There are numerous signs that spring is in the air around Phoenix: major league baseball is playing its pre-season training games, pollen-filled air has us reaching for our allergy pills, birds are starting their noisy mating rituals. But most notably for anybody hiking area trails is that reptiles - especially rattlesnakes - are waking up from their winter hibernation.
I had my first lizard sighting since autumn when I saw one scurry across my front porch last week. It was a sunny, pleasant afternoon and the skinny reptile was probably savoring the same warmth I was. In addition, plants are in bloom and aloe flowers especially are replacing my backyard feeder's sugar water as the most popular nourishment for local hummingbirds. After a cool and wet winter, the change in temperature is a welcome relief for all animals, including humans.
It was an easy decision to drive forty minutes to Cave Creek for a morning hike in Maricopa County's Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area last weekend. Throughout the area, desert blooms in all colors are beginning to embellish the green, rain-quenched hillsides that are normally grey and brown. The scenic park contains over 2,000 acres of protected Sonoran Desert upland, with surrounding mountain peaks reaching over 3,000 feet in elevation.
The area wasn't always a pristine environment as there is evidence of mining and ranching throughout the preserve. And there is a plethora of artifacts attesting to an even older human occupation: ancient Hohokam people who left behind dwelling walls, pottery shards and petroglyphs.
Cave Creek - not the eclectic community just to the south but the seasonally flowing riparian habitat - is the biggest draw today as it gurgles through the landscape. With the distinctive Elephant Mountain in the park's western sector as a backdrop, dozens of mile of trails meander through dense forests of mesquite trees and above canyons of saguaro cacti.
I've actually come across rattlesnakes at Spur Cross Ranch before. Etched in my mind is a memory from three years ago, on my first visit, when I almost stepped on a snake coiled tightly on a trail before it had fully awoken from a cool night's slumber. However last Saturday's run-in was more typical of encounters with rattlesnakes, where they luckily signal a loud warning before you get too close.
My group of four was hiking up the main trail high above Cave Creek to explore some abandoned Hohokam sites. We weren't very far up the Spur Cross Trail when a piercing rattle from under a bordering bush spooked us all and drove us safely back a couple of yards. While we did linger and stare a moment, we didn't need a visual confirmation to know that an adult western diamondback rattlesnake was angrily instructing us to keep on moving.
Later on the hike, we heard from other hikers about another brush with a different rattler lower on the trail. You never forget the time and place you see a rattlesnake in the wild; there's a fear and adrenaline rush that cements the memory forever. The locations all flooded back to me in rapid succession: Madera Canyon, the Peavine Trail, Mingus Mountain, Black Canyon Trail, Brown's Ranch.
The desert memories are especially vivid as they were each in late spring when the temperatures were already hot. As it's still winter here in the Valley of the Sun, this latest confrontation is earlier in the year and on a much cooler day than were my other experiences. Maybe it's a sign, heralding a kind of Arizona Groundhog Day and sending out a forecast in the form of a clattering warning.
The area wasn't always a pristine environment as there is evidence of mining and ranching throughout the preserve. And there is a plethora of artifacts attesting to an even older human occupation: ancient Hohokam people who left behind dwelling walls, pottery shards and petroglyphs.
Cave Creek - not the eclectic community just to the south but the seasonally flowing riparian habitat - is the biggest draw today as it gurgles through the landscape. With the distinctive Elephant Mountain in the park's western sector as a backdrop, dozens of mile of trails meander through dense forests of mesquite trees and above canyons of saguaro cacti.
I've actually come across rattlesnakes at Spur Cross Ranch before. Etched in my mind is a memory from three years ago, on my first visit, when I almost stepped on a snake coiled tightly on a trail before it had fully awoken from a cool night's slumber. However last Saturday's run-in was more typical of encounters with rattlesnakes, where they luckily signal a loud warning before you get too close.
My group of four was hiking up the main trail high above Cave Creek to explore some abandoned Hohokam sites. We weren't very far up the Spur Cross Trail when a piercing rattle from under a bordering bush spooked us all and drove us safely back a couple of yards. While we did linger and stare a moment, we didn't need a visual confirmation to know that an adult western diamondback rattlesnake was angrily instructing us to keep on moving.
Later on the hike, we heard from other hikers about another brush with a different rattler lower on the trail. You never forget the time and place you see a rattlesnake in the wild; there's a fear and adrenaline rush that cements the memory forever. The locations all flooded back to me in rapid succession: Madera Canyon, the Peavine Trail, Mingus Mountain, Black Canyon Trail, Brown's Ranch.
The desert memories are especially vivid as they were each in late spring when the temperatures were already hot. As it's still winter here in the Valley of the Sun, this latest confrontation is earlier in the year and on a much cooler day than were my other experiences. Maybe it's a sign, heralding a kind of Arizona Groundhog Day and sending out a forecast in the form of a clattering warning.
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| Western diamondback rattlesnake at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area in Cave Creek. |
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| Western diamondback rattlesnake at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area in Cave Creek. |
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| Western diamondback rattlesnake at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area in Cave Creek. |
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