Wecome to Double Star Ranch

Welcome to Double Star Ranch, or 2S Ranch, a beautiful equestrian estate in south central Arizona.

Double Star Ranch is located in the greater Phoenix area, and situated close to both city amenities and desert wilderness. Its mailing address is Mesa, Arizona, but its actual location is on county land, in a unique northeast corner of Maricopa county bounded by a Regional Park to the north and BLM land to the east.


The Ranch is one mile from the city limits of Mesa, Arizona, a large suburb of Phoenix with approximately 500,000 residents. Mesa malls and shopping are within 15 minutes, two major freeways (I-202 and I-60) are within 1o minutes, and Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport is 30 minutes away. All schools for Ranch residents are 5 to 10 minutes away, including Mesa elementary and high schools, and a local community college campus.


But along with proximity to the city, the unique location of Double Star Ranch also allows you to step straight from your back yard into hiking, riding, and camping grounds that extend for more than a hundred miles into national forest and wilderness areas. You can ride your horses straight from the Ranch along dirt roads and trails to the riding park that touches the property. Tonto National Forrest starts one mile from the Ranch, and Usery Mountain Regional Park, with its 3,648 acres of horse and biking trails, touches the property on the north, spanning between the Ranch and the National Forrest.

History of Double Star Ranch


The name and brand of Double Star Ranch are derived from its wilderness beauty and its working family ranch history.



Originally, when driving north on Signal Butte Road at night, two small lights were all that could be seen looking north from Brown Road into the darkness. Those lights were the two original ranch pole lights at the horse gate entering Double Star Ranch. That gate and those original poles are still there, at the far north dirt road dead end of Signal Butte. More importantly, the dark night skies of the desert wilderness are still preserved over Double Star Ranch.


The Double Star symbol also represents two original families - related by two sisters who were the wives and "double stars" - that made the Ranch a working ranch for families to build and maintain. Fourteen children of those families have worked the Ranch, the animals, and the desert land surrounding it, and made Double Star Ranch a family estate where children and grandchildren can come to enjoy the unique work and play the Ranch offers.


More recently, after several years of planning, the beautiful Red Brick House was completed in the middle of the Ranch, and a playground with equipment and a playing field were added at the home's north boundary. This required temporary removal of the large lighted riding arena that was originally where the home now stands. The fencing and lighting for the arena are still preserved, and relocation plans are in the works for the arena to return again to full use.


We are pleased to now offer the Red Brick House and beautiful equestrian facilities of Double Star Ranch for lease for 2010 to 2011.

Internet Location and Views

Finding Views on the Internet

Several Internet sites can give you an areal view of Double Star Ranch and the surrounding areas. Because of the somewhat remote location, most will not take you to the proper location by simply typing in the address of the property. But with a little manipulating, it is not too hard to move to where the actual property is located.

Google Maps

Google Maps is the first service to recently get it right, and show the proper approximate location of Double Star Ranch when the address is typed in. The physical address can be typed in Google Maps and will take you to a pretty close match, as follows:

"10737 E. McKellips Road, Mesa, AZ"

The location it gives will be the far east end of the property, and the Red Brick House is not on the farthest east lot, as is marked by Google, but is on the lot just to the west of it. A picture of what you'll originally see is below, after clicking "Satellite."


It shows a dirt road going along the north line of the property that is no longer there, that is identified as McKellips Road. There is no McKellips Road at this location (living on a non existent street does have it problems), but Google finally just identified that former dirt road as being McKellips so addresses would come out right.

The areal view on Google is very old, and only shows the Wooden Cabin Home and the Modular Guest House on the far west end of the property, against the block wall that makes the south and west borders. Just to the east of those homes is the Big Barn and Corral, that is still there and is a part of the Red Brick House and its equestrian facilities. However, just east of that on Google maps is bare land and a riding arena, that are no longer there, and have been replaced with the Red Brick House and its back yard.

Sadly, the little "man" on Google that walks the streets and gives a street view, doesn't work up on the Ranch. Sorry, he doesn't seem to want to go on dirt roads.

Bing

Typing in that same address in Bing.com gives a wrong location, and shows a location on McKellips Road (where McKellips Road really does exist) between 103rd and 105th Streets.

You'll need to grab the map and make it go further to the right, directly east, following along the bottom of the county park (Usery Park), past 106th Place, until you see a little hook of a road, that is labeled "N Signal Butte Rd" a little south of the south border of Usery Park (Usery Park shows up on the top of the map as just a gray park symbol.)

That is where you want to stop and go ahead and click the "Aerial" link, and choose "Birds Eye." This is a beautiful view of the property, and lets you see how it touches the trails of the adjoining park. You'll see trails going right to the fence of the property, and you can follow horse trails through the park, and see how they lead to the property.

It also shows that the Park has no horse entrance on the property - that's a good thing. You just take your horses south down the dirt road (Signal Butte) to where the dirt road meets the paved road (where Signal Butte Road meets Jensen Road), and there is an entrance for horses right there on the east. You never have to ride on pavement - just dirt roads and trails.

Again, this is an old picture, not showing the Red Brick House in it. But it does give a great view of the Big Barn and Corral, and the hot walker to the north. That is the red dirt ring you see right up against the Park to the north.

Maricopa County Plat Maps - Aerial Views

The most accurate aerial view is found by going to the county recorder satellite maps, and seeing the property as it currently stands.

Go to http://www.maricopa.gov/, and go to the 11th "Quick Links" down from the top, on the list on the left hand side. The 11th one down is labeled "GIS Maps and Services." Click it, and then go to the section in the middle called "ASSESSOR" and the first link under it called, "Parcel Maps." Click it, and the first time you use this service, it will need to install a MapGuide plug in for your browser (see the ** comment there, if you have questions.)

Once the installation is done (if needed), you can then click the "Parcel Maps" link, and you will see the aerial map view of Maricopa County. To get right to Double Star Ranch, go to the boxes on the right side, labeled: Book, Map, Parcel, Split. Just enter in the following numbers, including the zeros in front, and you'll get right to the Red Brick House:

Book: 220
Map: 03
Parcel: 049
Split: (leave blank)

After clicking "submit" then click "Zoom Selected." Then, to see the latest areal view, go to the left hand menu list, and scroll down until you see "Aerial Photos 2010" and click on that box. You can then zoom in by using the "+" and magnifying glass icon up top, and clicking it on the highlighted property, just once is about right. To get rid of the highlighting on the selected parcel, go to the hand and red "X" icon (second from the left) up top, and click on it.

Once zoomed in, you'll see the following, which are the two parcels that make up the available property.

Description of "What You See" at Marcopa.gov

These two parcels, shown at Maricopa.gov, and above, make up the Red Brick House (the black roof on the right) and the Big Barn and Corral (on the left) which are the land being offered for lease. The barn is the brown and light roofed building on the left going approximately north to south. The barn includes the metal roofing (the light roofing) the wood sections (on the south) and the block building sections (on the north). The west border of the leased land only goes as far as the west border of the Corral, and straight north from its upper west corner, and straight south from its lower west corner. If you count the undeeded county land that the property uses, the total land is about 375 feet north to south, by about 315 feet east to west, give or take a little, which is approximately 2.7 acres.

North of the house are several features that can be seen in this view:

- The sand play area, with play equipment, is the light gray rectangles that touch the right top end (the northeast corner) of the house. You can see the trampoline as a black circle near the house, and the other black circle to the north is not in the play area - it is a big dish satellite dish and its shadow.

- The slightly pink dirt area in the upper left corner of parcel 049, is the firepit area. It has a large deep firepit and seating with logs and wooden benches around it, and of course, a stack of firewood to the east of it. On any night, the stars over you in that area are clear and beautiful and make the firepit area one of the most beautiful spots on the property.

- The outdoor bathroom and washdown area are the little building, that looks like a shed, just north of the border between the two parcels. To the left of it (off the picture above, but viewable on the intenet site) is the hot walker. It has four speeds by way of a car transmission rigged to it (ingenious, to say the least, and installed by a former owner.) For our use, it always has swing seats on it so children can ride it like a roller coaster ride.

You can also see:

- The hay storage area is the upper right corner of the Big Barn. You can see that the roof sticks out a little at that point - it is a carport that is open for bringing the hay in and unloading it there inside the Big Barn.

- To the far northeast straight up from the east border of parcel 049, by the county fence, is the beginning of a raised floor telescope observatory. A large cement column has been poured there and goes up through the raised floor to provide solid mounting of larger telescopes. Night sky viewing is excellent at the Ranch, especially to the north and northeast.

You can get rid of the parcel numbers and lines that clutter the picture by going to the check list on the left side, up top, and unchecking boxes. Before you do, recognize that the little small strips with parcel numbers are definitely part of the deeded property. It turns out having one nice simple parcel number for property tax purposes is not going to happen - for property tax purposes, the land has been divided into different parcel numbers. Also, where the parcels with parcel numbers end, the legal deeded land ends, and the land north of the parcel numbers, up to the county park fence, though used by the home as if part of it, is not deeded (and better yet, you do not have to pay property tax on it.)

Other Possible Maps

Feel free to try yahoo maps, and any others you like. Just remember that they regularly get the address wrong. I would suggest using the Google Maps map to get your bearings and steer you right with those other map services.

Video Tours of the Horse Areas

Video Tours

One of the best times to walk through The Big Barn, the Corral, and the other horse areas of Double Star Ranch is right at sunset, just when the interior lights all along the central drive of The Big Barn are first turned on. Things are quiet, and in Phoenix summers, it's starting to cool down. So here are some sunset video tours of the horse areas at the ranch.

First: Going Through The Big Barn

Below is a tour starting at the south entrance of The Big Barn, which is right in the roundabout area where you can enter the Red Brick House garage to the west, or The Big Barn to the north. It finishes by exiting out the far north end of The Big Barn.



The Big Barn is big enough to drive drive all the way through with a big truck or tractor - in this tour we just walk through.

Touring the Corral

The corral is located just west of The Big Barn. It has autowatering on its east end, and two gates for access: a double gate on its west end for trailer transporation, and a single gate on its east end, for access to the crosswise breezeway of the Big Barn.

Here's a tour around it, starting from the north end of the Big Barn and going west to take us around the corral.

The Hot Walker and Wash Down Area

Just north of The Big Barn is the hot walker and wash down area. It includes the four speed hot walker and it surrounding area, and the outdoor bathroom and wash down sink to the east of it. This tour takes us all around that area.

The Back Trails, and the Back "Football Field"

This last video tour is not so much about the horse facilities, but about two other areas. First, the trails of the county park that cross from east to west, north of Double Star Ranch. The video shows what you see from the back of the Ranch, right at the county park fence line.

The rest of the tour is of the field directly behind the Red Brick House, extending all the way to the county park line. This tour is included to show the size and persepective of what could be called the "Football Field," since from the back patio of the Red Brick House, on the north border of the house, to the barb wire fence that starts the county park, on the north border of the Ranch, it is just shy of a full football field long.

That's big enough for just about anything you want, right outside your back door.

Some Numbers about Double Star Ranch

There is a lot to take in with Double Star Ranch, but here are some of the numbers and dimensions around the home and property. They are only approximate and not meant to be binding - but are hopefully useful for those who are not in the area and cannot tour it immediately, but who want to know about how big things are on the ranch.

About the Red Brick House

- The Red Brick House and equestrian facilities cover about 2.15 acres, though if you count the un-deeded county land the property uses to the north, it is about 375 feet from north to south, by about 315 feet from east to west, give or take a little, which is about 2.7 acres.

- The Red Brick House is full brick, not veneer, and has bricks from the footing up to a band of white border near the roof of about a foot. The main bricklayer said he had never done a house like this since he lived back east, and he really wanted to never do one again! It's a very large amount of beautiful red brick, somewhere between 350 and 400 feet of outside perimeter of the house, with the longest length dimension of the home being 113 feet, and the each end being about 50 or so feet wide. The red brick was picked out in Salt Lake City at the factory showroom for the national supplier, and was a color that was apparently not going to be continued in the future.

- The Red Brick House was completed in March 2008, and is 4039 square in the home, not counting the garage. It has a 3 car garage that is approximately 46 feet wide, and 30 feet deep for 2 stalls, and 23 feet deep for 1 stall, all of them with extra tall garage doors to allow a large 12-passenger van entry. There is a covered under roof back patio of about 85 feet in length, with zigs and jogs from the back sliding glass door area to the far northwest corner by the garage. There is also about a 30 foot by 10 foot covered front porch at the top of the steps leading up to the entry door. All of this extra porch, patio, and garage area makes for a large amount of square footage under the roof.

A pre-construction floorplan is below. There were some changes done in construction, but the general layout is the same.

Some of the details from the floorplan are:

- The Red Brick House has 4 bathrooms as follows:

Master Bath: double sinks, a shower with extra lumbar jets and two heads, toilet in a separate room with shower, and a two person deep jetted tub.

Walk-Through Bathroom (from the bedroom hallway to the laundry suite): double sinks, separate toilet room, separate tub/shower room, skylight.

South bedroom bathroom (between the 2 south bedrooms): double sinks, separate toilet room, separate shower room (no tub.)

West bathroom (in the west bedroom/bathroom suite area): single sink, toilet, tub/shower, skylight.

- The Red Brick House has 5 bedrooms, as follows:

* The Master Bedroom has double french doors out to the back yard and views of the National Forrest. The master bedroom closet is just wide enough to allow a full twin mattress to be set up on one end, so someone can sleep in the closet in a bed that is longways along the narrow edge of the closet - it's a handy place to hide for a nap that way. The length is about twice the width.

* The other 4 bedrooms were built extra large to accomodate more than 2 children per room (a necessity for the family), and are generally about 13 by 13 feet each, and 3 of them have walk in closets that have built in dressers and shelving in them.

- The Red Brick House has the following other rooms:

* A 13 foot vaulted ceiling living room, with a remote control gas fireplace that has all the deluxe features, but most importantly the Superstitions view out its main window.

* A kitchen / family room combination that is very large. The combined kitchen / family room area was big enough to host an indoor wedding reception, with tables, chairs, and a serving area that worked very comfortably. The kitchen also includes a 15 foot by 4 foot back loading pantry. This means the cans roll down sloped shelves to be held by a lip, but are fed from doors in the back of the shelves, near the garage entrance to the home. The procedure is: bring food home in the car, step in the house from the garage and right there you unload everything to the back of the pantry along 15 feet of shelving back, then take it out from the front when it is needed.

* A den/office (which is the normal size of a bedroom but is just not used that way) off the kitchen/family room area, and the entry way. This has extra materials in the walls which allows it to serve as a very nice professional office.

* A "food storage room" with room for 2 standup refrigerators/freezers, and extra heavy duty shelving on 3 walls.

* A very large "laundry suite" (it has serviced a 10-child family) that holds 2 dryers and 2 washers and has cabinet fronts from floor to ceiling all along one wall, for sewing supplies that go with the built in sewing desk in that room.

- The air conditioning systems (which are very important in the Phoenix area) are two custom units that are part a two speed system, allowing it to run on the lower speed for maintaining the temperature and saving costs. They also have built in humidifiers to allow you to set humidity levels in the home. And, each bedroom has a separately ducted return air vent, with the outflow on the far end of the bedroom, and the intake by the door, to make for the most efficient and comfortable use of the systems.

- Appliances in the home are as follows:

* Two refigerators side by side in the kichen, set up mirroring each other. They are not custom built in units, just standard extra large units that fit like built ins and look like the largest custom units available.

* A double oven in the kitchen, with one of the ovens being a true convection oven, and all digital controls.

* A large water filtering system for the entire house, that self backwashes and is not considered damaging to the septic system of the home (water softeners and their discharges are generally considered damaging to septic systems.)

* A built in central vaccum system that has a special muffler to allow it to operate quietly in the garage without creating excess noise in the home. That is important because next to the garage is the 5th bedroom, that has been set up to be a home office and quieter than the other bedrooms.

* A central intercom system, complete with a television camera at the front door and viewing screen inside.

* Computer, phone, and coaxial cable wiring to every major room, with central hub locations at different junctions in the house.

The Big Barn

- The Big Barn has 12 horse stalls, all with auto-watering. There are 8 under the metal roof part of the barn, with 2 that are extra large, and 6 that are medium sized. There are 4 more stalls in the block building, all the same size with square feet inside the building, and about that much outside the building in a fenced area.

- The equestrian set up has: the 4 speed motorized hot walker, the large fenced corral, the outdoor changing bathroom for riders with an outdoor hot water wash down sink for horses, the feed/tack carport, the two south barn storage rooms with cement slab floors, and the finished executive office (not available to those leasing the home.)

Location Numbers

- The location of 2S Ranch is at the last 1/4th mile on the north end of Signal Butte Road, and all of that 1/4th mile is dirt road. The location is in a square mile of county, bordered by Signal Butte, Brown, Crismon, and McKellips Roads, with the Ranch in the far northeast corner. Being in the county and not a city means you have septic not sewer, and that you contract your own fire coverage, your own garbage service (many homes in the area get big bins for the horse manure to be better handled), and your own water supply. Well water is the water supply for almost all the houses in this county square mile - some houses a mile away from us get to tap into city water, and some of the older ones in the neighborhood (probably very, very few left) truck in water. The Red Brick House has a stand alone private well approximately 700 feet deep, with a 1500 gallon underground cistern and a 200 gallon pressure tank, for use by the Red Brick House and the Big Barn together.

Other Outside Areas

- The children / grandchildren areas include the large sand playground with deluxe playground equipment (4 swings/rings, a bumping slide, an elevated platform, a fireman's pole, a ladder climber, and a horizontal ladder "monkey bars")

- The firepit ring can hold about 100 people seated, and has hosted Boy Scout Court of Honor and Eagle Court of Honor ceremonies (including the shooting of a flaming arrow from the pit to the desert in some kind of ceremony that had us worried when it happened.) The biggest fire in the pit happened when one of the Ranch residents unknowingly thought dry Christmas trees don't burn unless you put gasoline on them. The thick, block fire ring contained the base of the flame very safely, but the rest of the flame looked like it was several stories high.

- Telescopes used at 2S Ranch have included a 10 inch Dobsonian, a 6 inch reflector, and a computer guided 5 inch refractor. Deep space objects can be seen from the Ranch using the Dobsonian, and there aren't many residents who haven't seen at least one falling star if they've had the patience to just sit and wait for one.

Videos of the Red Brick House Interior