Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch

New York, several years ago. She pointed to a novel sight, for her. “That’s a real water pump,” she said. “It keeps the children occupied.” In addition, she said, the library offers nighttime stargazing, bird-watching and nature walks. Alas, for now, one learning opportunity has been withdrawn. “The children used a pay phone in the playground to call 9-1-1,” Rivera said. “A couple of the boys were just learning how to dial. A Gilbert policeman responded. We came back this week and the phone was gone.” The library has plenty of parking and is a convenient starting point for the Water Ranch walks. A concrete walkway along one shore of the main pond provides handy access for the handicapped, and is popular with armchair anglers. The children’s park is across the steel bridge at the head of the lake.

The highest point in the preserve is a mound capped by a small covered amphitheater across the lake. There, recirculated water gushes back into the lake, adding oxygen to the water and creating a popular fishing spot.

Crushed-gravel paths take visitors through metal gates deeper into the preserve, past a reminder sign that the back area is “maintained as a peaceful wetland preserve for fish and wildlife to enjoy.” Brushy shorelines and an artificial brook provide cover for waterfowl. Puddle ducks such as mallards are drawn like a magnet by two tilled, shallow wetland areas within the preserve. A September bird-watching expedition discovered shovelbills and gadwalls, American coots, teals and a variety of wading and shoreline birds. Anderson says the Audubon Society may put the Water Ranch on its regular bird-watching list.

“A portion of the preserve is critical habitat,” he said. Most people who visit the preserve “walk around the lake and hardly ever see these areas,” located farthest from the library and park.

Pets must be leashed. “We’ve released some burrowing owls out there,” Anderson said. “We want to make sure they stay around and nest there,” he said.

He acknowledged that mosquitoes hatch in the ponds, but insisted, “What happens to occur out in the preserve is either eaten or our water doesn’t stand long enough to be a problem.” Anderson directs a preserve-based outreach program for local schools. “Part of our mission,” he said, “is to provide hands-on experience for schools. Kids can come out and participate. We’ll supply them with binoculars and teach them how to identify birds. We have other programs: astronomy and archaeology.”

{hike of the month} Coffee Flat Trail Has Wilderness in Abundance, But No Java

OUT IN THE eastern Superstition Wilderness, life looks a little different. The volcanic formations that keep the western portion of the wilderness so popular stand as 5,000-foot-high mountains in the eastern high country. Juniper trees replace saguaro cacti. Wildlife appears more often than people. The electric atmosphere of the western wilderness, with its mining legends and local lore, calms down in the aloof eastern wilderness where ranching once reigned. The 7.6-mile-long Coffee Flat Trail, near the south-central boundary of the Superstition Wilderness between the JF Headquarters and Fraser Canyon, connects these two worlds.

The hike starts on a road closed to vehicles. The road travels about a mile to the JF Headquarters and the start of the trail. Jack Fraser pioneered the ranch a few years after prospectors started searching for the Lost Dutchman Mine. Fraser sold the ranch to the Clemans Cattle Co. in 1909, and the operation eventually ran 8,000 to 10,000 head of cattle. Today, only 50 cattle graze the area. The trail follows along Fraser Canyon, where the drainage transitions from shallow and shapeless to narrow and scenic. Cairns direct hikers as the trail winds back and forth across the canyon floor. Thick forests of saguaro cacti, some more than a century old, cover sections of the south-facing wall of the canyon. At about mile 2, the trail climbs up into the cactus forest, edging past ancient giants.

Before the path descends the canyon wall, hikers can view the cuts of the canyon system in the distant west. Shadowed ridges acutely chiseled by the elements mark the general area where Dripping Spring lies. Hikers might see jojoba bushes-5-foot-tall bushes with gray-green oval leaves on the canyon slope. The old cowboys called these bushes "coffeeberry," which might have prompted the nameCoffee Flat for the basin located at the western end of the trail. An alternate explanation for Coffee Flat's curious name involves mining lore. Prospectors would head to Reeds Water, a water source located next to the basin, to make coffee.

The trail lands back on the canyon floor and resumes weaving across the drainage. Whetstone Spring, at about mile 3, presents a soggy stretch that may force hikers to walk carefully alongside a string of pools in a willow thicket. Hikers should watch for the stacks of cairns just beyond the pools, signaling the trail's brief climb up the south wall.

Nearing Dripping Spring, the environment turns riparian. At the oasislike setting where Fraser Canyon ends at right-angled Randolph Canyon, cottonwood trees line large pools of water sunk in salmoncolored bedrock. The spring lies just beyond the confluence on the south wall.

Along the way, hikers will pass the old watering hole, Reeds Water, at about mile 5. Hikers may not find any coffee cups there, but they will get a glimpse of the countryside that added to the Superstition Mountains' notoriety. Al