Four Peaks in the Mazatzal Mountains
east of Fountain Hills
The low Sonoran Desert landscape seems desolate if you just drive through it, but if you're hiking, you discover there's alot of life around you as well as grand mountain views in all directions.
Scattered throughout the low desert are giant Saguara cactus towering overhead, sometimes offering a spot of much-desired shade, foreboding cholla ready to 'bite' you if you aren't careful, aromatic creosote, tall gangly ocatillo, and relatively small trees with very tiny efficient leaves covering the palo verde and mesquite trees.
It's not uncommon to come across coyote, and sometimes snakes. In many years of hiking, I've only come across a few rattlesnakes - instantly stopping in my tracks, giving it the right-of-way as I watch it deftly slip into the brush.
