Phoenix Mountain Preserve Hike
For many people Phoenix is an enigma. What is the appeal of living in a desert? Isn’t it hellishly hot there? Why did all these people move there recently? Why would you stay in a place that has such backwards politics? For me, it is a pretty simple explanation. I was born here and have lived here most of my life. My family and friends are all here. I have lived elsewhere and liked it, but the Sonoran Desert and the people have always drawn me back.
The summers are extremely hot here. The whole dry heat myth was created by local boosters. It is dry, but so is your oven and you don’t hang out there. What makes the summers tolerable are frequent escapes to cooler climates (some just up the hill in Arizona-see the snow on Four Peaks?) and the glorious climate in winter spring and fall. Some transplants from the East and Midwest complain about the lack of seasons here. We have seasons, just not the ones these people are used to. The Papago tribe here describe 3 seasons: dry hot season (May and June), wet hot season (July-September our “monsoon”), and the time of the pleasant cool (October-April). Today was so pleasant I decided to take a hike.
I usually walk for an hour in the park one block from my house. If I am willing to take 2 hours I can easily do my exercise in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, or the Scottsdale McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The trail head I hiked today is about 10 minutes from my house by car, and I can get to the McDowells in about fifteen. The Phoenix metropolitan area is home to the world’s largest system of urban wilderness. There are maintained hiking trails in all of the mountains in and around the city. As anti tax as people here can be (this is a tea party red state after all) twice we have voted to raise our taxes to set aside land in our midst as wilderness. I was 18 when the first measure passed in Phoenix and I voted to “save our mountains” in my first election. Scottsdale amazed me when they passed a similar bill just a few years ago to save the McDowells (I live on the Phoenix side of the border between the two cities). By the way if you see one of the pretty cactuses in the above picture don’t touch it! That is the teddy bear cholla, aka jumping cactus and they are painful to remove from the flesh.
In addition to hiking, most trails are open to mountain bikers and equestrians. I saw these two riding off as I started out today. There are a variety of access points in both mountain preserve systems. I like the 40th street trail head for proximity to home in the Phoenix Preserve’s Piestewa Peak/Dreamy Draw section. This preserve is scattered through the city and is composed of several separate mountains, Camelback and Piestewa being the most well known and frequently hiked. On weekends the trails to the top of these two mountains can get pretty crowded. I mostly sneak in on weekdays and do my weekend hikes in the Mcdowells or out of town in the Tonto National Forest.
We have had a wet winter thanks to the El Nino effect. Somehow warm water in the Pacific off Peru turns on the rain and snow machine in the Southwestern US. Although the photos don’t quite do it justice, our desert is about as green as it can get in 2010. We have been in a drought most of the last decade so this is a rare treat. The frequent cold fronts (which means rain and temperatures in the 50’s for Phoenix) have kept things cooler than usual this winter and although the desert is green, the spring wildflower bloom has not hit it’s peak yet.
These yellow “fiddlenecks” are always among the first bloomers. There were quite a few starting to show color today, but many more wearing buds that haven’t opened up yet. What will come over the next few weeks is a splash of color that will be spectacular. If you have never seen a desert in bloom you have led a life deprived of one of the most beautiful sights mother nature can deliver. During the last good spring bloom our rocky desert mountains were wearing sashes of yellow, orange, purple and blue. If you have a chance to come to Arizona this March you will not regret it. Unless you foolishly fail to take a hike!
This cluster of fiddlenecks is typical of what I saw today in many parts of the preserve. Areas that hold moisture have the lushest growth such as washes and beneath bushes and trees. Although the green growth was evident everywhere, most of the flowers have yet to show color. Next week and the week after will be awesome, and I can assure you I will be out gawking and hiking as much as I can fit into my life. If you do go flower watching please do not molest the plants (no picking flowers) as it is harmful to coming blooms and against the law as well.
The blurry flower above is the only lupine I saw in bloom today. There will be many more to come. The lupine is one of my favorite desert wild flowers. I have seen entire hillsides covered with these bold blue beauties and it is a striking sight. Some of my other favorites are indian paint brush, brittlebrush, shasta daisy, and mexican yellow poppy.
The trail I chose today skirted these rugged rocks. They really stood out against a sky that was almost surreally blue. Some people see the desert as stark and foreboding. I can see how those who grew up in the cloistered greenery of cooler climes feel out of place here. It is a different environment for most, and likely the most starkly unusual location for a city in the US. But getting out into our urban wilderness may give you a far kinder impression. To me, home is the Sonoran Desert of central Arizona. On a 73 degree day like today, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Come July, Victoria BC may look awfully good.
In the distance is Piestewa Peak whose summit trail is the most loved and hiked of all the urban trails in the Phoenix area. It is one the most hiked trails anywhere on earth. There are so many trails available in the Phoenix area that it is not hard to find a more lonely path to enjoy a walk or a ride in our extensive urban wilderness.
