by Dave Caldwell
The New York Times
May 16, 2008 – BRISTLING with saguaro cactus, Superstition Mountain rises from the desert floor in Arizona, its cliff faces blushing when caught by the sun. The mountain seems to stand sentry over the low-slung, earth-colored houses in Gold Canyon, keeping watch over a daily parade of joggers, golfers and cyclists.
The mountain cannot be sprinkled with houses because it is part of a federal preserve, the Superstition Mountain Wilderness Area. But the valley to the west and south of Gold Canyon, which is about 35 miles east of downtown Phoenix, has undergone rapid development in recent years, with more planned for years to come.
Homeowners can’t get much closer to the mountain than Gold Canyon, a small, unincorporated town developed about 30 years ago on what was a cattle ranch. Developments, including gated communities lush with plush homes, sidle up to three golf courses, one of which hosts an annual Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament.
About a third of Gold Canyon’s population is made up of second-home owners, said Tony Vehon, an area native who is a broker for Weichert Realtors-Lake Realty and chairman of the Apache Junction Chamber of Commerce. Most of them migrate to Gold Canyon because it is a slow-paced place to stay warm in winter.
“You don’t have to shovel snow, and there’s so much snow to shovel back home,” said Tony Corvinelli, a home builder from Ottawa, who paid $291,000 last November for a 2,300-square-foot three-bedroom house in an age-55-plus community in Gold Canyon. “There is a lot of open space here. The mountains are beautiful, and there is a lot to do.”
Apparently, Gold Canyon is also a comfortable place to do nothing. JoAnn Clark and her husband, Bob, a ski instructor from Breckenridge, Colo., like to hop on a Harley and rumble around the desert. But they also enjoy sitting on their back patio at sunset, nursing glasses of wine as coyotes, rabbits and bobcats amble past and bald eagles soar overhead.
The Clarks paid $200,000 for their 1,800-square-foot house in 2004, Mrs. Clark said, because they had grown weary of dealing with 400 inches of snow every winter. She spends about five months a year in Gold Canyon, with her husband joining her for long stretches.
“You can get a more beautiful home in Arizona, but you cannot beat the views of the mountains,” she said. “You can always fix up a house, but you can’t find a perfect location like this is.”
Mr. Clark laughed when he said: “People here say, ‘I’d like to see a cloud once in a while.’ Not me. We never thought we’d buy in Arizona. It’s not just the mountains, it’s the whole atmosphere of Gold Canyon.”
That atmosphere is being preserved. An immense planned community called Superstition Vistas is scheduled to be built over the next five decades on state trust land to the south and west, but the pristine mountain views will stay in Gold Canyon. Groups have formed to watch over a long-adored mountain.
“We have a lot of open space that’s buildable, but we also have a lot of open space that’s absolutely irreplaceable,” said Rosemary Shearer, a Gold Canyon resident who is executive director of the Superstition Area Land Trust. “People don’t come here to look at the freeways or to look at the malls. They come here to look at the Superstitions.”
The Scene
The Superstition Freeway, U.S. 60, makes a beeline east from Phoenix before it turns into a four-lane highway to the east of Apache Junction, Gold Canyon’s larger Pinal County neighbor. Traffic slows and so, it seems, does the pace. Hikers ascend Silly Mountain, a shorter mountain between Apache Junction and Gold Canyon.
U.S. 60 is the main drag, the strip to find businesses like Walgreens and McDonald’s. Local favorites include the Red Sage Restaurant, with family fare; the Open Range Deli; BQ, a steakhouse; and Kokopelli’s, a restaurant at Gold Canyon Golf Resort that features pork osso bucco and a grilled Cajun ribeye steak.
The houses in Gold Canyon, which used to be known as Kings Ranch, dot the foothills of the Superstition Mountain range. Most houses were built in the last 10 to 15 years, and larger homes are still under construction. Wide sidewalks and bicycle lanes are well trafficked. Some residents cycle and walk their dogs at the same time.
“We do a lot of dog walking, and that’s the way we’ve met all our neighbors, who are wonderful,” said Carol Ann Pike, a retired teacher from Munster, Ind., who bought a 2,500-square-foot house with her husband, Al, who is also retired, for $275,000 five years ago.
Besides walking Buddy, their golden retriever, the Pikes like to hike on the trails behind their house — which they have playfully nicknamed the Gold Star Ranch — and to take their Ford Bronco on some of the nearby dirt roads. They filled an extra room with cowboy paraphernalia and built a deck that has a sweeping view of the mountain.
“It’s a million-dollar view,” Mr. Pike said. He laughed, then added, “It’s beautiful when snow is on the mountain and not on the ground here.”
Pros
The weather is sublime for about nine months of the year, with so little rainfall that residents often gather to watch the runoff from a rare shower.
Cons
U.S. 60 can become congested during the L.P.G.A. tournament, which is held at Superstition Mountain Golf Club in late March, and during the Arizona Renaissance Festival, which runs on weekends in February and March. “If there’s a jam, and you don’t have a helicopter,” Ms. Shearer said, “you’re pretty much stuck.”
The Real Estate Market
Gold Canyon has not been impervious to the real-estate slump. Mr. Vehon said houses are selling for about 8 to 10 percent less than last year and about 15 percent less than two years ago, when, as in other places, the real-estate market hit its peak.
“I don’t think we’re as volatile as other parts of the Phoenix area have been,” he said. “Location has something to do with it.”
Carol Kingman, an agent with Lake Realty, said there has been a noticeable influx of buyers from Canada, who have been lured to Arizona by the weather and favorable exchange rates. “If we didn’t have the Canadians this year,” she said, “the market wouldn’t be as good.”
Gold Canyon’s three greatest assets remain: it is a relatively small town, at six square miles; it is nearly fully developed; and its homes are about as close to Superstition Mountain as a resident can get. As Jody Sayler, a local agent for Keller Williams, said, “You can’t move the mountain to build.”
What that means is that wildlife will continue to wander off the mountain and into backyards in Gold Canyon, which is about as exciting as most people in the region want it to get. The Clarks remember the first time they came to town and looked at Superstition Mountain. They saw a double rainbow and took that as a sign to think about moving in.