SPLENDOUR OF THE SOUTHWEST
From white dunes to historic peaks, U.S. parks abound with scenic rewards for intrepid hikers
The U.S. Southwest is a naturelover’s paradise with opportunities to soak in the sights on foot, by car and on horseback. Here are some highlights from a hiking trip through seven parks from Phoenix to El Paso, Tex., during two weeks this spring.
SAGUARO FORESTS
Two-storey-high saguaros, ocotillo bushes tipped with scarlet blooms and blossoming Palo Verde trees border the steeply rising switchbacks on the first mile of the Hugh Norris Trail in the western district of Saguaro National Park.
At the ridge top, falcons soared as dusk settled onto one of the densest concentrations of saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert, many more than a century old.
In the distance stood Signal Hill, where the Hohokam people carved petroglyphs hundreds of years ago.
Although Tucson bisects the park’s two districts, silence on the trail is unbroken. I even stopped clapping my hands, a snake-chasing technique suggested by hikers startled by my monologue.
CANYON SWIM
Deep inside Bear Canyon, seven waterfalls gurgled amid rocky walls studded with cactus and spring flowers.
This 13-kilometre round-trip hike in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, just north of Tucson, is a parade of Southwest wilderness bests.
There, we found saguaro stands silhouetted against mountain peaks and a cottonwood-lined river gorge.
We also found a respite: chilly rock pools, perfect for dipping battered feet.
ROCKS ALL AROUND
Follow I-10 east more than 160 kilometres from Tucson, across desert so wide that the mountains look like they’re hanging off a round horizon. Then head toward the border to either Rock Hound State Park, in Deming, N.M., or Chiricahua National Monument, Ariz.
On the last 21 kilometres of the trip, from I-10 to Rock Hound, only three moving objects crossed my road: a Border Patrol truck, a longhorn steer, and a tumbleweed nearly as large as the other two.
A life-size photo of a rearing rattler in the park nearly destroyed my plan of poking through rocky ravines hunting for minerals.
But a geologist from Michigan — armed with a stick and pickaxe — agreed to take me along the Jasper Trail.
The park allows visitors to collect up to seven kilograms of rocks, and I filled my pockets with salmonpink jasper and translucent quartz. I also picked up a weird, pimpled round rock, about 10 centimetres across. The nearby Red Roof Rock Shop sawed it in two — $3 for a half-hour of work — to reveal gor- geous sparkling blue agate nestled against pale violet rhyolite, a type of rock known as a thunder egg. Take that, snakes.
SNOWY SAND
Strolling from bright marker to marker across white dunes, as the wind obliterated my footprints, I could have been in a blizzard or on a beach.
But a few tall, spiky yucca plants sprouting from the gypsum sand signalled that this was desert, part of 713 square kilometres of constantly shifting dunes at White Sands National Monument.
The remote area sits in the middle of a missile range in southern New Mexico.
Call before driving the 87 kilometres from Las Cruces to make sure a test hasn’t closed the road.
CRAWLING UP CAMELBACK
One of the most iconic Southwest U.S. hikes is smack in the middle of Phoenix.
The experience of clambering up the 824-metre Camelback Mountain starts with fighting for a parking spot and ends with the rush of bagging a genuine peak. Hikers use metal handrails in spots to pull themselves up the red rocks, which resemble the face and hump of a camel.
I took in 360-degree views of distant mountain ranges and closer golf courses and pools, framed by tall saguaros, blooming and fragrant creosote, and orange poppy buds.
“Watch out, it’s poisonous,” I told a kid who was getting too close to a Gila monster, a large, venomous spotted lizard.
Then I smiled — I sure had come a long way.