Overlooking the Sabino Dam — Image by kenne
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area is a great place for children to be, but in this age of
coronavirus schools are closed meaning no field trips. Children and adult programs
offered by Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists are now canceled untiled next October.
Like all communities around the globe, we are dealing with a new normal.
— kenne
Sabino Canyon North of the Hohokam Ruins
The Clay Remains Of A Hohokam Adobe Structure
Larry Conyers Hiking Down To The Sabino Canyon Hohokam Ruins
The Fenster Boarding School In The Distance On The Right
Larry Conyers Exploring The Ruins Site
Pieces of Pottery Placed On Nearby Stones
Sabino Canyon Hohokam Ruin Video
Photos and Video by kenne
Related Site: Old Pueblo Archaeology Center
“Learning About Nature” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists teaching children about nature in Sabino Canyon.
Students Panning For Garnets In Sabino Creek — Infrared Image by kenne
— kenne
Mallard Duck At Hutch’s Pool In The Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne
Hutch’s Pool is a small body of water that contains water year-round, located 8 miles for the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center. Most people hiking to Hutch’s Pool will take the tram up to stop 9, thereby reducing the 16-mile roundtrip by 7.5 miles. The Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) usually schedule a group hike twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. The hike provides very nice views
of upper Sabino Canyon, images of which I have shared many times on this blog. This time I decided to share a photo of this male mallard duck few years back.
— kenne
A “Nurse Tree” In Sabino Canyon — Images by kenne
2020 is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Health Assembly (WHA) as the year to honor nurses and midwives to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale who is considered the founder of modern nursing. Nurses and midwives are vital to providing health services to our communities. These people are devoting their lives to caring for mothers and children, giving lifesaving immunizations and health advice, looking after older people, and generally meeting everyday essential health needs. And they are often the first and only point of care, yet the world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
The vital role of the nurse becomes a metaphor for those of us (Sabino Canyon Volunteer Nationalists) involved in teaching elementary school children about the importance and survival of saguaros in Sabino Canyon and the Sonoran Desert.
SCVN member, Debbie Bird, telling third graders about the “Nurse Tree.”
(She also got the attention of an elderly couple visiting Sabino Canyon.)
Often, for young saguaros to survive, they are located near another faster-growing tree that shelters the slower-growing plant by providing shade, shelter from the wind and sun, or protection from animals that may feed on the young plant. Such a plant is called a nurse tree. A metaphor easily understood by the children in conveying the important relationship between the tree and the saguaro. They get it!
— kenne
“Even though they’re dead, they are not gone — trees find a way to help each other out postmortem.”
— Allie Wisniewski, American Forests
There’s a narrow trail that you have to scramble up a few feet before heading down under twisted alligator junipers. The best way to experience these ancient hoodoos along the Catalina Highway is to attack them from the rear, sorta speak.
This SCVN Friday Hike was to have two parts; explore the hoodoos followed by a hike from the Gordon Hirabayashi Campgrounds to Molino Basin. The hoodoos segment was led by naturalist Edi Moore, who is s long-time member of the Monday Morning Milers (MMM). The MMM was the first hiking group I begin hiking with after moving to Tucson. It was with the MMM that I first had an opportunity to explore the Catalina Highway Hoodoos. Of the 20 hikers on this Friday, Edi and I were the only ones to which this experience was not new. The views in and around the hoodoos are something else.
— kenne
Images by kenne
Click here to see more Catalina Highway Hoodoo photos.
Madera Canyon is always a beautiful canyon in which to hike especially in the fall when the
Arizona Sycamores are in color. This SCVN Friday hike, in the Santa Rita Mountains,
provided a nice contrast to our usual hikes in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
This image is looking down on Madera Canyon below some of the higher pikes in the Santa Ritas
(The highest is Mt. Wrightson on the right with an elevation of 9,453 feet.)
Our hike began down near a dried-up creek bed, then taking us up along the canyon’s edge.
What a beautiful day to be hiking with friends and nature lovers.
Images by kenne
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
―
Bear Canyon Trail In Sabino Canyon Recreational Area — Image by kenne
We spent this morning teaching 2nd-grade students how the Hohokam peoples of southern Arizona lived hundreds of years ago. The Hohokam left much evidence of their presence in Sabino Canyon, which was not only their home but also the source of food, clothing, and shelter materials. Over the years, the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) have developed activities, Back to the Past (BTTP), geared toward explaining the Hohokam and how they existed in the Sonoran Desert.
Today was such a beautiful fall day in Sabino Canyon, I had to share at least one image taken on our walk back to the Visitor Center.
— kenne
Could I but speak your tongue
I would sing of pastel colored cliffs
Where, under sapphire skies,
The raincloud gently drifts.
Of wondrous sunlit valleys wide,
Timeless home of your clan — your tribe.
Could I but speak your tongue
I would sing a prayer that in future days
You would ever honor your ancient ways,
And that the Gods of health and peace
In their boundless blessings, never cease,
To be generous to these children here below,
These children of the Desert.
— C. J. Colby, “Song to the Indian,” Arizona Highways, August 1973
The SCVN Friday Nature Hike was Aspen Trail, Marshall Gulch Trail loop,
which would provide an opportunity to see the beautiful fall colors on Mt. Lemmon.
The Aspen Trail has a grove of aspens, which I blogged in a previous posting.
After hiking through the aspen grove, I began to get out in front of the nature hikers.
With less fall color on the remaining part of the Aspen Trail I decided to pick-up my pace.
I knew from past experience there would be plenty of fall color on the Marshall Gulch Trail.
I was aware that my buddies, Jim Thompson and Tom Markey, were hiking the trail;
hence, I might be able to catch up with them.
I first began hiking with Jim and Tom nine years ago. They were part of the Monday Morning Milers (MMM),
the first hiking group with which I started hiking.
Most of the MMM were lifetime hikers in southeast Arizona, many of whom were in their 80’s.
Jim recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
While Tom is a youngster like me, he’s 79.
Images by kenne
It seems, as one becomes older,
That the past has another pattern,
And ceases to be a mere sequence —
Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy
Encouraged by superficial notions of evolution,
Which becomes, in the popular mind,
A means of disowning the past.
The moments of happiness — not the sense of well-being,
Fruition, fulfillment, security or affection,
Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination —
We had the experience but missed the meaning,
And approach to the meaning restores the experience
In a different form, beyond any meaning
We can assign to happiness.
— from “Four Quartets” by T. S. Eliot
In addition to the regular Friday Hikes,
the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) also offer a Friday Nature Hike.
I usually help guide the regular SCVN Friday Hikes; however, last Friday,
I decided to do the Box Camp Trail with David Dean, as our nature guide.
Naturalist David Dean’s Mixed Conifer Forest Display Board
David Dean On Box Camp Trail
David Dean On Box Camp Trail
David Dean On Box Camp Trail Nature Hike
— Images by kenne
The last Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist (SCVN) Lizard took place on October 12th.
It was a perfect fall morning for a lizard walk. However,
some lizards may have not agreed since the number of sightings were low.
Still, it was a beautiful morning for a nature walk.
Naturalists Tom Skinner and Fred Heath welcome the walkers in front of the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center.
Everyone gathers near lizard spotter off the trail,
a common side-blotched lizard.
Naturalists Bill and Lousie Kaufman share information on the common side-bloched lizard.
— Images by kenne
In the parched path I have seen the good lizard (one drop of crocodile) meditating. With his green frock-coat of an abbot of the devil, his correct bearing and his stiff collar, he has the sad air of an old professor. Those faded eyes of a broken artist, how they watch the afternoon in dismay! -- from "The Old Lizard" by Federic Garcia Lorca
Jim and B.J. Martin, May 7, 2018 , were honored by achieving Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist (SCVN) Emeritus Status.
— Image by kenne
I went to another funeral today, something I began doing at an early age while living with my grandparents. Old people’s friends die. Back then I didn’t always know the people and spent my time running around the graveyard across the road from the church with other children, in a small northeast Alabama rural town.
It’s different today being one of the old people whose friends are dying. When I became an SCVN member in 2011, Jim Martin had been an active member for 23 years, teaching elementary school children about nature and conservation, leading and participating in SCVN hikes, and serving a treasurer, VP, and President of SCVN. I first met Jim on one of the SCVN Friday Hikes. He was an 82-year-old active hiker, a quiet, pleasant guy to be around — always smiling!
Jim pasted away at the age of 90, July 16, 2019.
— kenne
Tim, our lead Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist guide went over the safety rules for the day’s hike.
A short distance into hiking the Box Camp Trail, we stop to take in one of the many views.
The trail leads us through ferns and tall pines.
This section of the trail is a rolling downhill path continuing through the tall trees.
As the trail continues down the mountainside the pine forest opens to a thick oak growth.
The trail becomes steeper and difficult to follow through the thick overgrowth.
Looking down over the oak overgrowth you can see Sabino Canyon and Thimble Peak.
The Box Canyon Trail leads down to East Fork Trail, which runs into Sabino Canyon Trail.
However, this rock lookout is where we had planned to rest
and have a sneak before starting the hike 2.5
miles back up the mountain, which has an elevation change of 1,200 feet.
Before starting back we realized our tail-guide, Jeff, was not with us.
Long story short, he had taken a wrong turn in the area where the trail had a lot of over growth.
We started back using the radios to communicate with Jeff, which were spotty at best.
Even though having hiked the trail many times, the climb back to the trailhead was a real challenge.
I had to really slow my pace with only Sharon behind me
having taken over for the trail-guide task for Jeff.
We soon caught up with the lead group, only because Tim,
our lead-guide was also having some issues,
so Ellen took over as lead. After resting and with the help of GU energy gel
Tim and I were able to continue on.
(The fact that we happen to be the two oldest hikers on the hike had nothing to do with our struggles.)
Meanwhile, we continued trying to locate Jeff. Before returning back to the trailhead,
with radio contact we were able to determine that Jeff was somewhere back on the trail and okay.
Back at the trailhead we kept waiting and he finally showed up as pictured above.
To say the least, the circumstances made for a very interesting hike. — Images by kenne
Panning for Garnets in Sabino Creek — Image by kenne
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder . . .
he [or she] needs the companionship of at least one adult
who can share it, rediscovering the joy, excitement, and
mystery of the world we live in.”
— Rachel Carson
