Duquesne Road

Duquesne Road is easy on the kidneys but hard on the hairs on the back of your neck. You'll be able to run this trail in your 4x4 efficiently and your 2WD cautiously, but the vistas you'll experience and the dangerous vibe will give you great satisfaction once you reach the end. You'll never shake the feeling that someone is watching. (Because likely, they are). One of the closest roads to the US/Mexico Border, FR 61/Duquesne Road travels within 2 miles of the line. This is a well-traveled and patrolled road, and you should expect to see at least one US Border Patrol officer/vehicle on your trip. If you were to cross the border on foot, this is the first East-West line you would come to in this area, and the border patrol regularly drags tires over it to smooth the surface to look for footprints. The area is rich in mining history, and several offshoot roads lead to old mines from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. You'll want to stop at the Kansas mine chute for a rig picture. The scenery is splendid on this road, starting along the Santa Cruz River (At one point so close you could toss a rock into it), through the lush Sycamore Canyon/Wash, up and over the Patagonia Mountains for a wonderful view of the San Raphael Valley below. At the end of this trip, you'll be out on the much longer Ghost Town Loop.