Miles and miles of saguaro cactus |
If you want to see cacti of every size, shape and age – this is the hike for you. We saw thousands upon thousands of saguaro, prickly pear, barrel, and yes, even the dreaded jumping cholla cacti.
One endangered animal, the Lesser Long-nosed Bat, lives in the park part of the year during its migration, together with one threatened species, the Mexican Spotted Owl.
Safe distances from cactus. lol |
We started at the Broadway Trailhead and
traveled several trails that made up the Garwood Dam Loop. Many of the trails seem to intersect, more
than once and can be very confusing to a novice hiker such as myself. This is definitely one hike I would never
attempt alone. Thank goodness for our
leader JoAnn and her ever-ready map. She
was always comparing her map to the markers along the trails and kept us on the
straight and narrow. The phrase straight
and narrow is not being bandied about lightly. Most of the trail was extremely narrow and was
very rutted because of the horses that are ridden through the area. We really got a workout because of the loose
sand and gravel underfoot.
Mountain views |
Our
group of 9 hikers made very good time considering the loose footing being so
challenging. We met several other groups
along the way and got a chance to even chat with some volunteer rangers on
horseback. I realized that since I joined the group last winter, this was the first time I had the pleasure to actually see rangers –
volunteer or otherwise.
I named the horse on the right below Sweetface, after the horse in the John Wayne movie The Searchers. I know, I know it was filmed in Monument Valley in the Chiricahuas, but it's what came to me when I saw her. Doesn't she have a sweet face?
We made it to the Garwood Dam in just about 2 hours from the trailhead. We rested and had our lunch (always one of my favorite times) at the dam. This is where the history buff in me took over. The area is dotted natural tanks that fill with water at different times of the year, but I still wasn’t aware of the history of the area we were hiking…but I was going to find out.
Gordy at the dam |
The
Dam provided a steady supply of water for Nelson Garwood and his ranch in the
1950's before the area was part of the National Park system. One of the trails used was named for natural
tanks in the area – Wild Horse Trail. We
also traveled the Carrillo Trail so I did a little research on this name and discovered
quite a bit of additional interesting history.
In
1868, Don Emilio Carrillo built his Buena Vista Ranch. He would later change the name to La
Cebadilla, after the wild barley growing along the ranch’s creek. Carrillo had
been living in the Tucson area since the age of 12, and, with some hard work,
he built his ranch into a successful cattle operation. Carrillo and other ranchers ran so many
cattle in the foothills of the Rincons that vegetation was destroyed for
generations to come. Lime kilns, operating in the 1880s, also seriously
deforested the area. The remains of these kilns can be seen along the Cactus
forest Trail. We didn’t see any this trip,
but I will be going back to the area to look for several of the things I now know about. The kilns, the natural tanks, the airstrip
used by the Garwood family, and the little room at the base of the dam that was
used to store tools.
As with most history - there is good and bad. In
1904, bandits seeking to cash in on some of Carrillo’s wealth ransacked the
ranch in search of gold that they believed was buried on the property. The robbers
hanged Carrillo by the neck from the rafters and tortured him—almost to death.
Carrillo lasted another few years before passing away from complications from
the attack. Carrillo’s ranch changed
hands several times eventually coming to be named the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch
and is family owned and operated today and you can hang out by those deadly
rafters in the ranch’s present-day card room.
The
bits of history that I glean from the internet about the areas that we
hike is what makes these weekly outings much more than just a hike in the
desert for me. We are walking trails
where ranchers and miners eked out a living and maybe even a few hardened, desperate cowboy and bandito criminals
hid out from the lawmen. Take my word for it, not only does our hiking get
my heart rate up, and my muscles stretched out, but it also captivates my
imagination.
As
far as scenic views on our hikes, I would have to say this one doesn’t rate as
highly as some of the others, but there is so much more to see – if you open
your mind’s eye – besides cacti and sand and Arizona blue skies.
We
took a different trail on the trip back to the trailhead and it only took us
about 1 ½ hours to return to the parking lot.
Total mileage for this hike was somewhere between 6 ½ to 7 miles.Jim and Gordy checking out one of the natural tanks |
One of the many saguaro along the trail |
See
you on the trails!