Life Among the Saguaros: Spur Cross Conservation Area - Part 7

This turned out to be a really interesting hike. Elaine McGuire, who is a docent out at Spur Cross, led the hike. The heat was getting to me a bit by the time we got done, but it was well worth it as we saw a lot of interesting things and got a good workout.

At the time I hiked this trail, it was a new one in the Spur Cross area, and part of it actually crosses into the Jewel of the Creek riparian area, which is maintained by the Desert Foothills Land Trust. (I’m not sure if the Jewel of the Creek Trail itself is part of the Dragonfly Trail.) The trail begins on the old Tortuga Trail so we got a bit of a workout right away as the beginning of that trail is an uphill climb.

From the Tortuga Trail, we went onto the Spur Cross Trail where, fairly early into the hike, we saw some yellow and purple wildflowers, as well as some Mexican Poppies. In addition, we saw some beautiful views of Elephant Mountain and the Hohokam fortress. We also saw a lizard on the rocks, but he was hiding behind some plants and was camouflaged really well, so it’s hard to see him in the pictures.

After about 1 ½ miles into the hike, we came to an intersection of three trails. This is where we would get off the Spur Cross Trail and go left onto the Dragonfly Trail. If we went to the right, we’d go back onto the Tortuga Trail. I believe Elaine said that if we continued straight ahead (on the Spur Cross Trail) we’d be on what will some day be a portion of the Regional Trail, but I could be wrong on that.

Soon after turning onto the Dragonfly Trail, we saw something that I had never seen before on any trail. There was a hole in the ground off to the side of the trail and, coming out of that hole, was a rather long piece of snake skin. Snakes will sometimes go into holes so that the sides of the hole will pull off their skin as they are entering it. I’m glad he was long gone by the time we got there! A little further along on the Dragonfly Trail, we went off the trail to some petroglyphs. In addition to the interesting petroglyphs we saw, we enjoyed some beautiful views of the surrounding area.

It seemed like one minute we were surrounded by teddy bear cholla, saguaro, and ocotillo, and the next we were down in the beautiful riparian area of the Jewel of the Creek. It also seemed to be a bit cooler down there. I had been down in this area before with the folks from the Desert Foothills Land Trust.

We saw a lot of interesting things while down in the Jewel of the Creek riparian area – a strange-looking bug of some sort that blended in very well with the grey rock, a very small cave, and a beautiful spider’s web. A camera placed down there has captured a mountain lion on film. It was very lush and green so it was nice to hike through that area.

This was toward the beginning of the hike and just one of many beautiful views we would enjoy.

Ocotillo Cactus

Another nice view

Elephant Mountain

Cholla Cactus

Mexican Poppy

Snake Skin *shudder*

More snake skin *more shuddering* You can see that the snake skin appears to be coming out of a hole. They will occasionally go into holes to shed their skin.