White River Scenic Road White River Scenic Road
White River Scenic Road is a National Scenic Byway in Arizona. Within Arizona it covers roughly 11 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along White River Scenic Road with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Arizona's White River Scenic Road follows State Route 73 for 11 miles within the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, from Hon-Dah to Whiteriver. The route is what remains of a longer territorial road that once linked Globe to Springerville through White Mountain Apache homeland, its earliest alignment improved after a military camp was established here in 1870 and renamed Fort Apache in 1879. Arizona designated the road a Scenic Road in 1992, and the Federal Highway Administration added National Scenic Byway status in 1998. The drive descends from ponderosa pine and fir forest into the upper Sonoran Desert through canyons the Colorado Plateau's edge has been eroding for some 65 million years. Along the way it passes the Alchesay-Williams Creek National Fish Hatchery, central to recovering the native Apache trout, and the Kinishba Ruins, among Arizona's best-preserved examples of prehistoric Mogollon culture.
- Fort Apache Reservation
- Whiteriver
- North Fork White River
- 11 miles
- 1998 National Scenic Byway
- Kinishba Ruins
- Alchesay-Williams Creek Fish Hatchery
Plan a drive on White River Scenic Road →
What is a National Scenic Byway?
National Scenic Byways are roads recognized at the federal level for at least one outstanding quality — scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archaeological or recreational — that gives travelers a reason to seek them out rather than just pass through.
Where to Stay along White River Scenic Road
No campgrounds are listed close to White River Scenic Road yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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