View from the Trail
4/24/2023: We got six miles doing the loop and it was really nice. Started early in the morning at about 7:00. Lots of wildflowers still in Bloom. We did it counterclockwise and discovered that most of the flowers are on the west side of the mountain. Beautiful views either side. And we saw a Gila monster. The first one we have ever seen. The saguaros were huge and beautiful, some of the best I have ever seen. The Banana Yucca were in full bloom.
Of note: The Gila monster is one of only small number of venomous lizards (including the Mexican beaded lizard, the Komodo dragon and some Australian species). It can bite quickly and hold on tenaciously. Rather than injecting venom through hollow fangs like venomous snakes, Gilas have enlarged, grooved teeth in their lower jaw. When they bite, their powerful jaws chew the venom in through capillary action along the grooves in these teeth. Gila monster venom is about as toxic as that of a western diamondback rattlesnake. However, a relatively small amount of venom is introduced in a Gila bite. Gila monsters may hold onto a predator for more than ten minutes. There is no antivenin for Gila bites.
Our Gila Monster
Marg’s Notes: Went to bed early last night & slept like a rock! Planned an easier day today…and closer hike, so didn’t have to get up quite so early. Nevertheless, we were at the trailhead at 7:15. It was on ~ ½ hour drive to the Sonoran Desert Preserve. Nice parking lot & facilities at the trailhead. We did the Granite Mtn Loop. Nice trail with less than 400 ft. elevation gain. Lots of flowers again. Mostly saguaro cacti. A great hike. A mixed use trail so we saw other hikers & quite a few mt. bikers. Some bikers told us they had seen a Gila ahead of us, but it was moving on. We did the trail counter clockwise. On the back side of the mountain, I was pulling out my phone to take a pic & Rod was looking for a pic when I saw a neon orange & black thing right in the trail! It was a Gila monster! We startled each other then it took off! Rod got a pic & a video! There were more flowers on this side too (west side). We still hiked 6 miles but at a more respectable pace of 2 mph! great recover hike! Stopped at Costco for gas, bagels, cream cheese & wine! Busy place!
Burritos tonite
Rod’s Ramblings from the Trail: After, literally, taking 5 minutes to put sunscreen on by Marguerite we will leave here about 7:15. Temperature already about 67°.
So, after a potty stop, we are really leaving at 7:24. It is already warm. The trail is very easy to walk. Might not even need boots on this one. We saw lots of quail at the very beginning running ahead of us The banana yucca are in full bloom.
We are going counterclockwise.
This is a very nice, very easy, sandy trail. There are bunny rabbits everywhere. We saw a ground squirrel, we hear quail, and I bet this is really packed on the weekends, especially during color season but today we've seen a few people out for their morning constitutionals but … Marguerite thinks that's a good picture but I don't but I will take it anyway. Film is cheap.
I'm sure there are Chuckwalla, tarantulas, Gila monsters, and desert tortoise. I'm also sure there would be rattlesnakes out her.
There's several cactus in bloom and some just wanting to start the bloom. Those with the long spindly arms have little blooms all over their tops that have not yet bloomed – I guess I should call them .
There are many trails that cut across that you can make the hike shorter if you want to. But we chose to do the entire loop because it is such an easy trail and it's so peaceful out here.
The saguaros are magnificent.
We met a couple of folks biking and they said about a hundred yards up to trail from us was a Gila monster. They told us about where it was but said it was really motoring. We did not see the guy but we're keeping an eye out because another guy said that there have been several sightings this year of Gila monsters.
We have seen several bikers but not too bad. If I road mountain bikes or trail bikes this would be a great place to ride.
Well guess what we just saw? We just saw a Gila monster on the side of the trail. Marguerite almost stepped on him. He was a handsome little fart, and we hopefully got a few pictures of him (or her).
There are lots of flowers on the west side as we did the route counterclockwise.
We finished the hike at 10:30. Which means it took us about 3 hours and 15 minutes to do the loop. I got 6.19 mi. It was a great hike, and I gave it five stars on Alltrails. Seeing the Gila monster pushed it from four to five stars 😊.