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 Huachuca. 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 visitor's check-in and provide an ID 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 its 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 really 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.

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.