The Beer Chronicles, Day 2 - Treasure Hunting in the Desert

Morning in the Foothills

We were lucky enough to secure lodging with a friend who lives deep in the Tanque Verde area of Tucson, a lovely foothills paradise of lush Sonoran splendor.  Unlike our home turf of Las Cruces- which resides is the parched Chihuahuan Desert- the Sonoran Desert foothills of Tucson is resplendent with lush desert growth: Palo Verde trees blossom, grasses from spring rains green up, and Saguaros flowers bud like beautiful tumors, all coming to life like clockwork in late spring.  Our host took my sis and me for a three mile loop walk/hike through a neighborhood desert preserve to witness this beauty, helping to cast aside the cobwebs from too little sleep and a wee bit too much beer.

When 8:00 am rolled around, we set out for our 300 mile journey for the day, stopping just long enough to fortify ourselves with coffee from a well-known national chain that rhymes with Barclucks.  A bit of bitter brew later, we were on the road, traversing the light Saturday morning traffic to reach I-10 in record time.  A word of caution about Tucson:  the city planners apparently made a conscious decision to NOT build a loop road for the northeast part of the city.  The net effect of this lack of limited access roads is 8-10 miles of city street driving from the foothills to westbound I-10, which on a quiet Saturday morning was an easy stroll.  During rush hour?  Expect a LONG slog to reach your destination.

Another Hobby on Display

A good friend of mine has accused me of "gamifying" everything in my life, including beer drinking. That might be a bit too close to accurate.  After all, Untappd- with it's myriad of virtual badges you can earn for different "beer accomplishments"- feels very much like another favorite activity of mine, Geocaching, which was on full display this day.  My usual way of traveling, at least when time allows, is to stop frequently, both to stretch my legs and to follow the mantra of many a journeyman: The point of the journey is not to arrive.  It is the journey itself.  Prudence tells us that this isn't always possible, especially in our rush-rush-rush, ticky-tack-little-houses society, but when possible, it makes for a much more sublime, cathartic journey.  This road trip was just such a journey and thus we resolved to stop frequently, treasure hunting along the way.  The first first such stop was at a odd desert park, about 10 miles west of the I-10/I-8 interchange, roughly 45 miles east of Gila Bend. State Highway 84 intersects with I-8 at this point, running a ENE route towards State Route 347 and then due north to the little down of Maricopa after which the mighty Phoenix county is named.

The park, named Pinal County West, is a strangely quiet and rustic little roadside desert oasis of Palo Verde and Saguaro, intermittently punctuated with little shabby shade covers and BBQ grills. And there was also a Geocache, which we took a short .5 mile stroll to find.  Mind you, by this time, around 10:00 am, the temperature was already pushing 90; such is the way in Arizona's beautiful but brutal desert.  I was glad I opted for iced coffee.

Yuma Renaissance

Back in the 1980s, as an undergraduate in college, I used to drive I-8 all the time, visiting friends

attending UC-San Diego.  At that time, Yuma was nothing but a hot, agricultural blip in the road, known mostly for cheap gas at the AM-PM off of the US95 exit which leads down to the Mexican border town of San Luis Rio Colorado in the state of Sonora.  Well, the AM-PM is still there but Yuma has grown into rather substantial hub of SW Arizona, complete with a college, an airport, over 50,000 residents and a winery.  Yes, I said winery.  My first thought upon seeing this was, "How on Earth?  It gets to 110 regularly in the summer here.  How can they possibly grow grapes that don't just make the wine taste of sweet, sugary pap?"

On this trip, I wasn't about to find out because right across from this tasting room was the object of our desire, a brewpub oasis in the Yuma Proving Grounds heat called Prison Hill Brewery, named for the nearby territorial prison made famous in Elmore Leonard's 3:10 to Yuma.  Bonus: this brewery served food, just in time for our lunchtime repast.  While their beers were quite respectable, including a rather nice, smokey session ESB called ES Bueno ESB and a lovely summer Porter called Sally Porter, the standout here was a guest tap from our friends at Victory Brewing back in Pennsylvania.  An amazing Kirsch Gose, this cider-like brew was tart, slightly sweet, and packed a huge sour cherry punch.  Absolutely refreshing!  The food was quite nice but pretty typical pub fare, with standout meatball kabobs and some nice house dressings for their salads.

California Here We Come

I have this disagreement with friends and family all the time:  my eldest sister and brother-in-law insist that the best way to drive to California from New Mexico is through Phoenix which, in ideal traffic situations, is a bit faster than my chosen route.  HOWEVER, I-8 is a trafficless joy of tarmac, a 350 mile joyride for the speed freak who loves to avoid the cavalcade of semis, RVs, and sun-baked yahoos blanketing Phoenix like a bunch of drunk, disoriented ants, forever caught in someone's magnifying glass.

So I nearly always go through Yuma and up CA86, a fast and furious state highway that skirts the western shore of the Salton Sea on it's way to joining up with I-10 in the heart of the Coachella Valley.  Usually this road is limit access and even when it isn't, traffic is light (caveat: if it's during the Coachella Music Festival in April, ignore this advice).

And thus we come to the next part of our story, which is a brief and hot mini hike to another geocache, this time on the shores of the saline sea herself, somewhere within the confines of the optimistically named Salton City, a 1950's preplanned community that had its own idea about whether it wanted to have residents or not. In this place, you can almost feel the sense of hope that developers had, thinking they happened upon the next Palm Springs.  What they didn't account for was the smell: Salton Sea exudes an almost living, palpable stench, the product of Hydrogen Sulfide given off by the waters themselves.  This, along with increasing salinity, decreasing water levels, and pollution from nearby agriculture, curtailed that development.  Now the little berg is nothing more than an unincorporated Imperial county community of about 3500, a mixture of resilient retirees in their Saltillo-tiled homes and ancient single-wide mobile homes, the latter of which are largely occupied by Mexican agricultural workers and service industry 20somethings who cater to the rich and old of Palm Springs.


Coachella Brews

A quick and satisfying check in at the Palm Desert Homewood Suites - a fabulous deal off season by the way- we sought sustenance at nearby awesome Thousand Palms taqueria en route to our true destination and the reason we decided to stay the night out here in the Valley: Coachella Valley Brewing Company, a place that takes beer making to a new level of bonkers.  While their industrial park taproom has only been around for a couple of years now, master brewer Devon Sanchez and company are doing remarkable things, incorporating local ingredients into many of their brews.  For example, they brag about their use of Africanized Killer Bee Honey in their brews, which stands out particularly well in their amazing Desert Swarm, a Double Belgian Wit (not usually one of my favorites) that lingers with hot honey at the back of the palate but with none of the sweetness.  The addition of locally grown kumquats gives it a citrus taste that is out of this world.

The menu was a nearly limitless array of varieties to satisfy every palate, from a slightly sour Berlinerweisse to the gargantuan Grand Conquistador, a Belgian Quad infused with locally grown dates that tops out at a whopping 20% ABV.... and that's without any fortification!  How they managed this magical feat is beyond me but Devon and his fellow beer wizards are truly remarkable. I can't wait to revisit this place come August!






Next time, Day Three of the May beer journey, where we drive the Rim of the World, sample 7500 feet brews, descend into the heart of darkness itself, and get overwhelmed at a cavernous brewery music festival.  Los Angeles, here we come!

First of two flights