Denizens of the desert

Thursday, March 24, 2011

PHOENIX, AZ — When we booked a desert tour by jeep, we weren’t aware that the rendez-vous point was in a ghost town not far from our campground. It really seemed like one when we pulled in a bit after 8:30 this morning; lots of old wooden buildings, falling-apart wagons and a sleepy train station, but no people. Not even the jeep tour people.

It was a clear, fresh morning, only about 60 degrees, and the sun was still climbing from behind the Superstition Mountains in the east. A few other people had arrived, and then a dark red jeep pulled in. Our tour was about to begin!

Five of us climbed aboard, and our driver, a young man named Jake, started the engine and suggested we buckle up our seatbelts; this would not be a smooth ride! For two hours, Jake drove us through the desert just north of the Apache Trail, stopping every now and then to take in the view or to explain about the flora and fauna around us.

The definition of a desert, he said, doesn’t have to do with vegetation or a lack of it, but rather with the amount of rain in a given area. If it’s under 10 inches a year, the area qualifies. The Sonoran Desert supports an amazing variety of cacti, flowers and trees, and some vast stretches before us were predominantly green, but desert it was, none the less.

Jake showed us what the inside of a saguaro cactus looked like, after finding one that had been struck by lightning and had fallen over. It has long, straight sticks inside that provide the structure for the spongy flesh. Birds sometimes burrow into the cacti to make a home – and idiots sometimes shoot at them for target practice when nobody’s looking. Saguaro cacti only begin to develop the characteristic arms after 75 years.

He also pointed out the teddy-bear cholla (I learned this is pronounced “choya”), and its cousin the jumping cholla. By just touching the latter with his hunting knife, Jake made a prickly ball pop off the end of a branch, and then he shook the ball off over his arm and the pricks grabbed his skin! When he tugged it, the barbs pulled his skin but the ball wouldn’t come off. The cowboy’s essential tool for predicaments like this, he said, is a simple plastic comb. He used it to scrape under the prickles and lift it off, and quickly pulled down his sleeve – but not before Val spotted a drop of blood. We were impressed at his enthusiasm for his work.

A few days earlier, Jake said they had spotted a rattlesnake, so he encouraged us to keep an eye out for it at around the same spot. We didn’t see one, but we did catch a glimpse of a jackrabbit with long, tall ears, scampering through the bush, and later on a few quail, with their funny topknots. These birds are too dumb to realize they should take flight when rushed at by enthusiastic tour guides.

The jeep lurched through some pretty uneven terrain and across some washes, or dry stream beds, as we passed evidence of early gold prospecting. There were some holes that prospectors had made with pickaxes in the hard, basaltic rock, but after hacking away a hole four feet deep, they gave up. I couldn’t imagine doing that kind of back-breaking work in 115 degree heat, which happens around here in the height of summer.

Suddenly, Jake caught sight of a mule deer up ahead, so we stopped and peered in the direction he pointed out. The deer was so well camouflaged, we had to wait till it moved to actually see it. Before long, two more joined the first, and then a fourth. It was wonderful to see them roaming free like that.

Our two-hour tour came to an end before we knew it, and we were back at the ghost town, which by this time had become a lot livelier! We thanked Jake and roamed around a bit, stopping for a bite of lunch, which was followed by a very loud gunfight in the town’s main street. The sheriff shot three cowboys, who bit the dust to loud applause, and then got up again to even louder applause.

After lunch we headed up the Apache Trail, at Jake’s recommendation, for a wonderful drive through winding roads with breathtaking vistas of multi-coloured rocks and crags, fringed with white and yellow wildflowers. Tall saguaro cacti peppered the landscape, and a couple of vultures wheeled overhead. It was hard to believe what we were seeing was actually real!