Panorama of the Santa Catalina Mountains from the Sweetwater Trail in the Tucson Mountains (March 15, 2019) — Images by kenne
SCVN members and guests hiked the Sweetwater Trail
Friday, March 15, 2019, on a beautiful spring day.
As has been the case for a couple of weeks,
wildflowers are blooming everywhere
with a background of wispy white clouds
on a canvas of blue.
This time of year Picacho Peak State Park is an excellent example of the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert.
Plants are at the greenest and wildflowers provide dots of color on the desert canvass.
The canvass of the desert may appear to have no order. Yet it is orderly,
but we don’t know why.
A poet has said; If you want to know where the flowers came from, not even the spring goddess knows.
Each Friday, Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) lead two hikes for the public. One is is a slower-paced nature hike allowing time to identify and discuss desert plants.
Yesterday’s hike was a four-mile hike in Kings Canyon in the Tucson Mountains, which this time of year has a lot of wildflowers. So, I chose to assist in guiding the hike so I could be a part of the wildflower discussion; providing an opportunity to photograph spring flowers.
The majority of hikers on our SCVN hikes are retirees; yesterday’s hike included a young mother and her 2-year-old daughter — they both love hiking.
Last week we had two inches of snow in Tucson and 2.5 feet on Mt. Lemmon and by the time these images were taken most of the snow in the basin had melted. It was beautiful while it lasted.
We moved to Tanuri Ridge in June of 2010. In February Margarita Berg a resident of this neighborhood passed away. So we never met Margarita, but feel we got to know her through her husband, David.
David and Margarita would frequently walk their dogs on the trails down by the Tanque Verde Wash. Shortly after we moved here, I discovered the trails and the area designated initially by the Tanuri Ridge developer as a community park.
Anyone who has walked these trails is aware of Margarita’s memorial on a trail nearest the wash. Located at the base of a mesquite tree, approximately thirty feet from the washes edge.
During the winter of 2015, heavy rains in the mountains sent a current of water washing away some of the banks of the usually dry wash.
Then, last week heavy winter participation in the mountains overnight again sent a flash flood down the wash, rerouting the flow.
Noticing the flow of water from our patio that morning, I waited till the afternoon before going down to the wash.
As I walked the trail, I could see trail nearest the wash was gone, so too the mesquite tree with Margarita’s memorial.
The flow of the wash was now down about four feet from its early morning peak. The flooding had been so extensive, socking the land making it too dangerous to go looking for the tree.
I returned the next day to try walking west along the wash.
Looking across the wash, on the newly formed island a tree laid with large roots sticking up. Was this Margrete’s tree?
I wasn’t sure till I spotted a yellow plastic flower hanging in the debris.
Once I downloaded the images, I cropped the image of the downed tree. Over the years since 2011, the memorial has been maintained, adding plastic flowers and hanging trinkets from the tree.
In the early days of the memorial, David would visit the site, dropping rose petals on the memorial plaque.
Panorama of the Santa Catalina Mountains from the Sweetwater Trail in the Tucson Mountains (March 15, 2019) 
Images by kenne
The Catalina Mountains in the Sabino Canyon area.
The Catalina Mountains as seen from Tanui Ridge
The Baboquivari Mountains — Panoramas by kenne
Jeff and Phil lead others to the base of the ridge — Images by kenne
Images by kenne
Hiking The Pistol Hill Trail (January 11, 2019) — Panorama by kenne
