1/20/2026 41.3 mi, 4:44 hr: min, 2917 ft. vertical.
Started out the day, headed south on HWY 89 toward Nogales to do the Wild Hog 50, link. The road had a decent shoulder, but it is still 2 lane, and Nogales is a major port of entry, bringing in 30 billion dollars of goods from Mexico each year – so one can imagine there were a few semi trucks. Unfortunately, the turn onto the forest service road was gated and signed private property. Not sure what was up with that, but we turned around and rode back to Patagonia. At least it was an easy way to log 14 miles in an hour. With the remainder of the day, we rode an out-and-back to Alto Ruins. This ride passes through the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve passes by a Hummingbird Sanctuary , and then heads uphill through Salaro Ranch, which is an exclusive “gated ranch community.” The translation is that they have really nice gravel roads and you can hardly see the houses from the main road. The last 1.5 miles get steep and chunky, and we pushed through a few sections. The ruins are anticlimactic, but the views are great.
