Apache County, Arizona · near Chambers · APN 206-04-138: Cheap Because It's Hard to Reach, Quiet for the Same Reason

The Ground Nobody Else Bid On

Every parcel you've priced with a road to it had somebody else's name on it by the weekend. The ones that sit awhile are the ones with a catch, and the catch is usually that you can't drive up to them. This is one of those, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

What you get for your trouble is two and a half acres of tree cover on high ground, quiet in a way a lot with a driveway never is, and cheap enough to own outright without much strain. This is ground you hold. You walk it a couple of times a year, camp under the trees when you do, and let the idea of a small place out here take its time (the county won't rush you, and neither will the rancher).

It sits south of Chambers and Interstate 40, with the Petrified Forest about twenty miles to the west. That park is the only one in the national system with a stretch of old Route 66 running through it, marked these days by a rusted 1932 Studebaker parked where the pavement used to be. Things out here get left alone long enough to become landmarks.

Here's what you need to know: there is no road in. Cherrys Road passes about 1,800 feet to the southwest, and a rancher runs cattle through gates between here and there, so getting on means a conversation with him first (the price reflects that already, which is the only fair way to sell it).

Some land is for building on. Some is for knowing it's yours while the rest of the world argues over the lots with driveways.