Before I left the Dragoon Mountains in southeastern Arizona where I’d been camping for a time, I found a nearby trail up a gulch into the mountains themselves that I decided to go up and see how far into the mountains themselves I could get, and it ended up being a really scenic high desert hike. Up Slavin Gulch trail, I believe it was called. I started off mountain biking, but after a couple miles the trail got steep and rocky enough that I ditched the bike and kept hiking up, into the rocks.
Already at a much higher elevation than my campsite below, the views looking back down into the valley were fantastic.
Steep rock walls on either side of the trail for much of the hike with a wide variety of desert trees and plants made for some really scenic hiking, with almost constantly changing views and scenery.
One of the coolest spots along the hike was a high point with a really nice view across and into the dry gulch below, filled with all sorts of green trees that feed off of the water that flows through following every storm, a contrast to the bare mesquite in the desert country below.
The more time I spend exploring the desert country of the southwest, I continue to be surprised by the wide variety of desert scenery and terrain, and the Dragoon mountains in particular host a very unique and diverse ecosystem, and recreation opportunities abound. Despite the desert heat, with high temperatures already nearing 90 in early April, a very special place to spend some time. I just wanted to share a few photos of the amazing views from this hike, my first time going this deep and high into the Dragoons.
