Ironwood Forest National Monument

Ironwood Forest National Monument is southwest of the town of Marana, AZ.  It is not a big, or well known national monument, but it is known for this beautiful peak, ironwood trees, and the wildlife that calls this area home, like desert tortoises and big horn sheep.

As Steve and I hike around, we are always intrigued by the beauty we find.  Sometimes in the living, and sometimes in the dead.  Dead saguaros resemble trunks and branches.

This dead ironwood tree is also very artistic with all of its knots and burls.

This is the biggest ironwood tree we have ever seen.  I am in the picture for perspective.

There is a loop road that goes all the way around the peak.  The views seemed to get prettier the farther in we drove.  We didn't make it clear around the loop though.  Our hikes took too much time and we were getting hungry and had to go back.  Maybe next time.

 

This is a quiet little park.  I think we saw three cars and two campers while we were here.  Dispersed camping is allowed for 14 days at a time. There were no real hiking trails to speak of, so any exploring is just through the desert. We would love to come back here and camp so we would have more time to explore, and maybe even see some of the wildlife that lives here.

After we left the park, we went to a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Marama for lunch, called Nico’s.  I ordered a Chile relleno burrito and Steve ordered a carnitas burrito. They were so big that we ended up splitting one for lunch and saving the other for dinner.  My burrito had rice in it with the relleno, which we weren’t very fond of, we would have preferred beans.  Steve’s burrito was carnitas and avocado, which was perfect!  Great food, we’d definitely go back!