Cactus Wren, Encinas, and Manville Loop

What a name, right? I guess this path crosses over all of these trails, but I swear I was just following the signs for Cactus Wren the whole time. Well...honestly, when I came to a split with a directional sign, I cheated and looked at my app to see where I should be going. Between my friends Google and AllTrails, I haven't gotten lost my whole time in the desert. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself!

Even though I've been at this for a few months, I still consider myself a new hiker. So, when I'm in a new area, I start off with short, flat hikes and proceed up the difficulty scale from there. Having exhausted all of the less-than-one-mile hikes, I'm moving on to longer hikes and keeping the elevation change in mind. This flat path was the perfect transition.

Like many of the trails I have explored in Tucson, this one overlaps several others. You can start at this trailhead and continue on to Signal Hill, which is not far from Valley View Overlook. So, if you're in the area and are up for a hike closer to 5 miles long, you could hit all of those in one day. That's not my thing so we'll just talk about this short loop and call it a day.

This trailhead is near a major road so there is quite a bit of traffic noise at the beginning/end of the loop. I just put in one of my earbuds and ignored it. It wasn't hard to do. I did see a coyote crossing the road toward the trail as I was parking, so I sang a little bit louder on this hike. I think I'm a pretty good singer, so my intention was really just to make more noise. However, my girls once said to me, "Oh, you're THAT kind of headphone singer..." so maybe my squawking is what kept the animals away. Regardless, I only saw birds, so my singing worked. And I was sure to apologize to the hikers that passed me by, although they swore they didn't hear any of the expletives from the rap song I was listening to. (Whole Lotta Money, Bia & Nicki Minaj...look it up. It's BOMB)

Normally I'm drawn to a view from a higher vantage point, but as I started walking, I was really captivated by the lower elevation. I appreciated being on the same level as all of the plants. I could see all of the baby cacti growing in the shade of more mature plants, and the burrows animals had dug under the larger plants, and the dying and decaying plants that serve as shelter and nourishment. The changes in the path also interested me. It started out as compacted dirt and then transitioned to pretty deep sand, which was black in some areas. After the final turn heading back to the car, the trail became really rocky. It was surprising to find so many changes in a relatively small area.

One thing that didn't change on this hike was the view of the surrounding mountains. I did have to maneuver around so that the vegetation wasn't the focal point, but that just made me more aware of my surroundings. It also reminded me of just how small we are in comparison to what Mother Nature has created. Tiny specks in the middle of this valley, surrounded by mountains, on this little planet in the middle of the vast universe. It blows my mind.

Ok, back to the hike. While the saguaro were posing for many pictures, the teddy bear cholla took center stage. There were hundreds! Tiny little babies trying to take root in the ground, huge older ones providing them shade, and everything in between. As I mentioned before, their arms remind me of fuzzy antlers. At one point, I was surrounded, and it felt like I was being welcomed by a herd of deer. Yes, this was a full stop moment.

Continuing on, I got to see a purple prickly pear and a barrel cactus with lots of berries waiting for spring to arrive so they could bloom. I also got to watch as some airplanes practiced their sky writing. And the clouds, they certainly put on a show of their own. I guess you could say that the desert is growing on me. I can't wait to see what the next adventure brings!