Reimer

Set in central Arizona's Prescott National Forest, FR 68D, locally called Reimer, traverses a wide-open grassland bespotted with rim rock-capped buttes and crossed by tree-lined washes. Named for a prominent ranching family in Arizona's history, Riemer predictably runs past Reimer Butte and Reimer Tank as it climbs Reimer Draw. Today the area still serves as winter pasture for Arizona's larger cattle ranches. Old-fashioned windmills pump precious water into tanks, the western term for a dammed wash that catches and holds rainwater for cattle and wildlife. Cattle lazily raise their heads from the grass to watch any passing vehicle. This is the Upper Sonoran Desert. The stately saguaros have given way to prickly pear and agaves. Junipers line the normally dry washes. Cat-clawed acacia are best avoided. The openness of the landscape offers vast vistas with jagged horizons created by various mountain ranges like the Bradshaws, New River Mountains, Squaw Peak, Black Hills, Mingus, and Woodchute. Views abound with every turn. Reimer is also a section of the Great Western Trail, a north/south collection of tracks that run from Arizona to Montana.