Sabino Stomp

Today I hung out in one of my traditional Tucson hangouts...Sabino Canyon. It's a gorge in the desert just northeast of Tucson. Though it's a desert ecosystem, Sabino Creek usually flows because its watershed is the Catalina mountains, 9 thousand feet above sea level; the creek gets runoff from snowmelt in the winter and spring and from frequent thunderstorms during the summer monsoon. You can even find pine cones near the creek, carried by floodwaters from thousands of feet above. At this particular spot I sloated out for awhile, reclining in the creek in the shade. Very pleasant.

The creek was running robustly today, but has been much higher in the past few weeks when torrents of rain drenched the area. Evidence of these floods is everywhere, like the twigs wrapped around this tree, several feet above the current waterline. The shuttle bus only goes halfway up the canyon; road damage dating from last year prevents it from making the entire trip.

The creek crosses many bridges, all of which were underwater today. I got my feet wet repeatedly, but when the temperature's in the 90s, this is no problem.

The sides of Sabino Canyon are covered by a particularly luxuriant saguaro forest. The combination of cactus on the slopes and cottonwoods in the canyon, with a refreshing creek, make Sabino one of the premier desert oases found anywhere!