Huachuca and Ash Canyon AZ, Hiking and Birding

Huachuca Canyon is another beautiful canyon located here in southeastern Arizona. It is a beautiful canyon and a popular spot for hiking and birdwatching. As I’ve mentioned before there are fauna  unique to this area that can only be found in this part of the USA.

From our park it is about a 30 minute drive to get to the lower reaches of the canyon. However, this canyon is located on an Army base called Fort Huachuaca. The good news is you can get on the base as a visitor and don’t have to be in the military.

To gain access Fort Huachuca we had to stop at the visitors check-in and provide a  where they run you through a quick background check and take a photo of you. They then provided us a 60-day valid identification pass that would get us through a security checkpoint.

While the Fort itself has many interesting historic sites and even a museum we were here to visit the canyon bearing it’s name. Huachuca Canyon is accessible year-round and is located in the Coronado National Forest. Our Lifetime Senior Pass is good for visiting this canyon.

Huachuca Canyon Trail meanders along an old dirt road. We hiked this trail for a few miles one day and on another day we drove up the very rocky and rutted road for 1.7 miles to park at the 1.7 mile picnic area, We hiked and birdwatched up the trail from there. The scenery was really beautiful in this canyon especially up higher. We were fortunate to see a few nice birds even though they managed to hide real well in the lush woodlands surrounding the flowing creek,

Another nice spot just south of Fort Huachuca is the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary. This is a very popular destination for birdwatchers in southeastern Arizona.. The sanctuary is located in the Huachuca Mountains, near the town of Hereford. It is home to a variety of bird species, including many species of hummingbirds. We were fortunate to be able to see a Lucifer Hummingbird for the very first time there.

This is a sanctuary with mostly places to sit to observe the birds. There are no trails (that we know of) so we did no hiking. However, for those who want to see the birdlife up-close this is a great place to do so as there are many feeders with various feed. This allowed us the opportunity to photograph many of the birds who remained elusive to us during our hikes.

                     

The sanctuary is open all year and the best time for birdwatching is during the spring and fall migration seasons. While there is no fee for admission to the sanctuary there is a recommended donation. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.