Sometimes near our big cities and sometimes remote, ghost towns are fun places to go ... especially when we're having great desert weather (now ~).
What you’ll find at Sundad:
When you first arrive, you will notice the rock structure spelling out the name of the site (picture). There are no buildings standing at Sundad, but there are samples of rock art, a few structures and at least one mine shaft (careful!). Although you can easily find additional pictures of this ghost town on the internet, I won’t tell you too much here - just in case you want to have a few surprises when you arrive. Or, if you do want to know more about this particular place, maybe one of your children would have fun investigating Sundad on the Internet and reporting back to your family before you start your day trip.
If you would like to visit more ghost towns nearby, you might enjoy the Agua Caliente drive that will take you past an old hotel with a dried up hot spring, a graveyard and an abandoned military site. These quiet back roads are sure to take you away from the hustle & bustle of city life.
For one more little detour, you might like to have a nostalgic roadside meal at the Space Age Hotel in Gila Bend. This place is not fancy, but it’s unique … Arizona Highways did a story about it so that gives its reputation for personality some additional credibility beyond my recommendation. There is also a McDonalds in town if you just want a quick, familiar burger and clean restrooms.
History
There is not much recorded information about Sundad, but it was originally a mining community. In the early 1900s there were plans for it to become the site of the state sanatorium, but this never occurred. Some websites report that Sundad did become an independent tuberculosis focused sanatorium, but I could not confirm whether this might have been an informal group who temporarily inhabited the area or something on a larger scale. If you locate any good sources of information about Sundad, let me know … I’m curious, are you?
Directions & Approximate GPS Coordinates
The road starts approximately 57 miles southwest of Phoenix and 14 miles south of Arlington.
If you are leaving from Phoenix, take 1-10 west to the Highway 85 exit (leading to Gila Bend), go southbound on State Route-85 toward Gila Bend and after 6 miles, turn right and go west at the Palo Verde/Arlington turnoff onto Old Route 80. Take Route 80 through Palo Verde, Hassayampa and Arlington (road turns into Old Route 80). At approximately 14.1 miles south of Arlington, near the Gila Compressor Station, you will see a street sign marked "Agua Caliente Road". Turn right at that exit and you are now on the correct road. You will cross a Bureau of Land Management portal sign after one mile.
When you see the rocks spelling out Sundad, you will need to take a hike or use a 4-wheel drive to see the rest of the site. The hike is easy to moderate and less than 1 mile.
If you take the route described above, plan on approximately 2 hours for one-way travel. The roads are bumpy, but you can do it in a 2-wheel drive vehicle. There are also 4-wheeling routes to this area, but they have lots of hazards and one-way took us about 5 hours. It just depends on what kind of "fun" your family has in mind.
These GPS coordinates are approximate:
N33 10.899
W113 14.166
When our Family Visits a Ghost Town ...
When we head off for a ghost town adventure, we all take what we need for a fun day … Raoul packs his gadgets including a GPS and metal detector, Ivy takes a doll (or more) along with her fully stocked camping backpack and I make sure we have food & beverages, my travel watercolor kit, journal and camera.
If you ask each of us why we like going on these excursions, we may give you several different answers. Raoul likes practicing his survival skills, reading old maps & following clues,
perusing abandoned sites and navigating unknown territory in our Jeep. Ivy enjoys going inside (safe) old structures, looking for animals, admiring rocks and using anything out of her backpack. I love how the world slows down as we leave the city behind; my mind calms enough to have creative thoughts and I start to notice my surroundings in a way that is different from my Monday through Friday mode. And, the one thing I know we all appreciate about these ghost town road trips is having fun together.
Tips for Safety, Caring for Ghost Towns and Having Fun
Before you go on any ghost town trip, be sure to review multiple sources to ensure a safe trip by having more than one version of directions, knowing the road conditions and learning of any safety hazards. And, as my grandpas always told me, make sure you have enough gas!
When you visit a ghost town, also remember to honor the rules of the site. You may arrive at a ghost town and find out that it has become private property, is temporarily closed by a government agency or unavailable for other reasons. You will also want to leave the site better than you found it so that it can be enjoyed by the adventurers who follow you.
Something else to keep in mind as you start your ghost town adventure is “managing expectations”. Some ghost towns (like
Vulture Mine) have lots of old buildings to see but many ghost towns (like
Sundad) have only a few structures left so anyone who visits will have to use their imagination (and/or research) to imagine life at the site many years ago. Ghost town adventures are always a pursuit of the journey as much as they are a pursuit of the destination.
Have fun!
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