Arva Caliente

Arva is Latin for dry land. Caliente is Spanish for hot. Whoever named this trail may have mixed his languages, but the trail is interesting and beautiful in its way in any tongue. Beginning at the base of the pyramid-shaped Fourth of July Butte, the skinny two-track winds easily through a prototypical lower Sonoran desert landscape. First, crossing a sea of creosote bush, bur sage, and brittlebush, the desert evolves into a stately saguaro and ocotillo forest as the trail climbs steadily towards the looming Cortez Peak. The land may be dry, but it is lush enough to support grazing. Corrals and water tanks lay at the terminus of side roads. Lounging in the shade of mesquite and palo verde along the edge of a wash, cows raise their heads to watch as you trundle by. Arva Caliente ends at an adit, a horizontal mine shaft. It is one of several shafts cut into Cortez Peak and bears no name on maps of the area. Likely, the person who named the road in two languages came here to find gold. Today, we come seeking our own treasures: adventure, remoteness, and the view of a hot, dry land as seen from the end of this trail,