Scott Puntel

Most people drive through Tortilla Flat without realizing an old cattle ranch is hidden in the mountains behind it.

Tortilla Flat began as a freight and stagecoach stop in 1904 while the road to Roosevelt Dam was being built.

Wagons hauling supplies through the Superstitions needed places with water, food and rest along what eventually became the Apache Trail.

But the history didn’t stop at the pavement.

Just outside town, Forest Road 213 climbs away from the Apache Trail toward the remains of Tortilla Ranch.

This was working cattle country. Ranchers used the surrounding grazing allotment and dependable water along Tortilla Creek to raise cattle in some incredibly rugged terrain.

During the 1950s through the mid-1970s, Hoolie Bacon and his son-in-law Floyd Stone operated the Tortilla and Reavis ranch country.

Stone brought Mexican steers onto the range during the spring, fattened them on the desert forage and then sold them at market.

Today, the ranch is abandoned. Beyond the gate are pieces of what once kept the operation alive, including an old cistern, well, watering troughs, concrete foundations and the remains of a windmill.

I didn’t make it all the way onto the ranch during this trip, but reaching the gate was enough to put the trail into perspective.

This wasn’t originally created as a recreational Jeep trail.

It was a working road into isolated cattle country where ranchers depended on horses, water sources and sheer toughness to make a living.

The trail is short, rocky and heavily eroded near the beginning, then opens into some incredible views above the Apache Trail before dropping toward Tortilla Creek.

Sometimes the best part of exploring Arizona isn’t reaching the final destination.

It’s learning why the road exists in the first place.

Have you been beyond the gate? Let me know 👇

It's all good till it's not! 😂.

This is the fallen at Sand Hollow.

Vitor had a bit of a time with this one. We rolled him back over and he went right back at it.

Had a really hard time staying on the wall on the right and the right rear just wouldn't climb.