Tucson Open Range
When I first moved to Tucson one of the most interesting thing I ran across were cows in the middle of the road. Now I’m not talking about down town Tucson, but not far from it. Less than twenty miles outside of town there is open range.
When you see the Open Range sign it is a good idea to slow down. Of course many people that live around open range all the time seem to be the ones moving the fastest. During the heat of the day it isn’t too likely you will see a cow in the middle of the road but it is possible.
The Tucson Monsoon Season brings a lot of greening to the desert. The grasses grow and provide feed for the cows of the open range. Okay, I should say, “Provides forage for the cattle of the Old West.”
Another way of knowing you are in open range are the cattle grates across the roadway. They sure make a lot of racket when you drive over them and if they are located on a dirt road they can have some pretty deep potholes on one side or the other.
I don’t know who first discovered the cattle grate, but here is the deal. Cows won’t cross one. You see these guys in the picture they are playing a game of dare, double dare. Of course no one is willing to take the dare or double dare. I don’t know why, (well I do, but I’m not going to say : ) but for some reason, cows don’t like to cross a cattle grate, so if you have open range but don’t want them going across a line, you put up a cattle grate.
This evening we were driving in Open Range. We have a couple of listings in horse property territory to the East of Tucson near Colossal Cave. We’ve been out there many times during the day, but never in the evening. We came over a hill and there was a calf standing right in the middle of the road.
We continued on to our destination and on the way back home the sun set and we stopped to get a couple of images. Less than a mile after that just as it was getting dark we came upon this group of cows at first walking and grazing beside the road and then suddenly crossed the road right in front of us.
It was like riding a jeep on safari. Suddenly we were on the plains of Africa and wildebeests were running along with us. So it wasn’t like being on safari, it was like dodging cows on a dirt road outside Tucson Arizona.
[where: 85737]
