// scenic road
Coronado Trail (US-191)
- Category
- scenic road
- Region
- arizona
- Distance
- 113.9 mi
- Avg ride time
- 2 hr 32 min
114 miles of US-191 from Clifton to Alpine — "America's curviest road," 460+ named turns, copper mines below and ponderosa pine at altitude. Almost no traffic.
// highlights
- mile 0.0
Clifton, AZ (south end)
South terminus copper-mining town at 3,500 ft — fuel, food, and a critical pre-ride check before 90 miles of zero services.
- mile 6.5
Morenci Copper Mine viewpoint
Open-pit mine that's the largest copper operation in North America — pull-offs along the highway look down into the terraced excavation.
- mile 30.6
Granville Recreation Area
Forest Service picnic area with shade and pit toilets — the first reliable rest stop on the climb into the Apache-Sitgreaves NF.
- mile 65.9
Blue Vista Overlook
9,184 ft viewpoint over the Blue Range Primitive Area — interpretive signs, restrooms, and the best photo on the route.
- mile 66.6
Hannagan Meadow Lodge
9,000 ft historic lodge with a small restaurant — fuel here is unreliable but lunch is the real reason to stop.
- mile 90.0
Alpine, AZ (north end)
North terminus high-country village at 8,012 ft — fuel, food, and the connection north on US-180 to the Petrified Forest or NM.
// Why this road
The numbers tell part of the story: 460-plus named curves in under 115 miles. But the more useful thing to know is that those curves are stacked across a 5,000-foot elevation change, which means the road character shifts completely as you climb. The southern end comes out of the Clifton-Morenci mining corridor — open, warm desert, exposed rock, and a good look down into one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world. Then the road tightens and climbs hard into the Ponderosa pine belt around Hannagan Meadow, where temperatures can drop 30 degrees from where you started.
The turns themselves are a mix. Lower sections run through wider desert switchbacks; the middle section is where the road gets most technical — tight, stacked, sometimes with little shoulder and abrupt drop-offs. Upper sections relax into longer curves through pine forest. The pavement is generally decent, though patched in sections. Traffic is sparse enough that you can go long stretches without seeing another vehicle, which is one of the road's real draws — but it also means if something goes wrong, you're on your own for a while.
The road is known among riders specifically because it's relentless. It doesn't give you flat sections to reset. If you're not in the right headspace for sustained technical riding, that becomes fatiguing.
The Morenci mine viewpoint near the south end is worth a stop — the scale of it is hard to register from a photo.
Before you go: Cell coverage is minimal or nonexistent for most of the route. Fuel and services are thin — fill up in Clifton and again in Alpine. The higher elevations can see snow and ice into late spring and again by fall; the road sometimes closes without much notice. Deer are active at dawn and dusk, particularly in the forested northern half. Riding south to north puts the better scenery in front of you on the climb.