Mike in the Wild

Wildlife is everywhere, especially in your home.  Take a close look at your bathroom floor a few days after you've cleaned it and I guarantee you'll see a gnat or a silverfish or maybe something worse: don't panic, just call the exterminator, or scrub better next time.  Fortunately there is a much more welcome variety of animals outside our doors and windows, often right in our own backyards.  Thanks to landscaping and feeders, countless birds use the trees and bushes around our homes as dining rooms, if not full-time residences. Many of the native birds that I frequently see in the desert - often far from Phoenix' bustling highways, near dirt roads and along trails in unspoiled parkland - are the same species visiting my backyard and neighborhood, even though the flora is quite different and mostly non-native.  Maybe on a break from foraging in the saguaro cactus forests and mesquite tree groves, Gila woodpeckers, curve-billed thrashers and northern cardinals join...

This park is 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 landscape as evidence of mining and ranching is apparent throughout the preserve.  But it's Cave Creek - not the eclectic community just to the south but the seasonally flowing riparian habitat - that is the big draw today.  Along with the distinctive Elephant Mountain in the park's western sector, the preserve offers the best in desert exploration.  Dozens of mile of trails meander through dense forests of mesquite trees, along babbling cottonwood tree-lined brooks and above canyons of saguaro cacti. Before the miners, ranchers and hikers, it was ancient native people who called this newest addition to the Maricopa County Regional Park System home.   While archaeological sites exist, they are mostly off the well-marked main trails - ranger-guided hikes are required to visit them. ...

After almost a week of near-record heat, I took a hike back into the neighboring park to see the effect on the blooms and landscape. It wasn't a difficult choice of excursions, as the trails of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve are an easy walk from my community. And even on a hot day, the morning weather is still perfect.  While I accessed the mountains the same way, I took a different route on the hike, exploring higher in the park.  But I didn't venture as high as Piestewa Peak, the 2,600 foot signature feature of the preserve. It's a steep 1,200 foot ascent from its trailhead and is more of an aerobic work-out than a nature walk. Nonetheless I covered more than six miles, enjoying new views and discoveries.  While Mexican gold poppies have definitely peaked in this area, there are other new blooms and the loud cacophony of birds reminding us it is indeed Spring in the desert. Starting at the very last parking area, I made a circle on the north loop of  Trail ...

An early morning hike into the Phoenix Mountains Preserve near Piestewa Peak I'm lucky to live in central Phoenix and at the same time across the street from fifty square miles of protected Sonoran desert.   What is now the Phoenix Mountains Preserve was not too long ago the northern border of the town.  But as the city boomed and expanded, the park, with its mountain peaks and verdant arroyos, has become a desert oasis in the middle of  the metropolitan sprawl.  I hiked almost six miles, mostly on first-time trails, enjoying beautiful landscapes and a dazzling array of wildflowers.  And I saw some birds and critters too - an early morning start guaranteed that.  I made a loop on Trails 304/8/8A/8D from the end of the Piestewa Peak parking area, hiking Trail 200 and a short spur to get into the park from a private community in the Biltmore area. Scorpionweed or blue phacelia.    Cactus wren calling to other wrens.  He's the state...