Usery Mountain Regional Park
Mesa, AZ
A 3,648-acre Maricopa County park at the western end of the Goldfield Mountains featuring dense saguaro forests. The Wind Cave Trail leads to a shallow cave with views across the Salt River Valley to Four Peaks and the Superstition Mountains. The park is known for its high concentration of saguaro cacti, crested saguaros, and spring wildflower blooms.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- morning
- Crowds
- Moderate
- Shot Types
- widelandscapedetail
- Best Seasons
- springwinter
Author's Comments
March, just after a wet winter, is when this park makes its case most clearly. The saguaros stand the way they always stand, but the ground between them changes. Mexican gold poppies, lupine, brittlebush, and on the right year a wash of color that runs from the trailhead up into the rocks. I have seen Usery in dry springs and it is still beautiful. In a wet spring it is something else entirely. The Wind Cave Trail is the one most people walk, and there is a reason. You climb gradually through saguaro forest that gets denser the higher you go, and the cave itself sits in a shaded alcove with the Salt River Valley laid out below. Four Peaks to the north. The Superstitions to the east. From inside the cave looking out, the framing does most of the work for you - dark rock above, bright valley below, and the peaks holding the far edge of the frame. I prefer to be on the trail before sunrise in winter. The saguaros catch the first light from the side, and the ribs of each cactus throw vertical shadows that make the forms read as forms rather than silhouettes. Look for the crested saguaros if you have time. They are scattered through the park and the rangers can sometimes point you toward the closest one. They photograph best in soft side light, where the strange fluted crown reads against the sky without going to pure black. Bring a wide lens for the forest, a longer one for the peaks, and something close-focusing for the wildflowers if the year cooperates. Stay until the light goes flat. Come back the next morning.
Gallery
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