Photo Essay: Agua Fria at Black Canyon City
Prescott-based naturalist and artist Walt Anderson shares photos and musings from a day trip to the Agua Fria River area at Black Canyon City.
You have to pick up something in Phoenix, and the forecast if for 111 degrees F. What do you do? Leave Prescott early, pull off I-17 at Black Canyon City, and drive through a modest neighborhood where cows wander down the middle of the street and into unfenced yards. Park in the temporary shade of a mesquite and step out into Sonoran Desert chorus of Vermilion Flycatcher, White-winged Dove, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Lucy's Warbler, and Northern Cardinal. Follow a narrow dusty trail into an oasis of willows and cottonwoods with a desert river, the Agua Fria, running through. Follow the stream to massive cliffs of schist studded with saguaros and barrel cacti. Enjoy the songs of Bell's Vireos, Yellow Warblers, Blue Grosbeaks, and Summer Tanagers. Run into a couple Cooper's Hawks and a Great Horned Owl, then a pair of rare Yellow-billed Cuckoos. Discover tiny Longfin Dace and a couple lunker carp in a shady pool. Filled with joy from the intimate time in nature, return to the car and complete the errand to Phoenix. I have no desire to go to the big city, especially in summer, but if you plan it right, it's an opportunity to connect with nature and renew one's spirits.
Agua Fria River below Black Canyon City. Even in the heat of summer, this is a pleasant oasis and a birder's paradise.
Goodding Willows and Fremont Cottonwoods line the stream and make a morning desert walk quite delightful.
I was delighted to find a pair of the rare Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos, a tropical species that spends its short breeding season in the US.
Great Horned Owl "barked" at me as I walked along the river.
Longfin Dace, a native fish.
Lunker carp. The long dorsal fin and the barbels at the mouth help distinguish it from the Sonoran Sucker. Notice the tiny Longfin Dace to its left for size comparison.
Tall Saguaro on the schist cliffs by the river.
