The Hassayampa River (Assiampa, in Apache, for “waters hidden underground”) mostly lives up to its name.  It rises in the Sierra Prieta Range, on the west side of Phoenix, and flows downhill to the area occupied by the small ranching and mining town of Wickenburg, about an hour northwest of Phoenix.  The town, in turn, is named for Henry Wickenburg, an entrepreneur in rail and mining, in the Arizona of the late 19th/early 20th Centuries.

I went down there yesterday, to visit two of the area’s three defining places:  The Hassayampa Riparian Preserve and Desert Caballeros Museum.  This post shows some scenes of the preserve, which is manged by The Nature Conservancy.  Most of the land is flat, save a small outcropping, called Lyle’s Lookout.

Here are some scenes of Palm Lake Loop Trail.

Note the “beard” or dead frondage, on the palm.

Palm Lake used to be pumped and cleaned up.  Now it is left alone.

The Conservancy prefers to keep its holdings in their natural state.

The midsection of the Preserve is mostly dry.

As one gets towards Lyle’s Lookout, however, the Hassayampa emerges from underground.

The Lookout itself affords a fine view of surrounding mountains.

The approach to Lyle’s Lookout.