Well, it's taken long enough. I've ridden the route from Hohokam Park (Center Street just north of Brown) to Horne and Park of the Canals often. It's one of my favorite rides. So these are pictures of the ride I took on February 17. Now, this is one of my favorite rides, but I haven't been on my bike (for various reasons) since the middle of December. So, this was just enough.
A quick description of the marked stretch in the map below: it's 1.5 miles long, and begins on a paved path next to Hohokam Park. After a bit over a mile (crossing Mesa Drive), the Crosscut Canal intersects with the Consolidated Canal. At that point, I take the dirt verge of the canal (on either side) northeast. The canal path passes the Park of the Canals, a real unsung Mesa gem. It's an archeological park, in that it has the remains of Hohokam canal excavations still visible, and if you look hard enough in various places in the park, you can find potsherds. There's also a great cactus garden, and what look like some modern and some historic outbuildings.
Be careful, however. I still see signs of people sleeping the night and partying in the park. But this is a great ride, flat on top of the actual mesa of Mesa, with some great views (the one at the top is the McDowells in the distance). It's impossible to fully convey the effect of morning light. As you ride or walk farther, you face more east, and can see Red Mountain, and Four Peaks.
"A real unsung Mesa gem", no doubt. I grew up in the neighborhood just south of the park, and just east of the canal, on Ashland. This was throughout the 1980's. My brother and I spent untold hours playing in that park, finding arrowheads, potsherds, fossils, and various bits of junk. Perhaps then too it had the detritus of a seedy transient population, but that only intrigued a couple of kids. Its hard to tell if the general neighborhood has declined since then, or if we were just oblivious to its socioeconomic state even in 1989. Walking and biking along the dirt path along the canal is a treasured childhood memory. Do they still drain the canals periodically? That provided a good opportunity to explore the grocery carts, bicycles, and carp skeletons that collected along the bottom.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate I'm very glad you've documented this. I had no idea then that this place I so fondly recalled from my childhood has National Register of Historic Places status.
I believe your first picture is taken looking toward the southern terminus of the park, at which stands a cluster of Palos Verde trees. Now that was a real place to stop and reflect on your day as an 8-year old!