Garden Canyon Hike and a Visit to Coronado National Memorial…

One intriguing hike near our RV park is the Garden Canyon hike.The canyon is located in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista, Arizona. The trail is a relatively easy hike of about 4.2 miles round trip and took us around 4.5 hours to complete because we birded along the way. The end point of the hike is an in and out walk to the Garden Canyon Pictograph Site.

The trail followed a creek steadily uphill and there were mountains with towering cliffs covered in fairly dense vegetation on either side. Since this part of Arizona is prime birding habitat we were always on the lookout for some of the rare species found only in this area.

Garden Canyon, located in the Huachuca Mountains has a long history of human habitation. Once occupied by indigenous peoples for thousands of years there are remnants today of their presence.

The most obvious evidence of their existence in this canyon can be found at the Garden Canyon Pictograph Site. There is an interesting and unique array of fascinating ancient rock art. These pictographs are believed to have been created by the Hohokam people between 500 and 1,500 years ago.

The pictographs are of an assortment of images. Images of humans, animals, and various shapes are scattered across the face of the rock. While we have seen a lot of various rock art these images seemed a bit different and were cool to have seen.

On another afternoon we drove over to the Coronado National Memorial about 30 minutes south of our park located in southeastern Arizona near the border with Mexico. The site commemorates the expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. Coronado was a Spanish explorer who searched in vain for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola during the 1500’s.

We stopped at the visitors center to show them our America the Beautiful pass only to learn that it was a fee free park. We left and went over to the picnic area because a ranger told us it was the best place to birdwatch in the park.

We spotted quite a few species of birds but we mostly enjoyed the various species of flycatchers in the picnic grounds. Lots of birds were singing and a pair of dusky-crested flycatchers were building a nest. We watched the pair often enter a cavity in a tree so we assumed that is what they were doing.

We also drove up to the scenic overlook called Montezuma Pass. To get there we had to drive up a steep and winding road to the top of the in Huachuca Mountains. From the pass we had a fabulous panoramic view of the San Pedro River Valley and to the south we could see the Mexican border.

It was a fun few days of hiking, birding and taking scenic drives in Southeastern Arizona.