Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WEATHERED SIGN AT THE YETMAN TRAILHEAD
Climbing on the narrow Yetman Trail, you get glimpses of Tucson to the north-
east. These views soon disappear as you hike up a quiet valley, then drop generally
northwest, until about a mile from the previous turn, where you'll see a ruined stone
house to the left. You can ignore the building and see it from the trail, or you can hike
up and through it and meet up with the trail again a few hundred yards along.
If you hike through the house, the solid stone walls give you the impression that
this was a good-sized place and would have been a comfortable home at one time.
It was built in the 1930s by Sherry Bowen, an editor of the
Arizona Daily Star
who
moved with his family to New York City in 1944. I don't know what happened after
that, but the sturdy stone walls endured and are known today as the Bowen House.
Soon after the Bowen House, the trail swings northeast and follows a wide wash.
In this area are several small signs that simply say “Trail.” Look for an unmarked trail
leaving from the right side of the sandy wash, which follows the right bank on a nar-
rower but firmer footing. After a few hundred yards, this trail crosses the wash to the
left bank, and four more crossings follow. Most of the year the wash is sandy and dry,
so you could walk along it, but hiking along the banks is easier.
