Crow Wash - 11/10/2020, 3/22/2020

2020 March Windmill reflection in a tank below Crow Windmill. Charles Miles. 3/22/2020.

In 1999 Pima County produced a discussion paper titled Mountain Parks and the Sonoran Desert Conservation Concept Plan. The paper contains a lovely dream:

Mountain Parks and the Sonoran Desert Conservation Concept Plan - Page 47 — Page 47 from Mountain Parks and the Sonoran Desert Conservation Concept Plan showing a Tortolita Mountain Park Draft Master Plan from the late 1990s.

Twenty years later and it is still interesting to see McGann & Associates Tortolita Mountain Park Draft Master Plan and wonder about what the Tortolita Mountains could become.

2020 March Crow Windmill. Charles Miles. 3/22/2020.

Today on the east side of the Tortolita Mountains there is no sign of the 'Crow Wash Trailhead, Day Use Area and Campground' or the nearby 'Visitor Contact Station' that are featured so prominently on the old draft master plan.

A bumpy drive west on Edwin Road to the Crow Wash area ends only in dirt pullouts on Arizona State Trust Land. It would be great to see this area further developed for recreational use, but in many ways, for now, it doesn't matter - there is plenty of parking, access to trails thru the desert and a link up to the main Tortolita Mountains trail system.

2020 March Flowers in the Tortolita Mountains. Charles Miles. 3/22/2020.

2020 March Goat Corral from Above. Charles Miles. 3/22/2020.

The photos above are from March 2020 - the pictures below are from November 2020. Wild Fires - small in scope compared to the Bighorn Fire in the Santa Catalina Mountains - burned in the Tortolita Mountains 2020 and Crow Wash is the edge of the burned area.