Cross F Ranch

Picture a rugged desert landscape, craggy canyons, a creek flowing year-round, a richly diverse natural system, and an area overflowing with turn-of-the-century mining history, including the ghost town of Aravaipa. The public embraced this land for its hunting, hiking, and outdoor adventuring opportunities until a new landowner blocked off access to these public lands.

Sadly, this not uncommon story of the West reveals the true tale of Cross F Ranch and Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness.

The Cross F Ranch lies right between two extraordinary public lands: the Bureau of Land Management’s Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, with its renowned Aravaipa Creek, to the west and the U.S. Forest Service’s mountainous Santa Teresa Wilderness to the east. The roads that hikers, equestrians, and hunters use to reach these unique wildlands traversed the private Cross F Ranch. The longtime owners left their gates unlocked for many years, allowing the public to cross their ranch en route to the public lands beyond. When the ranch changed hands, the new owners exercised their right to keep their ranch roads closed. Seemingly overnight, those who had come to know and love this wild landscape lost access to about 40,000 acres of public lands. To make matters worse, the owners planned to put the ranch on the market, where it could have been subdivided into ranchette lots, fragmenting the landscape.

Trust for Public Land worked with the landowner to acquire the ranch, return it to a more natural state by removing some existing buildings, and transfer ownership of the land (including the ghost town) to the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. The ranch will continue to be leased by these agencies for cattle grazing, preserving the farming economy of the area, but will remain open forever for access by hunters and other recreational users. It’s the latest success in TPL’s years-long efforts to improve access to the outdoors in the Sky Islands mountain ranges of southeast Arizona.

Unfortunately, Cross F isn’t an isolated case. The Arizona Game and Fish Department reports blocked access to millions of acres of public land across the state. Throughout the West, nearly 16 million acres of our public lands are inaccessible to the citizens who own them.

Along with hunters and hikers, an abundance of wildlife exists within the Cross F boundaries, including mountain lions, desert bighorn sheep, bears, javelinas, and deer. The ranch protects these wildlife habitats and critical wildlife corridors. Aravaipa Creek runs through the area and contains the most diverse population of native fish in Arizona.

The flourishing flora include large sycamore, ash, cottonwood, and willow trees along the stream, where vibrant fall foliage within a desert landscape offers an unforgettable view.

The many partners pouring their efforts into this project to assist TPL, including numerous sports groups and The Nature Conservancy, strive to reconnect people with their public lands and protect the habitats within this recreational paradise. It’s just one example of how TPL furthers its goal of connecting everyone to the outdoors in Arizona.

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