Chavez Siding - Diablito Mountain - Saucito Wash

July 24, 1999

Written by John Hill Mon Jul 26 12:16:15 1999

After a fine breakfast of machaca & eggs at Micha's we headed down I-19 to the Chavez Siding exit (40). The participants were John Hill and Mike Corbin in "The River ...", John Waack in "Weenie Blazer", Ed McCullough in his F-250 and Julian Suazo in his Jeep TJ.

We turned west from the Chavez Siding exit and drove past Diablito Tank and around the north end of the Tumacacori Mountains. As advertised, there are loads of octotillos growing in this area. Then we dropped down into Saucito Wash. We had a good time down there in the wash. The wash is blocked by a fence about a mile from Arivaca Road. Lacking the topo map, we didn't know to drive up the little hill to Tres Dedos tank. We also drove a ways upstream in Saucito Wash. There I managed the "stuck of the month" by burying "The River" up to the front bumper in quick sand. Fortunately there was a big Ford to pull me out. We backtracked back around the mountains when the weather started to look like rain after lunch. We attempted to exit near Amado, but found at least three locked gates that we were on the inside of. We ran south down the natural gas pipeline to Chavez Siding. This turned out to be more fun than expected, because one of the dips had a pond in it that was three feet deep. We made it back to Tucson by 4:30 and got the truck washed off in a nice thunderstorm. Except for the quick sand, the trail was an easy "3".

Thus we had many of the important ingredients for a 4x4 trip:

The only equipment breakage was my CB radio.

Trail Rating for Chavez Siding - Diablito Mountain - Saucito Wash

The trail is rated a 3 -- you definitely need 4-wheel-drive. Stock 4x4s can make the trip, but wide tires and low air pressure are useful when you hit the soft sand in Saucito Wash.

Trail Location for Chavez Siding - Diablito Mountain - Saucito Wash

To reach the trail, take I-19 exit 40 "Chavez Siding"; turn left (west) at the bottom of the ramp, follow the dead end frontage road about 3/4 mile north and take the first road to the left (west). There you are on the road that provides recreational access to the Tumacacori Mountains.

Topographic Maps Needed

Amado, Saucito Mtn

Adjoining Maps

GPS Coordinates

Landmark UTM Easting UTM Northing Altitude
I-19 exit 40 "Chavez Siding" 12 4 94 300 E 35 01 800 N +3180
Frontage Road turnoff, "C2" 12 4 94 140 E 35 02 780 N +3155
Las Chivas intersection, "C3" 12 4 92 030 E 35 01 760 N +3350
Diablo Well intersection 12 4 89 700 E 35 02 960 N +3490
Diablito Tank intersection 12 4 89 730 E 35 05 000 N +3378
Toros Wash intersection, "C5" 12 4 89 910 E 35 06 020 N +3360
Calera Wash intersection, "C6" 12 4 87 280 E 35 05 370 N +3520
enter Saucito Wash, "C7" 12 4 84 349 E 35 02 915 N +3680
where we got stuck in Saucito Wash, "CX" 12 4 84 716 E 35 02 358 N +3700
fence near Tres Dedos, "C9" 12 4 83 310 E 35 06 335 N +3380
Saucito Wash at Arivaca Road 12 4 83 200 E 35 07 770 N +3357

This web page maintained by
John M. Hill <jhill@as.arizona.edu>
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Last modified: Sat Apr 3 12:12:00 1999