City - Sierra Vista State - AZ Country - United States
About
I spend almost every weekend hiking in the canyons in the Huachuca Mountains. I live at 5,000 feet, so I do not have the hot desert clement like Phoenix and Tucson.
This is Ramsey Canyon Preserve, near Sierra Vista; it claims the title of "hummingbird capital of the United States." Up to fourteen species of hummers are included in the more than one hundred and fifty species of birds in the preserve, making this peaceful oasis one of the best bird watching spots in the world.
Part of The Nature Conservancy’s international conservation program, Ramsey Canyon is renowned for its beauty and serenity. It is also an ecological crossroads where plants and wildlife from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts mingle with those from the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre.
Nestled deep in the Huachuca Mountains, one of Arizona’s "sky islands," the preserve is home to southwestern rarities, including the ridge-nosed rattlesnake, lesser (Sanborn’s) long-nosed bat, elegant trogon and white-eared hummingbirds.
Fed by year-round Ramsey Creek and protected by high canyon walls, the preserve provides a moist, cool environment for water-loving plants like sycamores, maples and columbines, with the cacti of the Sonoran desert always close by.
Coues deer, coatis, mountain lion, and dozens of varieties of butterflies are only part of the wildlife indigenous to Ramsey Canyon. The Ramsey Canyon leopard frog exists only in Ramsey Canyon and several nearby sites in the Huachuca Mountains and foothills. I follow Hamburg Trail along Ramsey Creek. It tops out at an overlook in the Coronado National Forest, then connects with other trails in the Miller Peak Wilderness Area.
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