Tale #2 - GATES PASS

The first time I went out to Gates Pass I didn’t even get to Gates Pass before I ordered my traveling companion to stop the car and let me out. We were driving west on Speedway, for that is how one gets to Gates Pass, when we suddenly reached this place where a million saguaro cactuses spread out in all directions. Or so it seemed.

 

Most of the saguaros I had seen were lone creatures standing tall against a brilliant sky. Here was a massive shadeless forest. I had to stop to take it all in. This was the beginning of the Saguaro National Forest of which the pass is a small part. It was glorious and unexpected. So out of the car I went.

 

Speedway has its own unique Wild West history. It stretches from one end of Tucson to the other – from the Tucson Mountains to the Rincon range some 20 miles away – and is as flat and straight as a board. Back in the day, the fine citizens of Tucson conducted auto races upon that stretch of road, hence the name ‘Speedway.’

 

When the road hits the foothills, it begins its gently winding rise toward the mountains as a single lane highway. When it hits the mountain canyon, the road narrows significantly with no berm and clings to the side of the hills until it reaches the crest and drops over the edge at a 90 degree angle, plunging back down to the desert floor on the other side.  A truly harrowing experience the first time over!

This is Gates Pass, created in 1883 by one man’s search for a shortcut through the Tucson Mountains to his carbonate mines in the Avra Valley below. That’s what they say. But to me it is one of those spots that showcase the natural beauty of an unspoiled earth.

 

The overlook provides a great view of Tucson’s sunsets. People are drawn by this common purpose in the evenings, much like they are drawn to Lake Erie in my old stomping grounds in Erie and Ashtabula Counties, back east. The sunsets are sometimes quite dramatic.

 

I lucked into a simultaneous sunset/moonrise one time. I went up to the pass with some friends visiting from Pennsylvania. We watched intently as the sun lowered behind a distant mountain range only to turn around and see a glorious full moon rising up behind us, lighting up the city below. We were spellbound. None of that crowd rushed away.

 

I have taken my life into my own hands out there, too. The rugged landscape of the cliffs overlooking the pass lured me in one time. When driving down the steep decline on the west side, it is impossible to take it all in. So one day I set out on foot to really get a closer look at it. Probably stupid as the only place to walk is that winding road with no berm, and at the edge of the road is a fairly steep drop covered in cholla cactus and with their long nasty spines. But I did it anyway. I am glad I did. I have found many times that hoofing it is the best way to really experience the desert.

 

I return to Gates Pass again and again. Each time I try it on for size and it fits differently. I go there to acclimate when I first arrive. I go to absorb its beauty and energy one last time before I leave the southwest. I know it will sustain me. I take my friends. I go alone. Each time I try to explore or trek some part of it where I have not yet been.

 

There’s the gate house and the outlook post. There are washes and trails, huge rocks to sit on, and mountains to climb. There are winds and to be felt and heard. Bird song to hear. Skies to watch. Shadows to play in. And each season with its own flavor and color. Sometimes it even snows, though I have yet to see that. It is a place of great beauty… and mystery.

 

I have heard more than once that there are UFO sightings in these mountains. A friend of mine described a ship the length of three city blocks and three stories high which he saw hovering over the Tucson Mountains one night. He was surprised at the level of fear he experienced at the sight of it as he was a firm believer in ET presence in the area. As if they heard him, he received their transmission of enlightenment saying he was more accurately afraid of something within himself. They merely mirrored – metaphysical stuff.

 

I had my own mystical experience one winter day when I drove out to the pass alone, to regroup after some challenging personal stuff. The area was deserted. I was investigating the gatehouse and took my time observing the landscape and feeling its calming pulse. I finally landed myself on a rock and began to talk to the cosmos as I am inclined to do when I’m sorting through my life.

 

It was then that I noticed strange things happening over my own head. The sky up to that point was clear and blue. But now, as I sat there, a web of wispy white clouds was forming overhead. It happened quickly. The sky took on the appearance of lace spreading out in an almost rectangular space and not only that, but these clouds soon began to dance, weaving among themselves with no regard for the prevailing winds. I was witnessing a sky ballet of a most spectacular sort. I felt the presence of some great sentience behind it. This display was not random. It was personal. It was for me. I was not alone.

 

The clouds dissolved as quickly and neatly as they had formed and I was alone once more, staring at the clear blue sky again. I headed back into town, my life feeling strangely supported by something unknown, yet wise and caring. I was grateful.

I have seen ‘cloud ships’ over Tucson many times. I have a friend who says they come to bear witness when something of a high or spiritual nature is happening. By luck, a group of us watched in amazement as they appeared one, two, three overhead soon after we arrived at the pass one rainy evening. I am not sure what was high or spiritual about our visit, except perhaps the joy we felt to be out there at all!

 

I leave you with one of my favorite Gates Pass sunsets. This was the last sunset I took in before flying back to Pennsylvania this past spring. I was amazed at how far the sun had moved from when I first came out to the pass 2 months earlier. The alignment of the sunsets is always changing, and occasionally things line up in a most delightful way.

 

This last time, as I stood on the mountain overlooking the valley, the sun setting in the distance was passing though a little outcropping in a mountain half way between. Sitting in the dip of this outcropping was a little grove of saguaros. The effect, with a little imagination, was of a saguaro family watching the sunset, complete with the little dare-devil kid who won’t stay with the group.

 

So that is the title I gave it: “Saguaro Family Watching the Sunset.” And here it is, with its little saguaro family, mirroring the human family behind it, watching yet another beautiful sunset beyond them, from one of the many beautiful places on earth.