lAZy crAZy dAZe in AZ: Hike to Garden Valley

What a marvellous day we had with Jeanne as our guide through the Superstition Mountains to visit Garden Valley and walk through First Water Ranch. For three and half hours we hiked up and down along sandy, rubble-strewn and rocky trails that only an experienced hiker like Jeanne could find.

Garden Valley was farmed by a small group of Hohokams, probably some one thousand years ago, when the climatic conditions were more favorable. This large valley flat had more than 200 acres of arable land when there was a sufficient supply of water; we saw where they had built ditches and tanks to capture and store water. Today the area, a bowl surrounded by rocky hills, is home to cactus, in part due to overgrazing by cattle ranches?

We also saw a housing ruin located in the center of the valley. The population of the development seems open to conjecture even today although perhaps housed twenty-five to thirty individuals, while small caves on the fringe of the valley contained other families. Prior to discovery in 1930, the valley floor was covered with stone tools used by the ancient inhabitants who cultivated this special parcel of land.

First Water Ranch has been abandoned but fences, a windmill, a loading chute, a covered shelter and a bare-rock road leading up the hill out of the valley location remain. Couldn't find out much about this ranch but it seems unbelievable today that cattle could graze in this area despite water from wells and a couple of (seasonal) rivers in the locale or that trucks could navigate the road out of the site!