I looked forward to this event all week. I skipped a science lab with the Coronado National Forest themed "land use" to attend this all-day event.
I walked all three dogs before sunrise and took off at 7:40am for the hour-long drive to Dragoon, AZ. My previous visit to the Amerind Foundation in March 2021 familiarized me with directions, so I knew how to get to this hidden place. I didn't see any signs for it off I-10.
Volunteers guided all visitors to the parking area. I got there with ten minutes to spare, sitting on a bench waiting for the first Native singer, Leland Thomas from the Gila River Indian community, to open the ceremony. I enjoyed the music, but was disappointed in the turn-out.
It was a small crowd, about 100 people, and mostly older people 50+. The opening speeches were all nice, starting after Thomas finished his music. Laura Brown, chair, of the Amerind Board of Directors spoke first. Then came Angelina Saraficio from the Tohono O'odham Nation. Sirena Kana, who had a very informative hiking blog ten years ago, spoke next. She now is the CEO of Trails Inspire, LLC, She originally is from Chicagoland like me.
I was eager to get started on the hike! After the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Fulton Family Trail head, the hiking crowd was set free to explore.
All visitors received a colored map of the new preserve. I studied the map during the speeches. The trails are all connecting loops and are 3' to 5' wide. The trails are named after living things found in the preserve. I wanted to hike the perimeter trail as a big double lollypop route, combining parts of all the trails and getting at least eight miles in. I quickly moved to the front of the pack of hikers and got away from the crowd.
The trails begin at the picnic area. There is a trail sign at each intersection in English, Spanish and Hopi. A short connector trail listed as A on the colored map, named the 0.08 mile Mesquite trail, leads to the 0.69-mile Bear Grass trail listed as B. This trail loops around a dry pond that displayed a field of yellow flowers surrounded by hoodoos. This was a pretty view as the yellow contrasted with green grass and golden boulders. In another 0.15 miles I was on trail C, the 1.67-mile Oak trail.
I was finally away from other people, but there was a man behind me not too far away. Was he also hiking the perimeter? We both stopped to take lots of photographs, Perhaps he sensed my uneasiness as once I got on trail D, the 0.69- mile Sky trail, I was in solitude...until I met people who had started from the Scholar and Artist trailhead on the north side of the preserve. I was now one of many moving dots in the landscape and we were all moving in various directions. Many people were carrying big-lensed dSLRs. The views deserve to be captured by professional gear. My cheap Motorola often missed the contrast.
The northern-most part of the preserve ends at another dry pond marked by a tall, charred ash tree, victim of the May 2021 fire that burned 269 acres of the preserve. I rested here for a bit before starting the return hike along the northern trails that offers views of taller peaks along the interstate. The Sky and Coatimundi trails are two of the longer trails here. Both offer vistas and paths around hoodoos.
The heat was beginning to get to me by the 5th mile. The only wildlife I saw were vultures flying overhead, or flitting among the grasses. I finished the perimeter loop at 11:30, took a break to listen to a narrative by Jefford Francisco from the Tohono O'odam Tribal Historic Preservation office. He shared folklore stories of local birds and other animals, then I resumed my hiking to explore the Whale Rock trail on the south end of the property.
I was exhausted by now. It was 12:20pm and I was moving slowly. I was determined to finish that out-and-back trail that added 1.8 miles to the total. Unfortunately, the photo I took of the Whale rock wasn't saved on the camera.
I met another couple as I neared Whale Rock. "It looks like a Beluga whale!" said the man. He was right. The trail ended there so I turned around to head back to the art gallery, but when I came to the couple a second time, knew I had taken a wrong step and in my delirium didn't notiice my mistake.
I made it back to the third lecture on native flora. Dr Lyn Loveless, a botany professor emerita from the College of Wooster spoke last. This lecture lasted until 2;15pm but I was glad I got to hear most of what she shared. By the time the lecture ended, I noticed that most of the visitors had left and even the food tent was shut down. It was a long day for the volunteers and I was tired, too.
Hungry as I was, I had saved all my appetite for my visit to Rollie's Mexican Patio in Tucson. Today was the last day for me to redeam my free concha ice cream, so I rolled my trip to Tucson with my drive today to Dragoon, saving 80 repeat miles.
I even got back to the dogs in under 12 hours. I was too tired to do much else in Tucson but eat and then drive home.
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