Cabeza Prieta wilderness
— — the part of the desert that asks something of you.
Not only on a wall.
“The refuge runs 56 miles along the Mexican border, almost a thousand square miles of basin and range with no paved road across it. Camino del Diablo, the old wagon track to the California goldfields, crosses east to west and still claims vehicles each summer. A hold-harmless permit is required to enter. Sonoran pronghorn move through at dusk, fewer than three hundred animals left in the United States. — from the studio
Cabeza Prieta wilderness, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge covers 860,010 acres of Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona, with 803,418 acres designated as Wilderness by Congress in 1990. The refuge borders the Mexican state of Sonora for 56 miles and adjoins Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to the east and the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range to the north. Its name comes from a dark-peaked granite mountain rising from the western basin. The town of Ajo is the gateway and the location of the refuge headquarters.
There are no paved roads, no campgrounds, no facilities. The refuge sees a few thousand visitors a year, most of them entering for a single drive on Camino del Diablo with a high-clearance vehicle and two spare tires. The military overflight zone overhead is active most weekdays, but the basin at night reads as quiet as any Bortle 1 sky in the lower forty-eight. Coyote and elf owl carry across distances that have no human reference. The nearest streetlight is forty miles away.
A free visitor permit, valid for one year, is required for every person entering the refuge, issued at the Ajo headquarters or downloadable in advance. The permit includes a hold-harmless waiver for the active military airspace and a route briefing. The Camino del Diablo crossing runs about 130 miles from Ajo to Wellton and is a two-to-three-day trip. Summer attempts are strongly discouraged. Cell coverage ends a few miles west of Ajo. Permits are not issued during periods of high border-security activity.