McDowell Sonoran Preserve

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The first week of January 2012 I spent in Scottsdale, AZ with my family.  We ventured into the desert several times and took advantage of the many beautiful trails the Phoenix area has designated as park land.   I was very surprised to see how green the desert was considering the Monterey Peninsula has been in drought conditions the past few months and our surrounding hills are brown.  The Phoenix area only receives about 8 inches of rain per year compared to 19 inches average in Monterey.  Yet the desert was a beautiful green with grass growing on the northern exposures.  Unexpectedly I found a LEED Platinum building with a 20,000 gallon underground cistern which serves as the Visitor Center at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.  The picture to the left shows the rain chain that services approximately 2,000 square feet of roof catchment area.  I would imagine when it occasionally pours rain there, the rain chain is overwhelmed by the gallons per minute coming off.  However, the rain chain runs down into a large above ground bed filled with medium sized rocks.  Even if the water was gushing off, it would still hit the rock basin below that captures the water and channels it into the underground cistern.  I highly recommend hiking here.  My family took the Gateway Trail.  The hike took about two hours and covered almost 5 miles.  See additional pictures of the rainwater harvesting system and Gateway Trail pictures.  For more information about this beautiful area click on the following: www.mcdowellsonoran.org