Hampton Family: Honey Bee Canyon

The trail is about 3 miles long (total out-and-back if you go to both dams), with only about 200 feet of elevation gain. The trail follows a sandy wash most of the way and footing is even and level. Ancient people have inhabited the Tucson area for more than 7500 years. Some of the earliest occupants were the Hohokam (AD 450 to around 1200). A settlement near Honey Bee Canyon (now called Honey Bee Village) was inhabited by the Hohokam people. Recent surveys have discovered many large mounds, pit structures, plaza, ball court and other rooms in the area. The only remnants of these ancient people seen on the trail are the petroglyphs.

In the middle of the wash was a large, flat-topped granite boulder pock-marked with several holes used as a grinding slab. These holes more closely resembled a mortar that would have been used with a hammer stone (similar to a pestle). Archaeologists have determined that mortars like these were used to smash the seed pods from mesquite trees.

The trail started out with a very wide wash but luckily the sand was packed from the recent rains. Joshua got a bunch of sand in his shoes but the rest of us did ok.

The trail stays in the wash the whole way but gets full of trees in the first 1/4 mile or so. The kids said this section looked like a scene in the movie True Grit.

This was a good family hike and made it easy on my three year old. He was a trooper the whole way.

This was the old dam that we came to that was used by old sheep farmers. It is located just below the Petroglyphs. It was about 100 more yards up on the right that we found the large rock with the ancient signs.

We found the honey bees as well. There was a water hole with about 25 bees getting a drink.

I talked about the Petroglyphs and the Native Americans that lived in the area so they were very curious because we have never gotten so close to them before. Usually the Petroglyphs are high up and not very accessible but these were right off the trail.

This angle looked like a tortoise to me. The circle looks like the eye with the cracks on the right side of the rock looking like the mouth.

This angle is looking back down the canyon at the Catalina mountains.

Close up of the horned owl. It is very faded but you can still see the representation. There are still many owls in the area. I saw three of them last summer in my friend's backyard drinking out of his pool and on the neighbors roof. When they flew away we went outside to see them on top of some saguaros. Amazing birds that have inhabited the desert for a long time.