A Cool Canyon For Hot Weather Hikes | Garden Canyon Fort Huachuca | Pictographs & more

Описание: Garden Canyon is beautiful and filled with history, the road isn’t steep, and it’s shady and cool in the morning.    / @flynnhikes   There are lots of other trails you can pick up if you want to venture off for a more difficult hike, too. Yes, technically it's an old dirt road, but since vehicles are no longer allowed beyond the pavement, hikers and bikers have an awesome, quiet, wide road to hike up. It's a great canyon for birders, too.

The pictographs at the two sites are up to 1500 years old. The most recent ones are about 200 years old, primarily made by Apaches. Older pictographs were made by Hohokam and other ancient native people. The sites were restored and fenced off after the restoration to prevent further damage to them. The black staining on the rock ceiling is from water seeping through the rock, not from fire/smoke.

Hikes that start in Garden Canyon:
McClure Canyon Trail to Huachuca Peak    • How not to crawl under a log | Huachuca Pe...  
Garden Canyon-Sawmill Canyon Loop    • Garden Canyon-Sawmill Canyon Loop Hike | F...  
Sawmill Spring    • The Best Hike | Sawmill Spring | Garden & ...  

DIRECTIONS to the parking area: On Google Maps search for Garden Canyon Road on Ft. Huachuca and follow the road 7-8 miles to the signed Upper Picnic Area (just before the paved road ends). You can park there, or drive a couple hundred yards farther up the road and park on the right just before the closed gate. There is a drainage that runs across the road just before the gate. During monsoon season it fills with fast-moving water. Do not cross it when the water is running. There's a sign in/out sheet at the MP station if you are planning to hike in the canyons on post.

If you don't have a DoD ID card you’ll have to stop at the office by the Van Deman gate, have a quick background check done, and get a pass. The pass is usually valid for a year. Do a quick search online for the documentation you’ll need; requirements change over time.

If you want complete, accurate and interesting details about trails in the Huachucas, pick up Leonard Taylor's Trails of the Huachucas trail guide (2019) and the accompanying Trail Map of the Huachucas. You can buy them at Ramsey Canyon Preserve, the Sierra Vista Ranger District Station along Hwy 92 south of Sierra Vista, the Coronado National Memorial, the San Pedro House, the Carr House, and Territorial Book Sellers (7th/Lenzner) in Sierra Vista.

Birds heard on this hike: canyon wren, dusky-capped flycatcher, Cassin's kingbird, coppery-tailed trogon, spotted towhee, western wood-pewee, sulphur-bellied flycatcher, painted redstart, lesser goldfinch