An inky river of asphalt, high speed metal and gripping tires, the Black Canyon Freeway, I-17, races from desert floor to alpine country, ascending over a vertical mile from Phoenix to Flagstaff. The highway cuts a path through the lush desert hills of New River, adorned with large, green saguaros and generous palo verde, affording sunset vistas worthy of the Wild West. It grinds upward, past Rock Spring's ever warm and crusty pies, as it makes its determined climb to Black Canyon City. Here, skirting blast cut cliffs, semis grind in low gears past guardrails and steep overhangs against a backdrop of soaring Bradshaw Mountains. A downward glance offers a glimpse of the southbound serpentine stretch of asphalt, where calculated curves replace what would otherwise have been a steeper grade. Shooting past ominous signs of Deadman's Wash, Horse Thief Basin and Bloody Basin, to wonderfully colorful towns of Rock Springs, Crown King and Bumble Bee, the traff