Im fortunate enough to live a place that allows us to literally walk out the front door and do some very cool things. We live against the South Mountain Park and the southern most border of Phoenix which wedges us in-between the park and the Indian reservation. This blocks the lights of Phoenix with the mountain at night and limits growth around us. It provides a remote feel given how embedded we are in the metroplex. South Mountain Park/Preserve actually consists of three mountain ranges, the Ma Ha Tauk, Gila and Guadalupe; and is the largest municipally operated parks in the country. At close to 17,000 acres, it boasts 51 miles of primary trails for horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking.
https://www.phoenix.gov/parkssite/Documents/062879.pdf
My wife and I recently were invited to join a group climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania this July, and since this revelation our free time has been spent training. Theres no good way to prepare for the altitude, but leg and cardiovascular strength are key. As a result, any free time has been spent Sergeant Major marching up and down the mountain. Theres nice switchback on the Pyramid trail that gives you about 1000 ft of elevation gain in less than a mile, plus its on the remote and rugged end of the Gila range that's close to use, and far from the public trail heads, where youre constantly dodging dog poop and women in yoga pants texting and talking on the phone while trying to hike with their uncooperative fluff ball of a dog. This time of the year, traffic is the worst, as the weather is at its peak of niceness and everyone is still on their new years kick to get in shape. Given the topic of this thread I thought Id share some phone pics (sorry for the poor quality).
Down the driveway
Up the street
And into the desert
Around to the establish trails
You can see the park in the foreground, and to the west is the Sierra Estrella range, much of which falls within the Gila River Indian Reservation which borders our south.
Some of the views
If you get to the right places there is some very interesting Indian history and you can find some neat petroglyphs that are not posted on the park signs. The petroglyphs were left behind primarily by the Hohokam prehistoric culture. The petroglyphs consist of representations of life forms such as animals, birds, or people; geometric designs; and shapes or lines that may have had symbolic purposes. They do not include written words or numbers. The Hohokam, roughly translated as those who have gone, dwelled in central and southern Arizona from approximately AD 450 to 1450. They probably did not reside in the South Mountains, but evidence suggests they hunted, gathered plants and other resources, conducted ceremonies, and made journeys here.
Ive been thinking ling and hard about the knife Ill take to Africa, and the current selection is the Bush Hermit.
This area of the Sonoran Desert is unusual relative to other deserts as it doesn't cool off rapidly at night and also gets two wet seasons, one around Jan and the other in August. We've recently had several inches of rain and the barrel cacti are swollen and plump.
As are most other cacti
As you can see from many of the photos there are some really interesting geological formations along the ridges, most are granite, but theres quite a bit of quartz and other rocks and minerals. Not sure what this stuff is but it obviously has a lot of iron in it and it sure looks cool. Also makes a great resting place for a snack.
I'll keep adding more stuff as I can. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
