Agua Fria

I walked a slow 5.05 miles today.  I've walked 317.88 miles in the last 59 days...and my feet are feeling it.  But, onward we go!  On the mapped route to Washington D.C. from San Diego....that brings us across the Aqua Fria River.

"The Agua Fria River is a 120-mile long intermittent stream that flows generally south from 20 miles east-northeast of Prescott in the U.S. state of Arizona. Prescott draws much of its municipal water supply from the upper Agua Fria drainage." Wikipedia 

The Audubon Society comments on their hopes for the upper Agua Fria River wildlife preserve 

 

Here's a nice site that talks about the Agua Fria and its petroglyphs and other sights to explore along this river that appears and disappears above and below ground, as some rivers do, like the Gila, in Arizona.

Forty miles North of Central Phoenix is the Agua Fria National Monument. The area is located on a high mesa semi-desert grassland, cut by the canyon of the Agua Fria River and other ribbons of valuable riparian forest, contributing to an outstanding biological resource. The diversity of vegetative communities, topographic features, and a dormant volcano decorates the landscape with a big rocky, basaltic plateau. The Agua Fria river canyon cuts through this plateau exposing precambrian rock along the canyon walls. Elevations range from 2,150 feet above sea level along the Agua Fria Canyon to about 4,600 feet in the northern hills. This expansive mosaic of semi-desert area, cut by ribbons of valuable riparian forest, offers one of the most significant systems of prehistoric sites in the American Southwest. In addition to the rich record of human history, the monument contains outstanding biological resources.

 

The area is the home to coyotes, bobcats, antelope, mule deer, javelina, a variety of small mammals and songbirds. Eagles and other raptors may also be seen. Native fish such as the longfin dace, the Gila mountain sucker, the Gila chub, and the speckled dace, exist in the Agua Fria River and its tributaries. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management