The Mule Mountains serve as a defining landmark of the Sulphur Springs Valley and a visual reference for Linda May’s hoped-for homestead. They stand across the valley from her five acres, making the range part of the prospect she evaluates remotely before she can visit the property herself. In the narrative, the mountains connect the valley’s broad geography to a specific, unfinished plan for settling there.

Geographic Setting

The Mule Mountains lie on the western side of the lower Sulphur Springs Valley in southeastern Arizona. The valley, nearly a hundred miles long, reaches toward northern Mexico and borders both the Sonoran Desert and the Chihuahuan Desert. Its southern portion is framed by a half-dozen mountain ranges: the Dragoon and Mule Mountains to the west, with the Chiricahua Mountains, Swisshelms, Pedregosas, and Porillas to the east. The Mule Mountains are therefore one part of a larger basin-and-range landscape rather than an isolated backdrop.

The book places Linda May’s five-acre parcel at the foot of the Porillas Mountains, on the valley’s eastern side. That distinction matters: the Mule Mountains are not the site of her land, but they form the distant view from it. Across the wide valley, they help establish the property’s position within a landscape bounded by multiple ranges. The author’s account gives no measurements for the mountains or detailed description of their geology; their significance comes instead from their place in the geography and from the views they make possible.

Along the Valley

The author approaches the area by road through open, sparsely inhabited country. On the way toward Linda May’s land, the landscape includes scrubland, occasional ranch houses, a small roadside shrine, and a solitary recreational vehicle. Some of the houses appear long abandoned. These details situate the property within a working and settled region, but also convey how much of the valley remains remote from dense development.

The route brings the mountains into view in successive layers. From Linda May’s land, the Mule Mountains appear on the far side of the valley; elsewhere, the surrounding ranges mark the edges of the author’s drive. After leaving the property, the author travels north on Highway 191, with the Mule Mountains beside the route and the Dragoon range farther north. By the time darkness falls, these ranges have become bearings along a journey rather than a single framed prospect. The account does not describe a climb or excursion into the Mule Mountains. It records them from roads and from the land that Linda May hopes to make her own.

A View of the Proposed Homestead

Linda May cannot travel to inspect the property when the author first visits. She is on the road, and the visit is arranged as a live video call: the author walks the land with a laptop and smartphone, using GPS to locate its boundary markers while she watches remotely and directs the exploration. When the camera turns toward the landscape, Linda May sees the dry ground and the Mule Mountains across the valley. The range thus enters the scene through a mediated view, shared between a person standing on the parcel and the person imagining a future there from elsewhere.

Her response is practical as well as appreciative. After seeing the panoramic mountain views, she judges the land better than expected, especially because its soil is not the rock-covered ground she remembers from Ehrenberg. She is also pleased that the five acres have been surveyed and marked. The mountains contribute to the appeal of the site, but they do not replace these material considerations: the quality of the dirt, the boundaries, and the price all bear on whether the parcel can support her plans.

Changing Light and Narrative Significance

The Mule Mountains recur as part of the changing weather and light around the visit. Clouds gather over them as the author drives north; a break in the sky above the range holds the last colors of sunset before evening darkens the road. Later, lightning flickers above the Dragoon range. After the author leaves Linda May’s land, a rainbow appears over the country just traversed. These moments keep the mountains connected to a larger landscape whose appearance shifts over the course of a journey, rather than treating them as a static scenic ornament.

Their deeper narrative function is to give a possible home a visible setting while underscoring that the home remains prospective. Linda May has not yet seen the property in person, and she plans to return after her Amazon job, when the weather is cooler, before deciding where to build. The Mule Mountains are therefore both present and out of reach: clearly visible from the land, yet still part of a future she must travel toward. As a landmark, they anchor that ambition in a particular valley; as a recurring view, they give shape to the distance between mobile work and the prospect of staying.