Jack Hanna helps release 14 bighorns into Catalinas – Douglas Kreutz – Arizona Daily Star, Fourteen bighorn captured for release into Santa Catalinas Thursday – JD Wallace – Tucson News Now, Bighorn Sheep Release in Santa Catalinas Closed to Public – Maria Inés Taracena – Arizona Public Media: On Thursday AM – in a release closed to the public – 14 additional Bighorn Sheep (11 ewes and 3 rams) were released into the Santa Catalina Mountains. The release took place in a residential area that offers access into the areas on Pusch Ridge that the Bighorn remaining from the first release have been using. The release was closed because of “public safety concerns and animal welfare concerns”… Best of luck to the new Bighorn Sheep! (The Friends of Santa Catalina Bighorn Sheep Facebook Page is currently a good resource for capture and release videos and pictures.)
Oracle State Park gains international dark sky status – Yoohyun Jung – Arizona Daily Star: Oracle State Park is the first state park in Arizona to be recognized as an international dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association, – the park received Silver Status which means that there are “minor impacts from light pollution and other artificial light disturbance”. The park is normally limited to day use – look for Stargazing and Dark Sky Celebration events in January and March on the Friends of Oracle State Park and Oracle State Park websites.
The Bighorn Sheep Restoration Project Status update for 10/27 to 11/12 is now available (all updates are currently available here). The most interesting part of this status update is a small change to the reporting on the lambs where the document simply says “No lambs were observed during this reporting period” – I believe some previous status updates may have simply reported the number of lambs previously observed when there was no reason to suspect any moralities.
Stopping at a trail sign to enjoy the views. November 2014.
We started the day at the Palisade Trailhead – it was cold when we stepped out of the car, but we knew we would warm up quickly on the Palisade Trail. We paused occasionally for pictures, stopped to enjoy Pine Canyon above the falls (still flowing), peered into the Mud Spring tank (filled with water and leaves) and nearly ran into the old phoneline that still angles across the trail.
A grassy descent on the Palisade Trail. November 2014.
The grass covered trail as we descended – below Mud Spring the trail is not as frequently used and more than once we had to pause to find our way – well worth the effort, the last part of the descent to the junction with the East Fork Trail is so beautiful!
Looking up Sabino Canyon – from the Phoneline Trail. November 2014.
Sabino Canyon was full of cold water near the East Fork Trail/West Fork/Sabino Canyon junction – a nice break before finishing along the Sabino Canyon and Phoneline Trails.
Fuelwood permits available for portions of Mt. Lemmon – Coronado National Forest: “Fuelwood permits for portions of Mt. Lemmon, located on the Santa Catalina Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest, will be available for sale November 3 to December 15, 2014 at the Ranger District Office, 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road in Tucson.” – more details in the press release.
More private shrines appearing on S. Arizona forest lands – Douglas Kreutz, Arizona Daily Star: An article about shrines on public lands including a picture of a private shrine just below the Babad Do’ag vista. While it may be an emotional issue the heart of the article is probably this quote from Heidi Schewel – Coronado National Forest Communications Staff Officer – “From a regulatory standpoint such personal memorials would be considered abandonment of personal property, which is prohibited,”
The Friends of Wild Animals have been a vocal opponent of the Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Project – whether or not you agree with their views they seem to have done the interested public a service with a recent Public Records Request. In response to their request the Arizona Game and Fish Department has produced documents including meeting notes for the Santa Catalina Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Advisory Committee.
In addition to posting their own opinions on the documents the Friends of Wild Animals have posted a pdf of the notes (they note: “We have put the scattered documents into chronological order and rescanned them. To obtain the original files, please email [email protected].”).
With public lands, wildlife, Wilderness and the AZGF involved in this project it is disappointing that these meetings were not open to the public. These notes – where the members appear to struggle with the details of habitat and fire, Mountain Lions, how to measure success, environmental regulations and details about GPS collar transmissions are actually refreshing reading – surely I am not the only one who finds projects that operate behind closed doors, work to present only a carefully crafted media message, stick to ‘talking points’ and maintain suspicious levels of optimism very hard to trust/believe? I didn’t come away from reading these documents with the impression that they demonstrate the “lack of integrity” that Ben Pachano, spokesman for Friends of Wild Animals, found – but I also don’t understand why any of this information needed to be a secret.
Ryan on the summit of Evans Mountains in the Santa Catalina Mountains. October 2014.
Evans Mountain is an interesting destination – some maps show a trail that takes you to the summit – but I suspect that trail is now (at best) obscure (a summit register entry from 1994 reads “Trail? What Trail?”), Evans Mountain is between the well known Davis Spring Trail and the Brush Corral Trail – both of which have long stretches that are faint or have disappeared back into the landscape and Evans Mountain is only a few miles from the Davis Spring Trailhead – which is marked on some maps but about which there is not exactly an overwhelming amount of information…
Interesting landscape – looking towards the San Pedro on the drive to the Davis Spring Trailhead. October 2014.
*** 8/12/2017 – The 2017 Burro Fire burned over Evans Mountain and down to Edgar Canyon – because many of the hillsides we hiked up to Evans Mountain were covered with brush and grass (no large trees) I don’t think the the the fire will have created any additional obstacles to getting to the top of Evans Mountain, but be aware conditions may have changed in this area! ***
We didn’t bother with an early start – navigating new-to-us dirt roads in the dark didn’t have much appeal – thru Oracle, past San Manuel and just a couple of minutes on Redington Road before turning off onto the road that we hoped would take us up to Davis Mesa and the Davis Spring Trailhead. The first miles ticked by with much better road conditions than expected, but at the junction into the 6 Bar Ranch the road immediately changed – more rocks, more ruts, more sand and much slower progress, a couple of sections demanded the switch to 4wd and our progress slowed – not unexpected, but the smooth first few miles had given us hope for a much shorter than expected drive….
The trail sign at the Davis Spring Trailhead on Davis Mesa. October 2014.
Eventually we arrived at the Davis Spring Trailhead – the drive made made this destination feel remote and the sturdy/clean trail sign seemed almost out of place. Luckily – as promised by the sign – an obvious trail leaves from the trailhead – we hiked past a tank fed by Davis Spring and down to a corral near Edgar Canyon where we found the Evans Mountain Trail #32 trail sign.
The trail sign for the Evans Mountain Trail – near a corral on the banks of Edgar Canyon. October 2014.
We followed the trail, and for a short time felt confident that we had found easy walking on the better-than-expected Evans Mountain Trail – but in retrospect we were probably lured too far east by well worn cow paths to correctly follow the trail’s turn south out of Edgar Canyon – eventually we began to simply pick the most likely route cross-country as worked steadily uphill towards Evans Mountain.
Near Edgar Canyon planning our route as the trail became faint. October 2014.
The ridgeline near Evans Mountain was a nice payoff for our climbing – great views! Soon enough we were at the top – from the register it looks like we are the only visit so far this year…
Taken from a ridge near Evans Mountain – Point 5681 on the left, cliffs to the north of Edgar Canyon and Davis Mesa center and right. If you look carefully you can see the green growth in the small drainage that contains Davis Spring near the center of the picture. October 2014.Ryan at the summit of Evans Mountain. Mount Bigelow is the last peak on the right on the far ridgeline. October 2014.
The trip back down was faster/shorter than the trip up – with no plan to even try to find the trail we simply picked a likely direct route and headed down – eventually following a lovely small canyon that had a small arch and a rather large drop near it’s junction with Edgar Canyon. Back along Edgar Canyon we took the cow paths back to the corral and climbed out of the canyon – what a great day! 8.3 miles round-trip with +/- 2700′ of elevation gain/loss.
Hiking a small canyon on the way down from Evans Mountain. October 2014.
Notes:
Based on the summit register Evans Mountains has at least one, and sometimes several, ascents each year. The summit, trailhead and access roads are easily found on (many) topographic maps of the area. The notes/resources below might provide interesting additional information if you want to visit this area (this list was last update 1/30/2019):
See the Davis Spring Trailhead page on this site for directions, maps and a gpx file to help with getting to the trailhead – a 4wd vehicle is strongly recommended and if you are not familiar with the area I also strongly recommend looking at maps/directions ahead of time, the network of unmarked dirt roads in the area can be confusing especially on your first visit to the area!
I have hiked to the Davis Spring Trailhead from the Ventana Windmill area off Black Hills Mine Road – Black Hills Mine road to the parking above the road down to the Ventana Windmill is a 2wd friendly drive which is attractive vs the 4wd road out to the Davis Spring Trailhead, but ultimately I wrote “our path across Davis Mesa doesn’t seem worth repeating or recommending – a fun adventure and a great day out, but not the alternate Davis Spring Trailhead access I had hoped for!”
During our visit there was a strong flow of water from Davis Spring into several different tanks – but from Davis Spring east sections of Edgar Canyon we saw (maybe .5 miles down canyon from the corral) were dry.
Desert Mountaineer – Evans Mountain – This is a great post about a trip to Evans Mountain and several nearby high points – many thanks to the Desert Mountaineer for responding to our question about the drive to the trailhead!!! Great information and inspiration – a fun site to visit especially if you love off-the-beaten path Arizona adventures!
[GuideYellowBook/] – As with nearly every destination in the Santa Catalina Mountains this guide is worth consulting – there are some details here that are probably useful but in this area (especially post Bullock Fire) it is hard to know how many details are ‘current’ enough to be useful.
Sirena’s Wanderings – Brush Corral Trail and Diary of Scott Morris – Brush Corral Epic – Both of these posts are about the Brush Corral Trail which is on the ‘other side’ of Evans mountain from the Davis Spring Trailhead. The Evans Mountain Trail used to connect the Davis Spring Trail to the Brush Corral Trail. These posts are only vaguely related to the Davis Spring Trailhead and Evans Mountain – they are included since it is worth knowing about this possible alternate approach to Evans Mountain.
