We continue south from Arivaca Lake with the pavement soon giving way to a well maintained dirt road. We stop a few times for caches and just to enjoy the beautiful views. This area is really deserted with no other cars on the entire stretch.
Our first major stop is at a ruined mine along the way. It is quite an interesting one with many man made ponds that are now full of debris from the ruined buildings all around.
We explore the mine carefully while being watched distrustfully by a cow but luckily there is no aggression toward us as far as we can tell. We find the cache, take photos and then it is time to move on towards Ruby.
Near Ruby we notice a few ruins and we explore them, likely it was a house on the outskirts seemingly even with some sewer system which is quite interesting given that it was built in the early 20th century likely.
Ruby itself supposedly is visitable if you reserve online but even though we did it it is closed and no way to enter. Likely this is because they will close permanently in a few weeks and they might not read the online reservations requests anymore.
Because Ruby is closed we decide to explore a few side roads and find a few more caches. The roads are quite scenic however as usual we are watched by hordes of cows which this time seems really unhappy making noises as we pass and even some threatening gestures. Luckily that is as far as they go but still a bit scary.
Our turnaround point is an old tree that seems to serve as a meeting and hiding point for migrants with lots of signs from their passing nearby.
After all this exploration and finding the Thick billed Kingbird it is time for a celebratory dinner. There is no good restaurant in Arivaca so we make our way to Tubac to both fill our car tank and our bellies. We eat at Elvira’s our favorite restaurant in the area, it is full but we still find some place outside to eat.
The food as usual is very good, the mole is outstanding as well as the banana float and then we return to Arivaca to rest in our beautiful AirBnB before another busy day tomorrow.
