Miller Peak, Huachuca Mountains, Oct 31, 2015
As it turns out, there is at least one place that fall colors can be found in Southern Arizona, and I would highly recommend this one. Miller Peak is the tallest summit in the Huachuca Mountains. The drive to the trailhead at Montezuma Pass is about an hour and 45 minutes from Tucson. There is a short section of washboard gravel switchbacks which appeared to be occasionally maintained on the road up to the pass which could be done carefully in most higher clearance cars on a dry day.
The hike to the summit from follows the Arizona Trail, gaining 3000 feet up a steady, pleasant grade, over about 5 1/4 miles and offers sweeping views in all directions. Due to fires and probably also soil composition and orientation, the trail is mostly in the open, and only passes occasionally and for short stretches through forested areas of oak, Mexican piñon pine and what I think could be western white pine (a pine that I have not seen outside the Sierra Nevada prior to this hike).
As a bonus, we got to see some fall colors.
This old sign is on the trail two miles from the trailhead. When we parked our car, we received text messages welcoming us to Mexico with international plan rates. There were Border Patrol surveillance towers set up in the parking lot. I have a friend in the Border Patrol who worked this area for a few years. He said the trails are hiking trails by day and drug smuggling trails by night.
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| Note fall colors on the north facing slope, in the distance, Mexico |
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| Back in the good old days. Of the five ingredients, the only artificial one was MSG. |
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| The summit is around 9400 feet, but you wouldn't think it, as the vegetation and trees are pretty scarce, and the approach up the mostly sun exposed, south facing slope was not cold. The intense pressure inside the chip bag served as a reminder that we were sitting at 9400 feet at the summit of Miller Peak. |
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| View of Baboquivari Peak in the far distance, Santa Ritas on the right, Parker Canyon lake in the foreground |
From the summit of Miller Peak, you can see Baboquivari, Wrightson, Mt Lemmon and the Catalinas, Rincon Peak, the Galiuros, Mt Graham, the Dragoons, the Chiricahuas, and far into Mexico.
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| Left to right: Mount Wrightson, Catalinas, Rincons |
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| Left to Right: Galiuros, Dragoons, Mt Graham |
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| Space and Mexico |
It was like 60 degrees, and I have no idea how these cold blooded guys can be active in these conditions. I would imagine at 8500 feet, where we saw this guy, it is now freezing for overnight lows. There was actually a small amount of snow on the ground near the summit in protected areas. We also saw a deer who didn't seem too bothered by us, and a group of one hundred or more yellow finches eating the seeds of small yellow wildflowers.
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| View of Border Fence (straight line in the valley below), South of Sierra Vista, mountain in background is in Mexico |
That also is pretty stunning..... I presume the border fence doesn't really do its job??
ReplyDeleteDoes a noncontiguous fence in the middle of nowhere keep people out? Can throwing a bunch of money at a problem make it go away? Your guess is as good as mine. None of us really understand the strategic approach of the Border Patrol and the border fence is a very hotly debated topic right now. The area is so large and so rural, and evidently the demand for drugs in the US is so high, it is difficult to police. This particular area still had bands of raiding Apaches up to a little over 100 years ago, and was actually considered a part of Spain and later Mexico at one point in time, which further complicates the issue. People used to move back and forth with relative freedom and safety along the porous border for hundreds of years causing little issues in the past. Now, the drug and people trafficking is big business, and it is operated by pretty scary people. Lots of immigrants die in the desert. The murder rate is as high as anywhere in the world in Nogales Sonora, just south of Tucson. Just across the border, about 8 miles from my stepfather's house, they found a pile of mutilated bodies, some of them beheaded, just a few weeks ago (http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/arizona-basketball-mcconnell-making-bid-to-start-for-sixers/article_a3669aec-8246-11e5-bc43-c7f7c0fffc20.html
ReplyDelete). Border Patrol agents have been shot at and killed, and have shot and killed many. For about 20 miles or so on the US side of the US-Mexico border, it feels a bit like the Demilitarized Zone between north and south Korea. You have to drive back through check points set up on the highway, where storm troopers ask you all kinds of questions. I have had them look through my things, which is a big civil liberties issue. There are cameras and surveillance everywhere. The large police presence and it is a very controversial topic. To me, I can see both sides. I love my civil liberties, but I also love not being beheaded, and the area remains fairly safe. If you guys ever want to experience the wild west, let me know. We can take you all kinds of crazy places!