And there it is — and I promise you've never seen anything quite like it. This is Morenci, home to one of the largest open-pit copper mines in all of North America. Look at it: a man-made canyon miles across and thousands of feet deep, cut in enormous terraced steps down into the earth, crawling with trucks the size of houses that look like ants from the rim. They have been digging copper out of this ground for well over a century, and to get at it they have quite literally taken whole mountains apart and moved them — even moved the town of Morenci itself out of the way of the growing pit. It's staggering, a little terrifying, and genuinely one of the industrial wonders of the world. There are overlooks where you can safely take it in. Boone will tell you what it took to dig it. Heads up: just ahead the highway threads right around the enormous Morenci open-pit mine on a temporary realignment — follow the US-191 signs carefully through the mine detour and stay with the main route down toward Clifton. Heads up through here: the road hairpins back on itself in tight switchbacks — take them slow, hug your lane, and use the pullouts to let anyone behind you go by.
Photo: Stephanie Salisbury · CC BY 2.0