retreat center arizona high-desert meditation TMI The Mind Illuminated

Getting to Dharma Treasure Retreat at Cochise Stronghold

We are 90 miles southeast of Tucson (approximately a 90-minute drive) or 3 hours from Phoenix.

Many people choose to drive to Cochise Stronghold in their own vehicle or to rent a car in Tucson or Phoenix. Directions for reaching the Stronghold are a must if you’re driving yourself, and are found further down this page.

While it is an enormous help for us if meditators can drive themselves, we do offer round-trip transportation service between Tucson and Cochise Stronghold Canyon for $300. We prefer to pick you up from a grocery store of your choice in Tucson. It works best if we can coordinate this service as much as possible with others arriving and/or departing, so please do contact us at retreats@dharmatreasure.org or call us at 520.826-4141 or 520.507-8638 to best coordinate times.

Please note that renting a car at the Tucson (or Phoenix) airport can be surprisingly inexpensive compared to other cities. Renting your own vehicle can sometimes turn out to be less expensive than paying for our transportation service.

There is no public transportation to the remote Stronghold from Tucson. However, there is Amtrak service from Tucson to Benson and Greyhound Bus service from Tucson to the more nearby towns of both Benson and Willcox. Both Benson and Willcox are only about 45 minutes from the Stronghold, so are a great savings in driving time and cost (as well as the ecological savings from less private automobile driving).

The address of Cochise Stronghold is 2126 W. Windancer Trail, Cochise, AZ 85606. Please be careful not to over-rely on a GPS to get you here, as certain GPS systems are INCORRECT in this wilderness area. 

You may choose to plug the address into a GPS or to print out directions from a service like Google Maps. But we recommend also referring to the following directions. People have been known to get lost when using a GPS to drive to the Stronghold.

Please bear in mind that for the last 15 minutes of the drive, the road is gravel maintained by the Forest Service (i.e. primitive).  It is also unlit.  After the sun goes down, it can be difficult to find your way. We encourage you to arrive before dark.

Directions from the west – Tucson, AZ

We are 90 miles southeast of Tucson; the last 3 miles are unpaved Forest Service road. It should take ~90 minutes to get here from mid-Tucson.

Take I-10 east to exit 318 at Texas Canyon. Follow this road (Dragoon Rd) through the town of Dragoon towards Hwy 191. Before you reach Hwy 191, just before mile marker 11 miles, look for an intersection with Cochise Stronghold Road. Turn right (south) onto Cochise Stronghold Road and follow it until you reach a stop sign at Ironwood Road (~6 miles). Turn right onto Ironwood Rd. You will be now driving west on Ironwood Rd towards the Dragoon Mountains.

CONTINUING ON IRONWOOD RD:
Ironwood Rd becomes Forest Service Rd #84 after the pavement ends and as you enter the Coronado National Forest. As you pass the USFS Ranger Station, a stone house on the left, the road makes a strong S-curve and crosses the wash three times. You will notice a few private residences after you pass the Ranger Station. On the right hand side is an avocado green adobe house called Canyon House. Our driveway is about 150 feet past Canyon House on the left hand side. We are the second of two driveways on the left, marked by a county street sign as W Windancer Trl. Our address is 2126 W Windancer Trl. Follow the directional signs marked B&B (0.1 mile). We are the furthest south reach of this driveway. Please do not disturb our neighbors.

*Note, our driveway is 1/4 mile before the campground at the end of the road, so please don’t become concerned about having gone too far or having missed a turn unless you find yourself at the Forest Service campground. At the Cochise Stronghold Campground, turn around and go back 1/4 mile and take the first right at W Windancer Trl.

Directions from the east (WILLCOX):

Take I-10 west to Exit 331, at Exit 331 take Hwy 191 South towards Sunsites/ Pearce, ~18 miles.

FROM SUNSITES/ PEARCE:
Just north of Sunsites/Pearce, turn right onto Ironwood Rd, which is marked with a brown Forest Service sign as the road to Cochise Stronghold. There is a bright yellow gas station, Tumbleweed Corner, at the corner. Drive west on Ironwood towards the Dragoon Mountains (8 miles).

Then continue on Ironwood Rd as above….

Follow the signs to the B and B.

Please park in front of the rustic shack … and find your way to the retreat manager usually found in the house behind the Ocotillo fence.   Please be RESPECTFUL OF NOBLE SILENCE when on site…

Further up the driveway behind the metal workshop building,  you will see two yurts. The meditation yurt is the farther one with the raised porch… this is a SILENT ZONE so again please be mindful of others “in silence”.

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