HIKING

HIKE OF THE MONTH THE CHRISTIANSEN TRAIL IN THE PHOENIX MOUNTAINS PRESERVE

Where we sat in a dry d desert wash, a small mesquite sheltered us from the near-noon sun.

"Want some of this?" I offered Peter Ensenberger, picture editor of Arizona Highways, a baggie filled with salty cocktail snacks. He looked askance. "No thanks," he said. "Think I'll stick to Granola bars." Fortunately, I'd brought about three quarts of water.

We munched in silence for a few minutes.

"Little more like real desert here, isn't it?" I remarked.

"Yeah. It's better. Have you noticed, though, that there's not as much wildlife out here as down there by those houses?"

We were on the east end of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, a few miles from the terminus of the Charles M. Christiansen Trail at Tatum Boulevard. We'd parked down the road and walked up to the path, which follows a wash behind some expensive homes. Despite the desert landscaping, their swimming pools and sprinkler systems form a kind of artificial riparian area, full of human and wild life. We could hear the calls of Gambel's quail, doves, and cactus wrens. A Rivoli's hummingbird, a lucent little package of rage, perched in a paloverde, and a Gila woodpecker hammered a palm tree.

Once we got beyond the development, the desert grew drier, more "natural." To the east lay Tempe, Scottsdale, and (OPPOSITE PAGE) Deep shadows emphasize the desert greenery in the mountain preserve. In the background are buildings along Central Avenue. JERRY SIEVE (LEFT) A paloverde provides a shady refuge. PETER ENSENBERGER Paradise Valley; the freewaylike roar of Tatum played counterpoint to a never-ending overhead din of air traffic private planes, helicopters, and commercial jets. To the west, hillsides between 40th Street and Northern showed gouges ripped out by motorcycles and off-road vehicles, scars created years ago that will not heal until after we are long gone.

But here we had found a small valley, a low place cradled in hills that blocked the views of the surrounding megalopolis. It was pleasant. The rain-like fragrance of creosote bush hung in the air, and the desert's spare wealth surrounded us.

"Hey, look a bee fight!" Ensenberger spotted a pair of honeybees wrestling near our feet. "Wait a minute... I don't think that's what they're doing." Not bee warfare, but bee ecstasy, a new queen and her consort: rare thing for two city folk to witness.

Nearby, three little gray birds foraged in an ocotillo's blossoms, torch-bright against a cerulean sky. Pretty quick, a hummingbird came along. It refueled briefly at one flower and then took off after the gray birds: barging up to one, hovering, chirping furiously, then zipping to the next. Less than a minute of this overbearing routine, and the three companions fled.

The Christiansen Trail is 11 miles long, stretching from Mountain View Park at Cheryl Drive and Seventh Avenue and under Cave Creek Road and Dreamy Draw, all the way to Tatum Boulevard. We'd left a car in Dreamy Draw and, in another, come around to the Tatum end because friends had told us the eastern section of the trail was more scenic. Mistake: it's not, and there's no place to park.

We hiked without incident to Dreamy Draw Park, a picnic ground with well-kept ramadas, a horse staging area, volleyball court, and clean rest rooms.

Into the car: down to Northern Avenue, across to Seventh Avenue, and up to Mountain View Park. Here at the trailhead stands a marker. "The Charles M. Christiansen Trail: A Man Whose Vision and Leadership Helped Establish the Phoenix Mountains Preserve." The trail, which honors a former Phoenix parks director, was dedicated in 1986.

North of the grassy park, the trail promptly leads to serious weirdness: it passes between two large chain-link fences, painted pink, that fence nothing out and nothing in. At either end of these straight barriers, which run along the banks of a wide dry wash, are hinged sections that might serve as gates, if there were something for them to connect to. It could, we decided, only be the work of the government.

But bear on. Soon we came to a rise, a little crown of high desert bearing saguaro and mistletoe-draped paloverde, ironwood and barrel cacti and strawberry hedgehog cacti. A roadrunner darted down a wash, and a covey of whitewings rose from beneath a paloverde in full brilliant yellow bloom. The view north took in the red roofs of Moon Valley stretching to blue hills on the west and north, a sight to convince you that urban sprawl need not be hideous.

Wild and scenic it's not. But it has its moments. Although the Phoenix Mountains Preserve is an object lesson in the impact of humanity on fragile desert, here you can still find pockets of peace.

When You Go: The Phoenix Parks, Recreation, and Library Department (17642 N. 40th St., Phoenix, AZ 85032; telephone 262-7797) publishes a trail guide to the Phoenix Mountains. The ramadas at Dreamy Draw Park can be reserved for parties; telephone 495-0222. Trail rides, hayrides, and dinner rides with a show take place at Dreamy Draw; telephone 262-7901.

The best access points to the Charles M. Christiansen Trail are at Mountain View Park (Seventh Avenue and Cheryl Drive), Cave Creek Road near the Hiking Shack (11645 N. Cave Creek Rd.), Dreamy Draw Park (2421 E. Northern Ave.), and 40th Street south of Shea Boulevard.