Best Riparian Area
Sabino Canyon
READERS' PICK: With lots of water most of the year, Sabino Canyon is less than an hour's drive from downtown. The shade from the huge cottonwoods and other creekside trees provides lots of privacy. Slip off the rail, scale a huge boulder, stand at the base of a cliff--in minutes you'll feel hundreds of miles from the city below and be treated to a habitat full of interdependent plants and animals, a world that thrives while paying no attention to us--as long as we don't screw it up. Sand rubies. Waterfalls. Rattlesnakes and desert tortoises and mule deer. Breezes and vistas. Walk softly.READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: The San Pedro River: Located 40 miles east of Tucson, this slender ribbon of blue water has been coming under increased pressure in the last year through the growth of Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca. Thanks to the efforts of the Huachuca Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management and other private and federal agencies, however, large portions of the upper river are getting federal protection, including the designation six years ago of a stretch of water as our first National Riparian Area. Flowing water being so rare in our part of the world, every Tucsonan has a stake in keeping the river running through our back yard.
STAFF PICK: Roy P. Drachman Agua Caliente Regional Park
BENEATH A CANOPY of palm, the perennial warm spring spills into three pools on a 100-acre oasis. Bird lovers study the wood ducks or the red-tailed hawk nesting in a towering eucalyptus. They watch the blue heron fishing in the marsh covered in cattail. Mule deer are said to migrate out of the Rincon Mountains.
Sitting on a picnic bench at the bank of the first pond, I slip from the ephemeral feel of this desert island into layers of unnatural history.
I lived in an A-Frame down the street from this eastside park and never knew that archaeologists had uncovered evidence from hunters and gatherers dating back 5,500 years. Nor did I know of the Hohokom residents who raised corn and other crops in the bottomland along Agua Caliente Wash (some 40 shallow pit dwellings were excavated near the springs).
Yet the earliest historic references to Agua Caliente are in newspaper articles describing the spring's use by U.S. Army troops after the Gadsen Purchase. By the 1870s, maps incorporated Agua Caliente into an 80-square-mile military reservation that served as a link between Camp Lowell and Soldiers Camp in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
News accounts also tell of Apache raids at the Agua Caliente ranch bought by James Fuller, a produce salesman from Hermosillo, Sonora. Back then, the Army discouraged settlers like Fuller from moving into the remote territory, 25 miles northeast of Tucson, because it meant more territory for troops to guard.
While strolling around the shaded grounds, I imagine the later resort days when citrus, apricot and fig trees grew prolifically around the property. Fuller built cottages around his main house, which still stands. A tent covered a hot spring bath house. The 1881 Tucson Directory described the destination spot as "a useful place of resort for sick people, or those who seek temporary recreation away from the heat and business of the city."
By the 1920s, the ranch was a place for literary types, intellectuals and politicians. The new owners also made Agua Caliente ranch the headquarters for the Bellota Ranch which stretched to the far-eastern portion of the Rincons.
Now such lush, wet spots in the desert are a rarity, I look back at the sheer fortune of Tucson Hot Springs Hotel Company's failing. The property was thus preserved, instead of turning into a vernacular memory.
The spring is no longer hot. County archaeologist Linda Mayro, says the dates aren't certain, but it is thought one of the ranch owners dynamited the hot and cold spring to increase water output for cattle, crops and the 3,000 fruit trees. The "warm springs," 87 degrees Fahrenheit, are the product of this ingenious project, which, incidentally, decreased outflow.
To reach Agua Caliente spring (12325 E. Roger Road) go east on Tanque Verde Road past Houghton Road. Travel north (left) on Soldier's Trail (a brown county park sign labels the park at this intersection). Take a right on Roger Road.
--J.E. RellyCAT'S MEOW: We like the Frog Pond at Fort Lowell Park because it's nearby, easy to find, and, unlike the other areas listed above, you'll want to go there after dark (full moons are best) to catch the nightly concert by the natives. We're talking vocal frogs, folks, even though at times they sound like cows in the distance. While they're too camouflaged and silent to find in the daytime, a flashlight and their loud croaking reveals their presence at night. To get to the little pond, enter the park at 2900 N. Craycroft Road via the second entrance on East Glenn Street and turn right into the parking lot, where you'll take the road heading south to another, smaller, parking lot. Follow the sounds of the serenade from there.
