Rancho de la Osa

Today I rode with Ron, a true cowboy and character, from Rancho del la Osa, a historic ranch right beside the border of Mexico. I picked this ranch because of its unique history and location. You can see the wall, built on the border here between the Mexican and American towns of Sasabe, from the ranch. We also rode up to a high overlook to see the beautiful rolling mountains of Mexico. I rode a wonderful horse named Chewy, who listened very well. We got along great.

Our ride started at the ranch, which is a conglomeration of beautiful pastel colored hacienda style buildings, and went through a wash to a graveyard that is more than 100 years old. The ranch is in a large valley surrounded by mountains, so everywhere you look there is something to see. At 4000 feet high, there aren’t as many saguaros, making it look different from Tucson. There are lots of mesquite trees along the trails and a few barrel cacti. The barrel cactus points south, so that it can absorb as much sunlight as possible.

From there, we rode through some more of the wash trails and to a section of rock formations. These rocks look almost like a pastry, with thin layers resting on top of each other. We rode to a higher point, where you could see Baboquivari Peak, a mountain peak on a nearby Tohono Indian reservation, which points to the sky. Ron told me that the Native Americans believe that this mountain is sacred.

On an even higher nearby mountain, we took in Baboquivari Peak from a different angle, but also Mexico’s rolling mountains and its town of Sasabe, which is bigger than the Sasabe in Arizona. It was sort of surreal being so close to the border and actually riding beside a wall. Having only heard about border issues on the news, it was definitely interesting to hear tales from people who live and work at a ranch on the border and to see things left behind from people trying to cross.