  The sink had running water, which was a plus. There was, however, no bathroom; instead, there was a pit toilet about 100 feet down the path from the cabin.  So it wasn't complete luxury...but it was better than sleeping in a tent!

After the tour was over, John announced that he had to return to the 4Runner to get the ice chest.  "Oh, you don't have to do that," the caretaker said.  "You can just park your truck down here.  We'll let you."

"Thank you!" we said.  We were grateful to hear that; walking down the road to the cabin was easy enough because it was all downhill.  Walking back up again with that ice chest...well, that wasn't going to be fun!

Once the 4Runner was parked and we were settled at the cabin, we sat down on the deck and relaxed.  Erika was still talking to the caretaker, who was telling her about retired life and what it was like to travel the country in their conversion van (which he pointed out to us, as it was parked nearby).  We could tell that Erika was thinking about her own retirement; she and Bill were planning to do the same thing someday...

Before leaving us, the caretaker invited us to take a tour of the other building on the property.  The building used to be the mining office; it is now a mining museum and contains lots of artifacts from the old mine.  We told him that we would do so; with that, we thanked him for his time and sent him on his way.

So now that we were at Kentucky Camp...what to do?  Well, we went hiking, of course!  A segment of the Arizona Trail went right by the cabin and into the Santa Rite Mountains, and we decided to hike a portion of it, to kill the afternoon. 

He found the trail just behind the cabin and followed it to a grassy meadow, where we found a trail junction, about a quarter of a mile away.  That trail cut through the meadow and headed into a canyon.

Approaching the canyon, we found a pile of rocks and leaves, near a gate.  As we came closer to it, there was a very loud rustling, emanating from it; and all I could think of was, "Rattlesnake?"  Suddenly, about twenty black birds burst forth from the pile, startling us.  Okay, it didn't just startle me; it scared the crap out of me! 

We hiked about a half-mile into the canyon, which was very dense with foliage - not overgrown, but just dense.  Since it was very hot outside, though, we cut our trip short and headed back towards the cabin.

On the way back, we stopped at the mining office and took that tour of the building.  Inside, we found several pieces of old mining equipment, as well as some placards explaining what everything was.  We also took a peek in the gold processing office, which was in the small building nearby.  Additionally, there were two other buildings to look at - the barn, which was partially collapsed, and a smaller building that was probably home to the mine's owner - but we didn't dare go inside because they weren't safe. 

As soon as we returned to the cabin, we started preparing for dinner. John had brought along a couple of nice steaks to grill as well as some vegetables and pasta; there were also a couple of nice bottles of wine to enjoy with our meal.  It was a wonderful Mother's Day meal!

The hot day turned into a warm evening; once the sun set, it cooled down, but only a little bit.  We spent much of the evening outside on the porch, trying to catch a cool breeze.  At 8:00 p.m., though, just after putting Mary to bed on the top bunk, John and Erika both turned in as well and were asleep almost immediately.  I stayed up until 9:00 and sat outside, watching the full moon and listening to the coyotes howl in the distance.  What a perfect evening!

The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn.  Having slept with the door open all night, the cabin was nice and cool when we got up, so we had to throw on a couple of layers until the sun rose in the sky. 

While it was still cool outside, we gathered up our hiking gear and went for another hike.  This time, we hiked the Arizona Trail in the opposite direction, through the gulch in which the camp was situated.  The trail took us through several washes along the floor of the gulch before it eventually climbed out, a half of a mile later, and connected with FR 163.  At that point, we didn't know where the trail went, so we turned around and went back the way we came.  Later that morning, before leaving the area, we returned with the 4Runner to check it out; but when we still couldn't find the trail, we gave up and left.

After returning to the cabin from our hike, we packed up our gear and cleaned the cabin so that it would be ready for the next set of visitors.  John then returned the key to the caretaker and thanked him for his help; and with that, we left Kentucky Camp behind and set off on our long drive home.

Since we were in the Santa Rita Mountains, where there is so much to see and do, we couldn't leave without first spending some time checking out the sights in the area.  Our first stop was the town of Sonoita, where we had a lovely Mother's Day lunch at a nice restaurant.  While we were eating, we started talking about the wineries of Sonoita and Elgin Valley; not many people know that it is possible to grow wine-producing grapes in Arizona, but it's true.  Sonoita and Elgin Valley produce some very nice wines; and, just like Napa Valley, there are winery tours and wine tastings available.

We picked up a map of the wineries at a nearby general store, at the junction with SR 83 and SR 82, and chose one winery to visit.  It ended up being the Village of Elgin Winery, which was located at the junction with Elgin Road and Lower Elgin Road. 

The winery wasn't much to look at, but when we went inside, we were welcomed inside by a very friendly woman and invited to do a wine tasting, for a nominal fee.  After John paid, we were given four, one-ounce pours of a selection of Elgin wines.  The Merlot was very nice; the others were not.  Erika enjoyed one of the whites and purchased a couple of bottles; John and I purchased two bottles of the Merlot.  We even purchased a souvenir shirt for Bill: a white T-shirt with red splotches on it, on which was written the words "My Wine Tasting Shirt".  How appropriate!

After leaving the wine country, we had one other place to visit before heading home to Phoenix: Madera Canyon, located in the Santa Rita Mountains.  Madera Canyon was a place that I had enjoyed very much when I was in college; I often went there on picnics with my mother and my brothers when I was still living at home.  In May 1999, during Mother's Day weekend, John and I did a backpacking trip to the top of Mount Wrightson via the Super and Old Baldy Trails; that was the last time we had been there.  Since Erika had never been there, we decided to bring her there, since we happened to be in the area...

From Sonoita, we returned to the junction with SR 82 and SR 83 and turned north onto SR 83.  We continued north for several miles, then turned off onto FR 62, otherwise known as Box Canyon Road.  Box Canyon Road led us to Madera Canyon Road, which we followed until it dead-ended at the trailhead parking lot.

Since we were there, we decided to do a short, half-mile hike down the Super Trail, just to show Erika how beautiful Madera Canyon was.  We wandered along the trail, which paralleled the creek under the shade of the oaks and sycamores that covered the trail.  It was a nice, cool way to escape the heat.

After hiking a half of a mile, we stopped for a break and took pictures of the canyon; then, we hiked back to the car.  By that time, it was becoming incredibly crowded anyway, plus it was late enough in the day that we needed to start heading back towards Phoenix. 

As we left Madera Canyon, we turned onto Box Canyon Road again and headed west until we reached I-19, at Green Valley; from there, it was a two-hour drive back to Phoenix, where our Mother's Day adventure came to a close.  It had been a lovely weekend - one that we will have to do again someday...

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