McDowell Sonoran Preserve - Gateway Trailhead

Author's Comments

The Gateway trailhead is busy. There is no pretending otherwise - the lot fills early, the loop is well loved, and on a Saturday in March you will share the trail with runners and dogs and families moving at every conceivable pace. I say this not to discourage but to set expectations. This is not a place of solitude. It is a place to study saguaros in good light. And the light, in the first hour after sunrise, is the reason to come. Side-lit saguaros are a different subject than front-lit ones. The ribs catch shadow. The arms separate from the body of the plant. The palo verde behind goes from flat green to something with dimension. November through February is when the desert holds its color longest into the morning, and the McDowells behind the trail give you a backdrop that actually means something - not just sky, but layered rock catching its own warm light as the sun climbs. I tend to walk the first mile of the Gateway Loop slowly and then turn around. The photographs are in the details and the middle distance more than the wide vista here. A single saguaro against the mountain. The texture of an ironwood at close range. The way a wash cuts through and the vegetation thickens along its edge. Windgate Pass is worth the longer walk if you want the valley below, but I would save that for a clear winter morning when the air is at its sharpest. Come early. Leave before the parking lot fills. The desert in good light does not ask much of you beyond showing up at the right hour.

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