I’m exploring the Great Bend of the Gila, a proposed National Monument near Gila Bend, Arizona. I’ll ride my motorcycle through this rugged area of the Sonoran Desert and explore scenic roads, historical locations and spend an evening motorcycle camping in the desert.
Gila Bend | Arizona
Details
- Distance: 122 miles
- Location: Arizona
- Start: Gila Bend, Arizona
- End: I-8, Arizona
- Roads: S Old US-80, Agua Caliente Road
- Conditions: pavement and graded dirt
- Cities: Gila Bend, Arizona
- Camping: Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground
Historic US Highway 80
Old U.S. Route 80 once ran from San Diego to the Georgia coast. It was considered to be America’s first all-weather transcontinental highway.
Gillespie Bridge over the Gila River
Prior to completion of this bridge in 1927, traffic on the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway was often halted by flooding on the Gila River. The steel truss bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
Gillespie Dam
Frank Gillespie was a local farmer and rancher. In 1921, he financed the construction of the Gillespie dam to replace an older structure along the river. The dam was used by Gillespie and other local farmers to help control water used for irrigation of their crops.
Overlooking the Gillespie Bridge and Dam
The dam partly collapsed in 1993 and turned the area around the bridge into a verdant riparian area that’s home to fish and waterfowl.
Agua Caliente Road
Agua Caliente road passes through the low vegetation of the Sonoran Desert. To the south is the Woolsey Peak Wilderness and to the northwest is the smaller Signal Mountain Wilderness. Both are home to desert bighorn sheep, mule deer and a variety of raptors.
Giant Saguaro Cactus
Ocotillos and chollas are prevalent, though saguaros still dominate the scenery — don’t miss the impressive one on the right side of the road.
Sundad Ghost Town
Sundad was established as a tuberculosis sanitarium in the 1920s. People have created rock art in the form of rock geoglyphs and scraped intaglios. The work is extremely well done.
Motorcycle Camping in the Desert
I’m camping in the Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground. This site is considered important and even sacred to many of the Native American tribes in southern Arizona.
Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground
This area has been used for posting Native American rock art for thousands of years by a variety of peoples traveling along the Gila River Trails.
Petroglyphs
The campground provides visitors the opportunity to view an archaeological site containing hundreds of figures and designs carved into rocks.
Additional Information
https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/GreatBend.pdf