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We Scar The Things We Love 2 comments

Madera Canyon Panorama April 11, 2014 blog framed A Panorama View Down Through Madera Canyon In The Santa Rita Mountains South of Tucson, Arizona.
(Note the light color of mining tailings surrounding ponded water.)
— Image by kenne

We Scar The Things We Love

There is always something worth trekking

in the Sonoran Desert.

Sometimes, the treks start early in the morning,

driving across the Tucson basin over

occasional low water crossings and cattle guards

on narrow roads, stopping for big yellow buses.

A canyon road leads out of Green Valley,

a quiet, peaceful community

along the banks of the Santa Cruz River

covered with oaks and walnut trees

and a rich history with the Tumacacori Mission

to the south and San Xavier del Bac to the north.

Crossing one-lane bridges through a grassland bajada,

the road climbs toward Madera Canyon

nestled between Mt. Wrightson and Mt. Hopkins

on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains,

forming one of the Sonoran desert’s Sky Islands,

an oasis above this bowl-shaped canyon.

Although some are called “Friends of Madera Canyon”

all visitors, be they hikers, birders, walkers,

or just those relaxing at one of the beautiful vistas

share a love of nature and being outdoors,

forming a friendship that helps bond

memoirs of a shared love.

“All the while, jumbled memories flirt out on their own,”

intruding on nature’s beautiful vistas

where a river once ran through, now shadowed

by a high wall of tailings surrounding a pond,

altering nature’s beautiful vistas above the canyon,

producing lasting scars on the sky above and the earth below.

— kenne

Posted April 12, 2014 by kenneturner in Education, Information, Life, Nature, Philosophy, Photography, Poetry

Tagged with Arizona, Desert, Green Valley, Hiking, Madera Canyon, Mission San José de Tumacácori, Mission San Xavier del Bac, Outdoors, Santa Cruz River, Santa Rita Mountains, Santa Rita Mountains South, SCVN, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona, Tucson, Tucson Arizona

Tucson’s Sweetwater Wetlands Leave a comment

Sweetwater Wetlands Park — Images by kenne

Tucson’s Sweetwater Wetlands is an artificial wetlands near the usually dry Santa Cruz river. The area is a part of a waste-water reclamation project developed in 1996. The park provides an urban wildlife habitat and outdoor classroom — a wildlife photographer’s paradise.

kenne

“Water, water, water….There is no shortage of water
in the desert but exactly the right amount ,
a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand,
insuring that wide free open,
generous spacing among plants and animals,
homes and towns and cities,
which makes the arid West so different
from any other part of the nation.
There is no lack of water here unless you try to
establish a city where no city should be.”

― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness

The Dragonfly And The Fence – A Twisted Pair (kenneturner.com)

Posted September 26, 2013 by kenneturner in Education, Information, Life, Nature, Photography

Tagged with artificial wetlands, desert solitaire, Edward Abbey, environment, Habitat, Nature, Outdoors, Reclamation, Santa Cruz River, science, Sonoran Desert, Sweetwater Wetlands, Sweetwater Wetlands Park, Tucson Arizona, Waste-water reclamation, Wetland

Mission San José de Tumacácori 6 comments

Ruins of the Franciscan church at Mission San José de Tumacácori — Images by kenne

Last Wednesday we went to Nogales, Sonora and Patagonia and Sonoita in southern Arizona. Along the way, we visited the Mission San José de Tumacácori. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino established the mission in January, 1692. Originally called San Cayetano de Tumacácori, the mission was established at an existing native O’odham or Sobaipuri settlement on the east side of the river. After the Pima rebellion of 1751, the mission was moved to the present site on the west side of the Santa Cruz river and renamed San José de Tumacácori. Preservation and stabilization efforts began in 1908 when the area was declared a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt and continue today.

kenne

(Click on any of the photo thumbnails to see large view.)