Bowman House/Yetman Trail Hike

Feb. 18. Wed.  No coyotes or other wildlife, just the sound of RCW’s wild hikers’ boots against the dirt and rocks of the trail with the sun warming our faces. The group from last Wednesday’s hike took the Bowman House trail which included a loop route around a small mountain that most of us had not hiked before.

It was so beautiful out there!

It was a great picturesque loop. We reached the remains of the old Bowman House for our break.  The house was built in the 1930's by Sherry Bowen, a typesetter and, later city editor for the Arizona Daily Star. Bowen brought his wife, Ruby, to Tucson from Rockford, Illinois, in the late twenties, hoping that the climate would help her serious heart condition. They homesteaded in the Tucson Mountains eventually owning two thousand acres. Ruby kept a diary of her first year in the Tucson Mountains. She wrote of the wild mountain sheep that came to the base of the cliffs nearly every evening to graze. A mountain lion would pace about when she was cooking meat and one time attempted to get in the window. The valley and their homestead became part of the Tucson Mountain Park in 1983.

After reaching the Bowman House, I led 2 other ladies further up the trail towards an overlook. They were just as enthralled with the beauty out there as I was.

We turned around because we felt we were gone too long. Well, here comes David up the path loaded with extra water and food! No, we’re not members of the “Lost Hikers of RCW”.  This was a group from the park that really did get lost and some members were rescued by golf carts from the nearby golf club!  The others thought we were applying for membership! No need to worry, I had taken this path before, as best as I could remember! That was the tricky part & I think these 2 ladies would have followed me anywhere! The 3 of us did joke about having a whistle or yodeling to indicate we were close. David was the one with the whistle! He herded us all back together as we convinced everyone that we were never lost and we headed out.

Any day like the pretty day we had is a good day to be in the desert.  I would definitely take this hike again!