Exploring the Arizona Wilderness
It is always great to get in the car and adventure far away from home for the weekend, but we also have to find time to keep things local and explore what we have in our general area of Arizona. Finding the right hikes to do has come with own interesting challenges. Turns out a “wilderness area” in Arizona means you are going to be doing some variation of desert driving. We found the road to Quartz Mountain Trail was equally as exciting as the trail itself. We also explored the Saguaro National Park areas, which included some cool hiking and radical desert driving through cactus forests.
Mile: 27, 723
Quote of the Blog: “Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit. - Edward Abby
Song of the Blog: “The Mounatin’s Win Again” - Blues Traveler
There a many mountain hiking zones around Phoenix. We decided to take a day to head down to the Estrella Sierra Wilderness area to hike up to Quartz Mountain. On the way to the trail head, we found ourselves driving down some sandy road, only to find that the directions we had to the trail head hit a dead end at a property gate. Luckily, we had cell service at this point and we were able to get the right directions. This is where things started to get dicey. We ended up driving along a wash; weaving all around the desert to avoid spots where the road had been completely washed away. I was enjoying this section of the driving more than Amity was, but it was stressful because we didn’t know what was ahead of us. Driving in loose sand can be equally as sketchy as driving in fresh snow. The wrong move of the tires can allow the car to get pulled into some bottomless sand and then you’re stuck. After weaving through the desert for several miles, we ended up at a trail head. We were very happy to see other cars that had made it, and we were not the smallest car nor were we the only car with Missouri license plates there.
The hike was a really beautiful zone. The mountain was coated in Mica and Quartz. The Mica was so cool to see. It looks like glass that flakes away in small “sheets” of tiny crystals. The quartz was woven into nearly every rock on the mountain. The crystals along the trail glistened in the sunlight; making the mountain sparkle. This was really unique and something we have not seen anywhere else. This hike gained over 2000 vertical feet over just under three miles. The last section of the hike was a pretty stiff scramble to the summit. We decided to not make the final push and just enjoy the ridge line views we had got along the trail. Another cool element of this hike was hiking around the Jumping Cholla. These are crazy looking cacti that are super shot and can stick to anything. They are really cool looking and were everywhere along this trail. This made the entire trail a “no fall zone”.
We got back to the trailhead with a good amount of sunlight left in the day. We wanted to make sure that we were able to get out of there along the wash/road with no issues. Driving back was much less stressful than our way out. I think having an idea of what was ahead of us allowed for me to drive a lot more confidently. Big lesson from this hike; do better research into the access roads to the trailheads before we leave the house.
Having weekends in town allow for us to explore new breweries and other spots. We recently found a brewery called, Transplant City Beer Company. This is a really good spot right next to our favorite golf driving range; Valley Golf Center. Their beers are really good, and being transplants we have enjoyed the name, and we have met some people from all over Missouri in there. We also had to find a place to watch the Chiefs play. We found a spot called, Pub Rock Live. We went here to watch the AFC Championship game. We were in for a treat here. It was nothing but Chief’s fans, they had their own announcer and the place was packed!!! This made an already great game, that much more fun to watch! Amity felt like she was back in Missouri. I am pretty sure the people thought they were at Arrowhead! The place went crazy when the Chiefs won. Another K-City Super Bowl!!!
Amity had a friend from Kirksville come to the Phoenix area on vacation. We planned o meet them for dinner. We knew they were on the east end of the city, so we spent our afternoon exploring the Old Town Scottsdale area. They have tried to maintain the old western and cowboy culture. We ended up going up to Cave Creek, which was another 45 min outside of town. We meet them at The Buffalo Chip Saloon. This ended up being more of a cowboy bar than a dinner spot, so we rolled with it. They had a bull riding arena, and we watched people attempt to ride bulls. It was a sad showing to say the least, but it was funny and entertaining. There was a mechanical bull, line dancing and everything someone in the cowboy world would want. Before we knew it, we were driving the hour and a half drive back to Buckeye, and getting home in the wee hours of the morning. What a funny night!
Our next hiking adventure took us south to Saguaro National Park outsize of Tucson. This is about two hours southeast of us. The park is also split into two areas. The west side of the park is designed around a loop drive, with some hiking around the general area known as the Cactus Forest. With the recent precipitation in the mountains, there was a slight trickle at the Kiln Waterfall. As light as it was, pretty cool to see a waterfall in the desert. Around the falls there were old kilns that had been used by settlers of the area. On our way out from our hike, we ended up behind some horses. Pretty cool to see them just strolling around 35’ tall cacti.
We made a quick trip out of the eastern mountain side of the park, and headed across Tucson to the western side of the park. It is really cool to see how different the areas are. The main similarity is the massive amount of Saguaro Cacti everywhere. This area has littered with hikes, so we found a quick one to do out to some petroglyphs. I am always blown away with these rock drawing. These features a lot of spirals and circular objects. Some were also in the shapes of animals and humans. We learned from a person at the top that these spirals are spiritual drawing identifying where the natives needed to go for spiritual walkabouts. We were also blessed with the presence of a woman who constantly kept yelling, “look at this!” Made us laugh a little. This was a nice little trip. Nothing super special about this park, but we are stoked to check off another national park!
We made a quick trip back to Phoenix. We figured since we were on the east side of the city for a rare occurrence, we needed to find a brewery out here to check out. We ended up at Wren House Brewing. This spot had a very Montana vibe to it. Something straight out of Bonsai Brewery in Whitefish. Obviously, we loved it. They also had a house cat that made his presence at the bar. We love when spots like this have animals that are part of the team. As far aways as it is from Buckeye, we will probably make our way back here because it was so good. Just like that we are back on Interstate 10 headed back to Jackrabbit Lane and our home in Buckeye. With tons of sunshine and hiking in, we cannot wait to explore more of the Arizona Wilderness. Until then, Live Rad!