INTERPRETIVE ZONE 2 begins when you turn west and start climbing up out of the river valley toward the high hills. For lovers of mountains, forests, natural beauty, solitude, and western history, the Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway is about to start getting really interesting.

The primary roads in this Zone are state-maintained highways with two 12-foot-wide paved driving lanes and intermittent shoulders. There are numerous sharp curves and the road is fairly steep from Hillsboro over Emory Pass to San Lorenzo. This segment is in good repair, and is snow-plowed as needed except at nights and on weekends. During rare times of severe weather these roads may be closed, and stay closed until cleared. Safety conditions are good for the posted speed limits. Be advised that there are several places where the road runs along deep canyons with no guardrail. Note that parts of this Zone run through open range cattle country, and that cattle have the legal right-of-way.

This Zone starts off flat and straight through desert prairie, with excitement building as the mountains come ever closer. As the road begins to twist, rise and fall in the foothills, you'll suddenly encounter the picturesque town of Hillsboro. From Hillsboro, a rolling side trip to the ghost town of Lake Valley may be taken. Back on the main route, it's less than ten miles to the historically notorious mining community of Kingston, the Black Range Mountains, and the Gila National Forest.

On the other side of the mountains, just before the village of San Lorenzo and Interpretive Zone 3, two side trips may be taken: south to the bizarre City of Rocks State Park, and east to the Santa Rita Mine overlook.

Highway 152 wears many faces over the next fifty miles as it ascends from Caballo Lake in the Rio Grande Valley, through ranch country (including the Ladder Ranch, one of the vast Ted Turner/Jane Fonda holdings), up into rolling foothills and over the pine-forested Black Range Mountains through Emory Pass, and then descending toward scrub-dotted slopes.

On the way, it delivers you to the 1880s mining town of Hillsboro, which in its glory days was the seat of Sierra County. From Hillsboro, a quick side trip on Highway 27 to the ghost town of Lake Valley is available.

Between Hillsboro and Kingston is one of the oldest remaining truss bridges. Built in 1927 in a sheer box canyon, it was a pioneer in the construction of bridges of its type. In use until the mid-'90s, the bridge was left in place when a new one was constructed next to it. Now a foot bridge, the view from it into the canyon is thrilling. Imagining wagons making their way up the narrow canyon gives an idea of the hardships of travel in pioneer times.

You're now entering one of the most important mining districts in the Southwest. Today, historic mining roads provide spectacular access to the high country. If you explore these back roads or hike this countryside and come across any mines - whether vertical shafts or horizontal diggings - do not enter, or even approach! They are not safe.

The mining town of Kingston had a well-known reputation for wild and wooly ways (for example, Sadie Orchard maintained a brothel situated on Virtue Avenue), but these days it's fairly easy to drive right by the one paved road of the now-sleepy village without noticing. Keep an eye peeled for it.

The Byway now becomes much steeper and much more twisted as it enters the Gila National Forest and the Black Range Mountains. This is truly a mountain road; obey the posted speed limits. Over the course of less than ten miles, you'll gain almost 3000 feet in elevation and make over 300 turns of the steering wheel.

The long descent on the other side of Emory Pass provides a beauty all its own, with terrain changing from towering pines and rocky outcropping cliffs to gentle slopes sprinkled with juniper, cedar and scrub oak in front of imposing mountains on the horizon. (You'll be exiting the Gila National Forest, but will re-enter it very soon.)

At the junction of highway 61, you can choose to take a 22-mile side trip to the unearthly City of Rocks State Park and its strange stone hoodoo formations. Back on the main route, minutes beyond that intersection comes another side trip choice: you may wish to continue a few miles on Highway 152 beyond the turnoff to San Lorenzo and Interpretive Zone 3 to see the Santa Rita Mine Overlook for a view of an open-pit strip mine that produces 300 million pounds of copper annually.

Next stop on the E-Tour:
the town of Hillsboro...