The Baboquivari Peak Wilderness or La Bestia is a

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. It is located in the Baboquivari Mountains southwest of

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. It is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

designated the Baboquivari Peak Wilderness in 1990. It is the smallest such designated wilderness in the state of Arizona. Today, the Tohono O'odham Nation (second largest reservation in the United States) lies to the west. Baboquivari Peak's elevation is 7,730 feet (2,356 m). It is a popular site for many climbers, tourists and other visitors to Arizona and can be seen in the distance from the

Kitt Peak National Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...

. The mountain was well known as a place to find flint for arrow points. BA BO QUAY VI RA, is translated as the place for the mother lode of flint (America, Land of the Rising Sun—Don Smithana). Baboquivari Peak is a technical summit, meaning that it is only accessible by technical (class 5) rock climbing according to the

Yosemite Decimal System The Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) is a three-part system used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs, primarily used by mountaineers in the United States and Canada. It was first devised by members of the Sierra Club in Southern Cal ...

. The wilderness is reported to have some of the best backcountry rock climbing in Arizona. It can be visited any time of the year; however, outside visitors who are not members of the Tohono O'odham nation, must first procure a permit to be on the reservation. Also, summer afternoons are usually too hot for hiking, and winter can bring an occasional snow shower to the peak's highest elevations. Sightings of jaguars have been recorded in the Baboquivaris during the last decades.

Cultural significance

Baboquivari Peak is the most sacred place to the Tohono O'odham people. It is the center of the Tohono O'odham cosmology and the home of the creator, I'itoi. According to tribal legend, he resides in a cave below the base of the mountain. This mountain is regarded by the O'odham nation as the navel of the world – a place where the earth opened and the people emerged after the great flood. Baboquivari Peak is also sometimes referred to as I'Itoi Mountain. In the native

O'odham language The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora, united by a common herita ...

, it is referred to as ''Waw Kiwulik'', meaning "narrow about the middle". The O'odham people believe that he watches over their people to this day. Baboquivari Peak was mentioned in the journals of Jesuit missionary Padre Kino, who made many expeditions into this region of the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

, beginning in 1699, establishing

Spanish Missions The Spanish missions in the Americas were Catholic missions established by the Spanish Empire during the 16th to 19th centuries in the period of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These missions were scattered throughout the entirety of ...

in the area.

Legend surrounding Baboquivari

According to O'odham nation legend at the beginning of the Spanish conquest of what is present day Arizona, a certain Spanish officer and his men tried to dig their way into Baboquivari. Suddenly, the ground under them opened and Baboquivari swallowed them. This legend has similarities to Francisco Vásquez de Coronado search for the

Seven Cities of Cibola The myth of the Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cibola (), was popular in the 16th century and later featured in several works of popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold referred to Aztec mythology r ...

and a place called

Quivira Quivira is a place named by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold that he never found. Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkans ...

, where, he was told, he could get his hands on unlimited quantities of gold.

Climbing history

Baboquivari peak is a technical summit, meaning that it is only accessible by technical (class 5) rock climbing according to the

. The easiest route to the peak is the Standard Route, rated at 5.4. Dr. Robert Humphrey Forbes (1867–1968), a professor of agriculture at the University of Arizona, and Sr. Lorenzo Montoya made the first recorded ascent of the peak on July 12, 1898, after five attempts. Their approach, from the east face of the peak, is now known as the Forbes route or Forbes-Montoya route. In the 1930s, the Arizona Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) installed wood-and-metal stairs on the west face along a long slabby feature called the Great Ramp, which merges with the original Forbes-Montoya route; a wood-and-metal ladder on what is now called the Ladder Pitch, and an observation tower at the summit. These structures were intended to make it easier to reach and enjoy the summit. They aged and were eventually dismantled, but wood and metal remnants remain along this route, now known to climbers as the Standard Route or the western approach to the Forbes Route.

Natural features

There are a considerable number of topographic features within the Baboquivari Mountains, one of the most notable being

Fresnal Canyon Fresnal Canyon is a canyon in the Baboquivari Mountains Baboquivari may refer to: * 2059 Baboquivari, a near-Earth asteroid * Baboquivari Peak Wilderness, a protected area in the U.S. state of Arizona * Baboquivari National Forest Baboquivari Nat ...

. Numerous flora and fauna species are found in the Baboquivari Peak Wilderness; among these is the desert tree ''

Bursera fagaroides ''Bursera fagaroides'' is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Bursera'' known by the common names torchwood copal and fragrant bursera.

''.

References

External links

Baboquivari Hiking Guide
{{authority control IUCN Category Ib Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America Protected areas of Pima County, Arizona Wilderness areas of Arizona Landforms of Pima County, Arizona Bureau of Land Management areas in Arizona Mountains of Pima County, Arizona Tohono O'odham Nation