Today we are on a hunt for junipers, there aren’t many in the Phoenix area but we want to see at least one before Christmas and supposedly there are a few in the Sonoran Preserve so that is our destination for the day. Of course it is not the only reason, we really want to get out in nature today and the Granite Mountain trailhead looks promising.
One thing we don’t like about the Sonoran Preserve are the crazy weird opening and closing hours, why not also set a specific second when people can get in or out if you want to be that precise, 5:21 PM really?
The desert here is quite beautiful with old saguaro and established desert vegetation, it seems that the area was protected or not used extensively by humans.
With the lush, for a desert, vegetation come the birds. There are lots of cactus wrens, we catch a glimpse of a coyote and enjoy seeing a kestrel up close, the colors are mesmerizing.
Our goal and turn around point is the granite formation called balanced rock. It is about a two mile hike from the parking lot and the trail is easy enough so we make fast progress and soon we see it in the distance.
The rock itself is quite impressive and the area around it is a natural picnic place so we sit down and eat our lunch in the shade of the rock and the nearby junipers. Yes we also found our junipers here.
As we eat we take in the views and a very inquisitive canyon towhee that possibly was attracted to our food, but even more likely didn’t care at all about us.
We return on a different trail to create a loop and the wildlife sighting continue. Besides the usual like curve-billed thrashers we also find antelope-squirrels squabbling for a very desirable rock.
The last part of our loop is on the powerline trail, where we also find a very difficult cache. Not difficult because it is small but difficult because it is hidden in a field of rocks that is difficult to explore but we get it in the end. Nearby is a likely research area with small plots marked and tracked, would be interesting to know what.
It is a short hop from the cache to the parking lot but we still manage to see one more interesting mammal, a desert cottontail that really doesn’t want to move for us or anyone else. Happy and before 5:21 PM we leave the parking lot after a very enjoyable day out in nature.
